So the plotting doesn't sound too fine, does it? But when you read [or watch] John Webster, it is important to keep this in mind: Webster writes for the moment. What is important to him, is "right now". Not what happened before and not what is going to happen five minutes hence. If one sets down to analyze the plotting of his plays, one is going to have a miserable time with him, because that is just not what he is about. What he is about, is the poetry of the language; John Webster is at his best, when he is working a turn of phrase. There are some wonderful lines in THE WHITE DEVIL.

For instance, when Brachiano is talking to Isabella, he says:
"Let not thy love
Make thee an unbeliever; this my vow
Shall never, on my soul, be satisfied
With my repentance: let thy brother rage
Beyond a horrid tempest, or sea-fight
My vow is fixed." (II i)

Or Flamineo when he was talking to Brachiano:
Brachiano said: "Do you know me?"
And Flamineo said:
"Oh, my lord, methodically!
As in this world there are degrees of evils,
So in this world there are degrees of devils. (IV ii)

Brachiano when talking to Vittoria:
"Your beauty! Oh, ten thousand curses on 't!
Though has led me, like an heathen sacrifice,
With music, and with fatal yokes of flowers,
To my eternal ruin. Woman to man
Is either a god, or a wolf." (IV ii)

Flamineo to Brachiano:
"Stop her mouth
With a sweet kiss, my lord. So,
Now the tide's turn'd, the vessel's come about. (IV iii)

Monticelso to Lodovico:
"And yet to prosper? Instruction to thee
Comes like sweet showers to o'er hardened ground;
They wet, but pierce not deep." (IV iii)

Flamineo to Marcello:
"I pray thee pardon her.
In faith, you see, women are like to burs,
Where their affection throws them, there they'll stick. (V i)

Zanche to Francisco:
Do; I'll now detain you no longer. At your
leisure, I'll tell you things shall startle your blood;
Nor blame me that this passion I reveal;
Lovers die inward that their flames they conceal. (V ii)

Brachiano as he is dying:
"Where's this good woman? Had I infinite worlds,
They were too little for thee: must I leave thee? (V iii)

Zanche to Francisco:
I would have you look up, sir; these court tears
Claim not your tribute to them: let those weep,
That guiltily partake in the sad cause.
I knew last night, by a sad dream I had,
Some mischief would ensue: yet, to say truth,
My dream most concern'd you."

(V iii) Flamineo to the exit of Brachiano's ghost:
"This is beyond melancoly. I do dare my fate
To do its worst."

(V v) Flamineo to Vittoria:
"Away:
Fool thou art, to think that politicians
Do use to kill the effects of injuries
And let the cause live. Shall we groan in irons,
Or be a shameful and a weighty burthen
To a public scaffold? This is my resolve:
I would not live at any man's entreaty
Nor die at any's bidding." (V vi)