_A Book of Rhyme_ (1881), and some dramas, including
_The Auspicious Day_ (1874), _Disguises_, and _The Sentence_ (1887). She
also made translations of _Prometheus Bound_ and _Medea_.

WEBSTER, DANIEL (1782-1852).--Orator, _s._ of a farmer in New Hampshire,
was a distinguished advocate in Boston, and afterwards a member of the
United States Senate and Sec. of State 1841-43 and 1850-52. He was the
greatest orator whom America has produced, and has a place in literature
by virtue of his _pub._ speeches.

WEBSTER, JOHN (1580?-1625?).--Dramatist. Though in some respects he came
nearest to Shakespeare of any of his contemporaries, almost nothing has
come down to us of the life of W. Even the dates of his birth and death
are uncertain. He appears to have been the _s._ of a London tailor, to
have been a freeman of the Merchant Taylor's Company, and clerk of the
parish of St. Andrews, Holborn. Four plays are known to be his, _The
White Devil, or the Life and Death of Vittoria Corombona_ (1612), _Appius
and Virginia_ (1654), _The Devil's Law Case_ (1623), and _The Duchess of
Malfi_ (1623), and he collaborated with Drayton, Middleton, Heywood,
Dekker, etc., in the production of others. He does not appear to have
been much regarded in his own day, and it was only in the 19th century
that his great powers began to be appreciated and expounded by such
critics as Lamb and Hazlitt, and in later days Swinburne. The first says,
"To move a horror skilfully, to touch a soul to the quick, to lay upon
fear as much as it can bear, to wean and weary a life till it is ready to
drop, and then step in with mortal instruments to take its last forfeit,
this only a Webster can do." W. revels in the horrible, but the touch of
genius saves his work from mere brutality, and evokes pity and sorrow
where, without it, there would be only horror and disgust. His work is
extremely unequal, and he had no power of construction, but his
extraordinary insight into motives and feelings redeem all his failings
and give him a place second only to Marlowe and Ben Jonson among the
contemporaries of Shakespeare.

WEBSTER, NOAH (1758-1843).--Lexicographer, etc., _b._ at Hartford, Conn.,
and _ed._ at Yale. His long life was spent in unremitting diligence as
teacher, lawyer, and man of letters. His great work is his American
_Dictionary of the English Language_ (1828), for which he prepared
himself by 10 years' study of philology. Many abridgments of it have
ap