The White Devil

The White Devil opens with a metaphor of poisonous medicines. In the first scene, Gasparo tells the newly exiled Count Lodovico,... 

John Webster, The White Devil, ed. Christina Lucky), New Mermaids (New York Norton, 1966). All further citations refer to this edition. 

The white devil refers to evil disguised in a beautiful exterior on the play s preoccupation with duplicity, and its link with poisons, see especially Murray, A Study of John Webster, 32-40. 

On the trial as an example of misogyny engrained in the legal system, see Kathryn Finin-Farber, Framing (the) Woman The White Devil and the Deployment of Law, Renaissance Drama, NS 25 (1994), 219-45. 

On the range of associations with mandragora, see C. J. S. Thompson, The Mystic Mandrake (London Rider, 1934). Other noted literary references to mandrake in the period appear in John Donne s poems Song ( Go, and catch a falling star ) and Twicknam Gardens, as well as Webster s The White Devil and The Duchess ofMalfi. 

See, for instance, Tiberius in Sejanus, and Flamineo in The White Devil, as discussed in Chapter i. 

As noted above, other examples of revenge tragedies in which poisons become medicinal by dint of their purgative effect include especially Sejanus and The White Devil, discussed in Chapter i. 

The White Devil. Edited by Christina Luckyj. New Mermaids. New... 

My texts for Webster s plays are the New Mermaids editions The Duchess of Malfi, ed. Elizabeth M. Brennan, 3rd edn (New York W. W. Norton, 1993) The White Devil, ed. Christina Luckyj, 2nd edn (New York W. W. Norton, 1996). Subsequent references are in the text. 

On great woman , see 2.1.115 ( great with child ), and cf. Webster, The White Devil Because your brother is the corpulent Duke, / -That is the great Duke (2.1.180-1). The OED does not cite instances of mummy meaning mother until 1768, but it does quote examples of mum in this sense as early as 1595 (noun 2a) other early modern texts also suggest the possibility of a pun here see Thomas Middleton, A Game at Chess To three old mummy-matrons I have promised / The mothership o the maids (4.2.44-5) and John Donne, Love s Alchemy (about which this possibility has repeatedly been raised) Hope not for mind in women, at their best / Sweetness and wit, they are but mummy, possessed (23-4). For milk , see Ferdinand earlier in this play (2.5.48). 

Callaghan, Dympna, Women and Gender in Renaissance Tragedy A Study of King Lear, Othello, The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil (Brighton Harvester Press, 1989)... 

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