In the literary context of literary wit, England has always stood out with its astounding writers and an exceptional quality of their wit. The 17th century demonstrates the highest point of its application and appreciation. It was a century “obsessed with wit: defining it, analyzing it, amplifying it, using it, rejecting it, and using it to reject it” (Summers and Pebworth 1995: 1). Literary wit is a multifaceted concept which requires adequate efforts in the process of its interpretation and reception. Though nowadays wit is approached and analysed as a subset of humour, in the 17th century it mostly reflected sharp intellectual originality, ingenuity and mental acuity (cf. Quinn 2006: 443, Baldick 2001: 276-277). It should be stressed that the contemporary notion of wit invokes the obvious anticipation for amusement and entertainment, whereas the writers of the 17th century did not facilitate the solution of wit for their readers. Without the pre-existing knowledge that the 17th-century wit does not offer a light experience of reading but, on the contrary, requires an extensive and very cautious approach to a witty text, the contemporary reader may easily oversee the occurrence of wit, and thus miss the chance to truly admire it. This might dangerously lead to the loss of interest in the literary texts saturated with wit. However, such inventive and intellectually dense texts do offer an enlightening engagement in an artistic communication. Therefore, this article seeks to examine wit as a major, informing and thematically important literary element that enables the readers to penetrate into the deeper realms of imagination and interpretation of literature. Because of its limited length, this article focuses mostly on the analysis of the role and modes of wit in one play, namely, John Webster's drama The Duchess of Malfi (1613) which is often considered the dramatic masterpiece of the early 17th-century English stage.

In the discourse of drama, wit is generally divided into two main forms, i.e. repartee and quip (cf. Abrams and Harpham 2012: 241). Repartee is used to display one's agility or mental superiority over another character in the dialogue taking a form of a verbal contest; whereas quip acts as a sharp stroke of wit to announce the speaker's original opinion or observation. However, both types of wit invoke cleverness as the most important component of a witty utterance.