John Ford (dramatist)
John Ford (
baptized April 17,
1586 - c.
1640?) was a Caroline playwright and poet born in
Ilsington in
Devon in
1586.
John Ford left home to study in
London, although more specific details are unclear - a sixteen-year-old John Ford of Devon was admitted to
Exeter College, Oxford on
March 26,
1601, but this was when the dramatist had not yet reached his sixteenth birthday. He joined an institution that was a prestigious
law school but also a centre of literary and dramatic activity -
Middle Temple. A prominent junior member in 1601 was the playwright
John Marston.
It was not until
1606 that Ford wrote his first works for
publication. In spring he was expelled from Middle Temple, due to his financial problems, and
Fame's Memorial and
Honour Triumphant soon followed. Both works have been said to look like thinly disguised bids for
patronage. By June
1608 he had enough money to readmit to the Middle Temple.
Ford is perhaps best known for the tragic play
'Tis Pity She's a Whore (
1633) a family drama with a plot line of
incest. The play's title has often been changed when advertising new productions, sometimes being referred to as simply "Giovanni and Annabella" - the play's leading, incestuous brother-and-sister characters. Shocking as the play is, it is still widely regarded a classic piece of English drama.
He was the most significant playwright during the reign of
Charles I. Like most of his contemporaries he sometimes collaborated with others playwrights, including
Thomas Dekker,
John Webster and
William Rowley. His solo plays invariably deal with conflicts between individual passion and conscience and the
laws and
morals of
society at large.
*
Luminarium: John Ford - extensive collection of Ford's works
