The Duchess of Malfi (1623) is Webster's other important play. It also features a woman as the main character. The Duchess, however, is virtuous; her only crime is that she tries to assert her own freedom of choice.

Women in Early Modern England (1998), by Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford, offers a study of the material lives of English women of all social classes. The book includes excellent chapters on politics, economics, and occupational identities, among other topics.

This Stage-Play World: English Literature and Its Backgrounds, 1580—1625 (1983), by Julia Briggs, offers a fine overview of the drama of the era, including a discussion of both gender and politics.

Shakespeare's so-called "Roman" tragedies such as Coriolanus (1608) and Antony and Cleopatra (1606—1607) offer the reader the literary context within which Webster worked.

Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, written in 1513 and published in 1532, is an...