ABSTRACT
The one contemporary picture of Webster is furnished by Henry Fitzjeffrey of Lincoln's Inn in a satirical poem called Notes from Blackfriars, printed in 'Certain Elegies by Sundry Excellent Wits', although the chief wit seems to have been Fitzjeffrey. The author describes, one by one, types in an audience at Blackfriars, and it is possible that Webster, after his successful if temporary emancipation from the Red Bull, may have become a noticeable figure in the world of the Blackfriars Theatre. Thus Fitzjeffrey, as Robert Greene in 1592, may be reacting to another 'upstart crow' with pretensions to serious drama and criticism. We may note the imputation of slowness in writing, the same charge which had provoked Webster's response in the Preface to 'The White Devil' five years previously. The 'cartwright' term, given recent discoveries, surely
