"’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 An...

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, k...

Retired Maine Game Warden John Ford has seen it all. He's been shot at by desperate prison escapees, been outwitted by wily trappers, and rescued scores of animals. As a tenacious and successful warden, he was always willing to spend the time needed to nab violators of the state's fish and game laws. At the same time, though, he wasn't a cold, heartless, go-by-the-book enforcer; he usually had a good quip ready when he slipped the handcuffs on a violator, and he wasn't above accepting a le...

John Ford Sr. returns to the outdoors of Maine with This Cider Still Tastes Funny! Further Adventures of a Game Warden in Maine, his follow-up to the highly popular and critically acclaimed Suddenly, the Cider Didn't Taste So Good. Ford is a retired Maine game warden, sheriff, and gifted storyteller who carved out a reputation as a man of the law, but one who wasn't a by-the-book enforcer. He often came up with a good quip as he slipped the handcuffs on a violator, and he wasn't above acce...

Francis Bacon described revenge as a 'kind of wild justice'. Then as now, early modern playwrights and their theatre-going public were fascinated by the anarchic energies that a desire for retribution unleashes. Rather than rehearsing familiar conventions, each of these plays presents a unique social and cultural milieu where dark fantasies of revenge are variously played out.In Kyd's ***The Spanish Tragedy***a grieving father seeks public justice for the murder of his son by envio...

These four plays, written during the reigns of James I and Charles I, took revenge tragedy in dark and ambiguous new directions. In The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil, John Webster explores the role of women and the problems of power, sex and corruption in the Italian court, creating two unforgettable anti-heroines. In The Broken Heart, John Ford questions the value of emotional repression as his characters attempt to subdue their desires and hatreds in anc...

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceThe tragic story of incestuous love between Giovanni and his sister Annabella.When Annabella is found to be pregnant by her brother, she agrees to marry her suitor Soranzo. But when the lovers' incestuous secret is discovered, vengeance and bloody murder follow.John Ford's play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore was first performed in London between 1629 and 1633, and was first published i...

Arden of Faversham * A Woman Killed with Kindness * The Witch of Edmonton * The English Traveller In about 1590, an unknown dramatist had the idea of writing a tragedy about the lives of ordinary people, instead of the genre's usual complement of kings and queens and politicians. His play, Arden of Faversham, inaugurated a new genre of 'domestic' drama, set in near-contemporary England and concerned with issues of marriage, crime, and property rather than war and power. Arden dramatizes a ...

John Ford (1586-1637) was an English playwright and poet whose interest in aberrant psychology helped him create very unique, and very successful works. After a period of major collaboration with various playwrights, from about 1621 to 1625, Ford began working independently; writing plays for theatrical companies like the King's Men at the Blackfriars. Following the literary reign of such figures as Jonson, Marlowe and Shakespeare, Ford felt the need to shock and intrigue audiences with ne...

John Ford (1586-1637) was an English playwright and poet whose interest in aberrant psychology helped him create very unique and successful works. After collaboration with various playwrights, from about 1621 to 1625, Ford began working independently, writing plays for theatrical companies like the "Kings Men" at the Blackfriars. Following the literary reign of such figures as Jonson, Marlowe, and Shakespeare, Ford felt the need to shock and intrigue audiences with new and exciting materia...

I've been transported to another world and, right off the bat, dumped in a poor mountain village to serve as village chief. What should I do? Don't worry-I'll learn how to lead the villagers out of poverty from *The Mountain and the Sea*; how to run a business from *The Great River*; and how to do business from *Feathers in the Sky*... Ran Jiang felt confident he had it all figured out.

Six mummified corpses appearing in young Taoist priest Xiao Bai's apartment, along with a nightmarish vision that blurred the line between reality and illusion, transformed him from a charlatan into a fugitive. The gruesome incidents he witnessed in his dreams began to unfold in real life. Determined to clear his name, Xiao Bai rapidly matured, and one truth after another was uncovered along the way... It turned out that...