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Revision as of 15:45, 18 July 2006 by 68.32.238.160 (talk) (/* External Links /*)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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.
External Links
- Luminarium: John Ford - extensive collection of Ford's works
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