The Selected Plays of John Ford: The Broken Heart, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Perkin Warbeck

by Colin Gibson (Editor)

This selection contains the three finest plays of the Stuart dramatist John Ford. The Broken Heart is a classical tragedy of suffering; 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Ford's best-known play and one still frequently performed, is a tragic story of limitless ambition and social rivalry expressed in sexual terms; Perkin Warbeck is the last great successor to the history plays of Shakespeare. Together they exemplify the unique tone of Ford's drama, in which passion and gravity are united by a playwright with a poetic sense of theatre. This is the only one-volume selection of Ford's plays now available. The texts are modernised and equipped with notes explaining unfamiliar language and historical references. A general introduction gives a brief biography and bibliography; individual introductions deal with the sources and stage history of each play. Longer notes at the back of the book discuss points of staging and interpretation, and there is a full textual apparatus which makes this edition useful for the scholar as well as the student.

Genres: Theatre, Plays, Drama, Fiction

376 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 1986

Reviews

[James Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful use of the English language, as ever, but, despite being set in ancient Sparta, lacks pace and development of the narrative. The characters are tropes of feeling/emotion/personality traits (deliberately and recorded as such) and are then left in a rather dry limbo while the author battles one against the other. It is clever and intriguing without engaging your heart.