The Broken Heart. E-book. Formato EPUB John Ford   -  E-Bookarama, 2023  - 

John Ford is known to have written numerous plays during the reigns of James I (1603-1625) and Charles I (1625-1649), although only eight have survived. Their somewhat morbid and violent character speaks in part to the growing social tensions in the years before the English Revolution of 1640, which would lead to the execution of Charles nine years later."The Broken Heart" (written between 1625 and 1633) is laid in ancient Greece and its complex narrative revolves around Amyclas, king of Sparta, his daughter Calantha and their royal court. Commentators suggest that the court of Charles I might more appropriately be considered the play’s real setting.The action begins as Orgilus prepares to depart Sparta for Athens. He's leaving his home country because he can no longer stand to see Penthea, the woman to whom he was once betrothed, married to the abusive and jealous Bassanes. Orgilus also believes that once he has left, Bassanes' irrational behaviour, inspired by the fear that his wife will cheat on him, might abate, giving Penthea, who married her husband, not for love, but at the command of her ambitious brother Ithocles, a more tolerable existence.Orgilus does not, however, leave Sparta, but merely disguises himself as a student of the philosopher Tecnicus, so that he can keep an eye not only on Penthea, but also his sister Euphrania. She falls in love with Ithocles' best friend, Prophilus, even as Ithcoles finds himself passionately fixated on Calantha, the daughter of the ailing Spartan King...

’Tis Pity She’s a Whore. E-book. Formato EPUB John Ford   -  E-Bookarama, 2023  - 

"’Tis Pity She’s a Whore" is perhaps the most popular and frequently performed play by John Ford, whom many scholars consider the last major dramatist of the English renaissance. The play was first published in 1633 and is a family drama with a plot line of incest. The play's title has often been changed in new productions, sometimes being referred to as simply "Giovanni and Annabella"."'Tis Pity She's a Whore" tells the tale of an incestuous love between Giovanni and his sister Annabella that ends in disaster and death. Set in Parma, Italy, the story takes place against a background of lust, vengeance, and greed that serves as a critique of contemporary culture and morality. The play exhibits an eloquent and glowing sympathy for the lovers, despite the unlawful nature of their union.

The Broken Heart. E-book. Formato PDF John Ford   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

Ford for us to allow our natural prejudice against it to obscure its manifest merits. The drama nuques tionably contains some of the author's strongest writ ing. The story, taken, like that of Love's Sacrifice, from an Italian source, tells of a brother and sister who conceive a mad passion for one'another,_and abandon themselves with what Jeffrey calls a splen did and perverted devotedness to their unlawful loves. Ultimately the sister isforced into marriage, and the husband discovers his wife's guilt. What could arise from so horrible a situation save despair, frenzy, and murder P — a fitting close for so dreadful a chapter of events. The question likely to suggest itself after the perusal of this awful tragedy is — should such a succession of scenes be made the subject Of the playwright's art? It has been said, better no dramas at all than those with such disgusting themes! An Opinion with which one is inclined to concur. Yet it must be granted that Ford has managed the plot both with dexterity and dignity, considering the delicate matter he has in hand. While we turn from Giovanni with repulsion and loathing, toward the un fortunate and distracted Arabella our sympathies are unconsciously drawn. In the scene where the sister meets death from her brother's dagger the dramatist reaches the climax of tragic power. No passage from any of the old playwrights, save certain memorable ones in Shakespere and two or three in Webster, conveys more Of what might be termed the inevitable ness of doom than this.