Talk:John Webster

message: Some discrepancies of dating.  I'm using the Cambridge Companion of English Literature, and it provides dates for the plays that don't square with those in the original article.  Since my source also lists some of the plays that weren't mentioned, and because the dates I have are more consistent with his life and ages, I've replaced the originals with the ones I've gotten. Geogre 19:03, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
replies: text:  Hmm; my reference source (an Oxford edition of W's plays) has slightly different dates than those. Did you use the Cambridge Companion from 1910 (it was reprinted many times after)? There have been refinements to Webster's biography and chronology since then, which may explain the discrepancies. Maybe I'll have a rummage in the library and see if I can find an authoritative modern source. The Singing Badger 01:28, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)

text: Dude, you fixed my busted up Eliot reference, so you'll get no arguments from me.  The Cambridge that I was using is frequently in error -- many I've found -- and, although its copyright is 40's, the point of view in it is heavily 19th century when it comes to 18th century topics.  (There is a "Macaulay bias" present in regard to the 18th century that dominates scholarship in England to 1920 or so.  This is the "Whig history" approach whereby Jonathan Swift is a derelict madman, Pope was good only when he wrote "nice" things like Essay on Man, and Samuel Johnson is just a Peter Lawford precursor.)  My thinking is that this Cambridge is somewhat around 1910 with a new edition in the 40's, where they basically just added in what had happened since 1910, like James Joyce, who warrants a good 3 paragraphs.  I was irritated with myself for being sloppy with the TSE & was going to check and come back (what I'm doing here now, in fact).  The Cambridge Companion has its good points -- minutiae and patience being chief -- but it has its bias.  I must say, though, that it does make more sense for his father to have been a tailor than a cartwright.  Oh, well. Geogre 04:37, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
replies: text:  No, it's COOL that Webster's dad was a cartmaker: he made the wagons that were used in the pageants of Elizabethan London when actors dressed as allegorical figures would ride around the streets spouting verse and acting out scenes from mythology. Imagine young Webster watching all that stuff and thinking 'wow, theatre is awesome'. The Singing Badger 13:41, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: I love the break into "Reputation."  The reason I added the TSE was to suggest that "John Webster in literature" is different from "John Webster's literature," that he has become a symbol for nihilism.  I thought it was important to set the stage by laying out Eliot so that contemporaries who know nothing of the Elizabethan stage could understand the in-joke of Webster the rat-boy in the mass market Shakespeare in Love.  I doubt anyone has seen that movie and been moved to investigate Marlowe and Burbage, but, if there are any, they'll wonder about John Webster, since the movie kind of makes a point of stopping the action and signalling a joke is being made when he tells his name.  The informing business is even more of an in-joke. Geogre 04:43, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  BTW 

message: I will keep looking.  The Elizabeth M. Brennan New Mermaid edition of The White Devil has one tantalizing bit:  "In September 1624 The Late Murder of the Son upon the Mother, or Keep the Widow Waking was rapidly written by Dekker, Rowley, Ford and Webster.  It was acted often, but no text survives, and we know of it only through the Proceedings of the Court of the Star Chamber"  (emphasis added).  I'll keep looking as I am able. Geogre 14:49, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Webster the Rat 

message: There's also another guy named John Webster (technically John B. Webster) who is professor of systematic theology at the University of Aberdeen.  Theopedia has a good article on him (http://www.theopedia.com/John_Webster) and I am interested in adding him here at Wikipedia as well.  Would this become a disambig page?  Or how would this work?  A heads up too, Theopedia is temporarily down.  Thanks.  JordanBarrett 23:07, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, the best way to disambig this article is to create a John Webster (disambiguation) page with links here and to the article on your Webster who should likely be listed as John Webster (theologian). Once you have created the dismbiguation page, simply put a link to it at the top of this article. If you have any questions, let me know, I'll do my best to answer them or send you to the right source for information. Cheers! *Exeunt* Ganymead | Dialogue? 23:44, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Disambig? 

message: One of my professors asserted in class today that this article confuses the playwright with another John Webster living at the time.  She didn't go into any more detail so I don't know how to fix it, but it's probably worth checking whether the Forker book really does confirm what's in the article and whether it's still regarded as correct.  If the article is correct, it would be nice to have proof of that within a week so I can counter the aspersions she cast on Wikipedia while we're still reading Webster. LWizard @ 03:30, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article confusing dramatist with someone else? 

message: I am curious if anyone has dug into Webster's family or relations more then just the reference to his being married & father of at least one son?  My paternal grandmother had one line of our ancestry, the Webster line, traced back to their arrival in the US.    In 1634, a John Webster, his wife and their son John arrived in Massachusetts, having left from Warwickshire, England.  Could the “past tense″ tone of Thomas Heywood be because Webster had left England (at about age 56) for the colonies?  Or could the first born son John, now 28 years old, be the Webster traveling to the Americas with his family, after his father's death — possibly to avoid his father's creditors &/or because his inheritance was so insufficient.  Granted, Webster is a common enough last name in England.  But two father-son sets of John Webster in and about England in 1634 - with one John Webster dropping out of the picture in England about the same time as a new John Webster arrives in the picture in America?  And if the playwrite Webster was connected to the Protestant King James political sphere, wouldn't an escape or exile to the Americas during Catholic King Charles reign be a reasonable action?Redslippers (talk) 00:22, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Family & decendants?