Like many people, my research and I have been inspired by Shakespeare in Love. In my case, I was not as inspired to learn more about Shakespeare as I was to learn about this other peculiar little playwright, who is represented briefly in the movie. To be honest, I had only a college knowledge of John Webster before seeing the movie, which is to say I could probably answer a Jeopardy question about him and little more. Now, I believe I have found a play as good as any Shakespeare penned. The Duchess of Malfi is a character-driven, exciting play that may prove Webster to be the most modern of the Elizabethan playwrights.
Perhaps I am just being argumentative, but while Shakespeare may be in love and the world in love with him, I have developed a love for the Duchess of Malfi. While Webster does not have Shakespeare's poetry (as no one else has it either), Webster's play is as stage-worthy as any of Shakespeare's, as long as the reader can ignore the incredible time lapses between the acts. As opposed to Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Webster's The Duchess of Malfi has the kind of action (stage movement) that would make the play visually interesting. Not only are there all the deaths - possibly too many near the end - but the characters are dynamic enough to demand focus. Ferdinand is an explosive character who is likely to do someone damage at any moment. The Cardinal is an interesting lecherer, and Bosola is the Renaissance all-business personal mercenary. Along with these characters, a beautiful, yet intelligent love story develops between Antonio and the Duchess. Like Shakespeare's plays, and unlike Eliot's Cocktail Party, The Duchess of Malfi has enough interesting characters to make the play, at least as I have imagined it, seem to be a potential stage riot and a force from Actus Primus to Finis.
The real reason I like Webster, and the reason I think many others will too, is that he is to the Elizabethan/Jacobean stage what Euripides was to the Athenian stage. While his use of deus ex machina to solve conflicts keeps him from being as great a playwright as Sophocles, Euripides is considered the most modern of the great Greek tragedians. In the same way, Webster is the most modern of Shakespeare's contemporaries. While I hold this belief in spite of a much greater scholar's assertion, I believe that Shakespeare gets the upper hand in poetry while Webster's Duchess wins for its modern relevance.
