JOHN FORD

Author of
'Tis Pity She's a Whore

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John Ford born in Ilsington, Devonshire, was baptized on 17 April 1586. It is assumed he died in 1639. He entered Middle Temple at 16 in 1602 and remained there until expelled in 1617. He may have performed some kind of legal work during these years, but nothing suggests that he attained being a barrister. He was educated at Exter College. Ford's literary output between 1606 and 1620, consists of 3 pamphlets, 2 long poems and several shorter poems, including an elegy, and several poems commemorating court events.

His career as a playwright began in 1620. He collaborated with Thomas Dekker on writing "The Fairy Knight" , "The Suns's Darling," and "The Bristowe Merchant." He also collaborated with Thomas Dekker and William Rowley on "The Witch of Edmonton." It appears he did not write with partners again after these. Ford's most important plays are the plays he wrote alone: "Love's Sacrifice", "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" (both 1627), "The Lover's Melancholy (1628), and "The Broken Heart" (1629). Much of his work has been lost. Ford's important works were written during the reign of Charles I. It was an era of sophistication, perhaps decadence. Ford's work exemplifies the era. Ford has been called "a romantic rebel, a believer in the divine impulse of human passion which leads in the end to self-destruction." In "'Tis Pity", one can see the overripe sophistication of the Caroline stage. As Bernard Beckerman, wrote in his intro to "'Tis Pity": "Giovanni's final bitterness stems not from social consequence nor psychopathic obsession but from the searing irony of love too intimate, too precious, too all consuming to survive the daily round of existence. By assaulting us with love turned on itself, Ford casts doubt on the capacity of acceptable love to be as true as incest--challenges, in short, so called normality."