"Welsh to Latin": Webster and Italian Topicality

• In Event: English and Italian Hybridity: Intertextuality and Anatopicality

Abstract

Important note: This paper is written jointly by Michael Saenger and Sergio Costola. We have listed Michael as chair and Sergio as presenter, but we are happy to rearrange as the program committee sees fit. John Webster based The White Devil on sensational contemporary events surrounding the life of Paolo Giordano Orsini, roughly thirty years after the events took place. In this paper we examine the use of Latin tags and Italian names to create a sense of place that references both Italy and Britain. We examine the textual background of the play to argue that it generates an intertextual and interlinguistic sense of place. Webster seeks to absorb Italian history and culture into an English environment, and the shared Latin native to both countries helps to signal moral shifts crucial to this Jacobean tragedy. Some reference is made to similar moves by Marlowe and Shakespeare.

Author

• Sergio Costola, Southwestern University