Webster, John Devil

John Webster, The Devil s Law Case, in John Webster Three Plays, ed. David Gumby (New York Penguin, 1972), III.ii.43-4. 

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 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. 

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). 

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