The English author John Ford (1586-1639) was the last great tragic dramatist of the English Renaissance. His work is noted for its stylistically simple and pure expression of powerful, shocking themes.

John Ford, the second son of Thomas Ford, was baptized at Ilsington, Devonshire, on April 17, 1586. The Devonshire Fords were a well-established family, and John's father appears to have been a fairly well-to-do member of the landed gentry.

In 1602 Ford entered the Middle Temple, one of the London Inns of Court. Although designed primarily to provide training in the law, the Inns of Court at this time also attracted young men who had no intention of entering the legal profession. Ford probably acquired his knowledge of Plato, Aristotle, and the Latin classics while in residence at the Middle Temple, where he remained for about 15 years.

During his early years in London, Ford wrote a few undistinguished nondramatic works...