Webster’s Poetry as Dramatic Verse

Abstract

A study of Webster’s theatre art should perhaps begin with the poetry where, for critics making comparisons with Shakespeare, he comes off worse, since it but rarely achieves a sustained lyricism. While metaphors abound they are used fitfully, discarded once their immediate effect has registered; they are not treated developmentally as by Shakespeare who makes the transformations and patterning of imagery organic to his purpose, a means of illuminating the inner thematic debate of his plays. Metaphor is frequently Shakespeare’s means of intimating that other dimension. Webster’s verbal artistry is very different, its richness largely dependent on the fact of performance: dramatic context affords a wealth of allusion.