John Webster (c. 1578–c. 1632) was best known in his Jacobean time for his comedies and his many play-writing collaborations with the likes of Michael Drayton, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, John Ford, John Fletcher, Phillip Massinger, and Thomas Heywood — a compendium of the almost major playwrights of the era.

It was only in later centuries that his two major tragedies, “The White Devil” and “The Duchess of Malfi,” rose in critical appreciation. From the 18th century to the 20th century, he was considered a major writer in English. T.S. Eliot, for example, described him as one of the few authors who saw “the skull beneath the skin,” a line of literary criticism so good it kept Webster of Drama 101 reading lists for decades.

“The Duchess of Malfi, published in 1623, opens with the marriage of the widowed duchess to a commoner, before it turns into a horror tale of revenge and murder. The play’s most complex — and horrifying — character is the killer, servant, and spy, Daniel de Bosola. And in Act 4, Scene 2, Bosola speaks to the duchess: “Here your perfect peace is signed.” In chilling lines of tetrameter couplets, he prepares her for her murder: “’Tis now full tide ’tween night and day; / End your groan, and come away.”

The Shrouding of the Duchess of Malfi
by John Webster

Hark, now everything is still,
The screech-owl and the whistler shrill,
Call upon our dame aloud,
And bid her quickly don her shroud!
Much you had of land and rent;
Your length in clay’s now competent:
A long war disturbed your mind;
Here your perfect peace is signed.
Of what is’t fools make such vain keeping?
Sin their conception, their birth weeping,
Their life a general mist of error,
Their death a hideous storm of terror.
Strew your hair with powders sweet,
Don clean linen, bathe your feet,
And (the foul fiend more to check)
A crucifix let bless your neck:
’Tis now full tide ’tween night and day;
End your groan, and come away.

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With “Poem of the Day,” The New York Sun offers a daily portion of verse selected by Joseph Bottum with the help of the North Carolina poet Sally Thomas, the Sun’s associate poetry editor. Tied to the day, or the season, or just individual taste, the poems are drawn from the deep traditions of English verse: the great work of the past and the living poets who keep those traditions alive. The goal is always to show that poetry can still serve as a delight to the ear, an instruction to the mind, and a tonic for the soul.