Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/122

  ‘A Book of Rhyme,’ containing rural poems called ‘English rispetti.’ She was the first to introduce the form into English poetry. In 1882 she published another drama, ‘In a Day,’ the only one of her plays that was acted. It was produced at a matinée at Terry's Theatre, London, in 1890, when her daughter, Miss Davies Webster, played the heroine, Klydone. It had a succès d'estime. In 1885 she was again returned member of the school board for Chelsea. She conducted her candidature without a committee or any organised canvassing.

‘The Sentence,’ a three-act tragedy, in many ways Mrs. Webster's chief work, appeared in 1887. The episode of which the play treats illustrates Caligula's revengeful spirit (cf. introductory note to  Mother and Daughter, pp. 12–14). It was much admired by Christina Rossetti (cf. Christina Rossetti, p. 161). A volume of selections from Mrs. Webster's poems (containing some originally contributed to magazines), published in 1893, was well received. She died at Kew on 5 Sept. 1894. In 1895 appeared ‘Mother and Daughter,’ an uncompleted sonnet-sequence, with an introductory note by Mr. William Michael Rossetti.

A half-length portrait in crayons by Canevari, drawn at Rome in January 1864, is in the possession of Mr. Webster.

Mrs. Webster's verse entitles her to a high place among English poets. She used with success the form of the dramatic monologue. She often sacrificed beauty to strength, but she possessed much metrical skill and an ear for melody. Some of her lyrics deserve a place in every anthology of modern English poetry. Many of her poems treat entirely or incidentally of questions specially affecting women. She was a warm advocate of woman's suffrage—her essays in the ‘Examiner’ on the subject were reprinted as leaflets by the Women's Suffrage Society (cf. Life of Christina Rossetti, p. 111)—and she sympathised with all movements in favour of a better education for women.

Works by Augusta Webster, not mentioned in the text, are: A selection from her poems is given in Miles's ‘Poets and Poetry of the Century’ (Joanna Baillie to Mathilde Blind, p. 499).
 * 1) ‘A Woman Sold, and other Poems,’ 1867.
 * 2) ‘Yu-Pe-Ya's Lute: a Chinese Tale in English Verse,’ 1874.
 * 3) ‘Daffodil and the Croäxaxicans: a Romance of History,’ 1884.



WEBSTER, BENJAMIN NOTTINGHAM (1797–1882), actor and dramatist, was born in Bath on 3 Sept. 1797. His father, who came from Sheffield, and through whom Webster claimed descent from Sir or Buck [q. v.], was at one time a musical ‘composer’ and a pantomimist; he married Elizabeth Moon of Leeds, joined the army, served in the West Indies, was engaged in Bath in organising volunteer forces, and settled there as a dancing and fencing master. A brother Frederick (d. 1878) became stage manager of the Haymarket theatre.

After receiving some education at Dr. Barber's military academy, ‘Ben’ Webster threw up the chances of a promised commission as midshipman from the Duchess of York. Upon his mother's death he made his first appearance on the stage as a dancer, assisted his father in his occupations, ran away from home, and obtained from the younger Watson of Warwick an engagement at twenty-five shillings a week to play Harlequin, small speaking parts, and second violin in the orchestra. As Thessalus in ‘Alexander the Great’ he made on 3 Sept. 1818 his first appearance at Warwick, playing also at Lichfield and Walsall races. Joining in a sharing scheme a manager called ‘Irish’ Wilson, who fitted up a barn at Bromsgrove, Webster (announced, with no apparent claim, as from the Theatre Royal, Dublin) doubled the parts of Sir Charles Cropland and Stephen Harrowby in the ‘Poor Gentleman,’ danced a hornpipe, and played in his own dress, and with a head chalked to look like grey hair, Plainway in ‘Raising the Wind.’ He then went as Harlequin to the Theatre Royal, Belfast, under [q. v.], acted in Londonderry and Limerick, and joined the Dublin company to play with it in Cork as Harlequin.

After appearing in Manchester and Liverpool he came to London, and played on 11 May 1819 a smuggler in the opening entertainment of the Coburg Theatre. According to a speech he made at a complimentary dinner given to him at the Freemasons' Tavern on 24 Feb. 1864, he had at this time married a widow with a family of children. Webster became ballet-master and walking gentleman at Richmond, then leader of the band at Croydon, which led to his engagement as dancer and walking gentleman under Beverley at the Regency Theatre in Tottenham Street, called many names before it became the Prince of Wales's. At the English Opera House (the Lyceum), where he played a part in ‘Captain Cook,’ he was Raymond in ‘Raymond and Agnes’ and Seyward