WEBSTER, John, a distinguished dramatic contemporary and successor of Shakespeare, of whom hardly anything is known, save that, after writing plays in conjunction with Dekker, Drayton, Middleton, Munday, Chettle, Heywood, and Wentworth Smith, he published, on his own account, the powerful dramas of The White Devil, in 1612; of The Duchess of Malfi, in 1623; and of Appius and Virginus, in 1654. If his pathos is sometimes too laboured, and if his command over terror is frequently overstrained, he at least pursues the high purposes of the drama throughout with an earnestness which few have equalled. Webster's works were first collected and edited in 1830, by the Rev. Alex. Dyce.