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date: 12 June 2025

John Webster c.1580–c.1625
English dramatist 

  1. I am Duchess of Malfi still.
     
    The Duchess of Malfi (1623) act 4, sc. 2
  2. I know death hath ten thousand several doors
    For men to take their exits.
     
    The Duchess of Malfi (1623) act 4, sc. 2; see Fletcher, Massinger, Seneca
  3. Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young.
     
    The Duchess of Malfi (1623) act 4, sc. 2
  4. We are merely the stars' tennis-balls, struck and bandied
    Which way please them.
     
    The Duchess of Malfi (1623) act 5, sc. 4
  5. 'Tis just like a summer birdcage in a garden; the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair, and are in a consumption, for fear they shall never get out.
    The White Devil (1612) act 1, sc. 2
  6. We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry.
     
    The White Devil (1612) act 5, sc. 4; see Dunbar, Shakespeare