SOURCE: "Brother-Sister Relationships in Ford's 1633 Plays," in "Concord in Discord": The Plays of John Ford, 1586-1986, edited by Donald K. Anderson, Jr., AMS Press, Inc., 1986, pp. 195-218.

In the essay below, Bergeron explores brother-sister relationships in Love's Sacrifice, The Broken Heart, and "Tis Pity She's a Whore, arguing that Ford logically and consciously developed the theme of incest in the course of writing the three plays.

John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore contains the most compelling dramatization of brother-sister incest in the canon of English Renaissance drama. This incest has at various times shocked and titillated readers and spectators; at moments it has afforded seemingly irrefutable proof of the "decadence" of Caroline drama. The shock derives in part from the initially attractive nature of Giovanni and Annabella's relationship: Ford clearly seems to approve their incestuous bond. I will argue that 'Tis Pity represents the culmination of Ford's...