John Ford: 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1633)

Edition: Everyman


John Ford's most famous play deals with the taboo theme of incest, prompting the writer of the introduction to this edition (first published in 1933) to disapprove of the decadence of the writer and audience.

The incestuous affair begins with Giovanni seducing his sister Annabella. He is a student, she on the verge of being betrothed. Their problems begin when Annabella discovers that she is pregnant; an attempt to get her quickly married off leads to her death at the hands of Giovanni, to preserve her honour. (Honour is a major theme of the play; the contrast between public reputation and private morality fascinated the Jacobeans as it did later playwrights such as Lorca.)

Some light relief from the grim plot is provided by Donado and Bergetto, his nephew. Donado wishes his nephew to court Annabella, but Bergetto is very stupid; he could almost be taken for a younger Sir Andrew Aguecheek. His idea of courtship involves innuendo and stupidity in equal measure (he talkes of showing her his "best parts", for example, but cannot bring himself to compliment her appearance).

The subject matter is not what has made this play survive for the four hundred years or so since Ford wrote it, though iots notoriety has obviously helped it to remain in the public consciousness. Ford's treatment is well thought out, avoiding the silly contrivances of Beaumont and Fletcher's forgotten incest play King and No King, where the discovery that one of the characters is a changeling allows a happy ending. Incest is the most condemned type of forbidden love, and is in fact a reasonably common theme (Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night are two important twentieth century novels to deal with it, for example). The difficulty in writing about it is not to trivialise the effects it can have, the guilt it can bring; here Ford, Faulkner and Fitzgerald succeed, while Beaumont and Fletcher and Heinlein fail.

John Ford: The Broken Heart (1633)

Edition: Everyman
Review number: 114

Of the four plays in this Everyman volume (the others being Webster's The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, and Ford's own 'Tis Pity She's a Whore), this tragedy is by far the least known. It deals with the tragic consequences of an arranged marriage, with a sub-theme of fortitude in the face of personal tragedy.

It is appropriate, then, that the scene is set in Sparta, famous for the physical fortitude of its citizens. At the start of the play, Orgilus is explaining to his father Crotolan why he has suddenly decided to leave Sparta to study in Athens; he wants to get away from Penthea, the girl he loves who has been married to the jealous Bassanes; Orgilus has decided that for her welfare, to spare her the rages of Bassanes, he must leave.

The other plot concerns Ithocles, brother of Penthea and heroic general. He is loved by Calantha, daughter of the king Amyclas; yet she is going to be married to Nearchus, Prince of Argos, for dynastic reasons.

The tragic element to the plot comes about when Orgilus, unable to stay away from the woman he loves, returns to Sparta in disguise.

This is a carefully thought out tragedy, which deserves to be better known; there are some wonderful poetic moments (including Ithocles' set piece speech on ambition in the second act, and the sorrows of Calantha towards the end).