SOURCE: "Perkin Warbeck as Anti-History," in Essays in Criticism, Vol. XX, No. 2, April, 1970, pp. 151-71.

In the following essay, Barish contends that Ford intentionally departed from his historical sources when creating the character of Perkin Warbeck in an effort to enhance dramatic interest in the protagonist and to portray him as an obvious foil to the character of Henry VII.

Justice is slowly coming to be done to Ford's achievement in Perkin Warbeck, if with the character who gives his name to the play criticism has not yet caught up with its advance guard—T. S. Eliot's essay of 1932. Eliot, after remarking on Warbeck's apparently unshakable faith that he is lawful heir to the throne of England, concludes that 'We ourselves are left almost believing that he was; in the right state of uncertainty, wondering whether his kingly and steadfast behaviour is due to his royal blood, or...