'Tis Pity She's A Whore

John Ford

John Ford, Simon Barker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134944477
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The last decade has seen a revival of interest in John Ford and especially 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, his tragedy of religious scepticism, incestuous love, and revenge. This text in particular has provided a focus for scholarship as well as being the subject of a number of major theatrical productions.
Simon Barker guides the reader through the full range of previous interpretations of the play; moving from an overview of traditional readings he goes on to enlarge upon new questions that have arisen as a consequence of critical and cultural theory.

’TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE

ACT I

SCENE I

Enter FRIAR and GIOVANNI.

Fri.	Dispute no more in this, for know, young man, These are no school-points; nice philosophy May tolerate unlikely arguments, But Heaven admits no jest: wits that presumed On wit too much, by striving how to prove There was no God, with foolish grounds of art, Discover’d first the nearest way to Hell, And filled the world with devilish atheism. Such questions, youth, are fond; for better ’tis To bless the sun than reason why it shines; Yet He thou talk’st of is above the sun. No more; I may not hear it.	10
Gio.	Gentle father,
	To you I have unclasped my burdened soul, Emptied the storehouse of my thoughts and heart, Made myself poor of secrets; have not left Another word untold, which hath not spoke All what I ever dur’st, or think, or know; And yet is here the comfort I shall have, Must I not do what all men else may, love?
Fri.	Yes, you may love, fair son.
Gio.	Must I not praise	20
	That beauty which, if framed anew, the gods Would make a god of, if they had it there, And kneel to it, as I do kneel to them?
Fri.	Why, foolish madman!
Gio.	Shall a peevish sound,
	A customary form, from man to man, Of brother and of sister, be a bar ’Twixt my perpetual happiness and me? Say that we had one father, say one womb (Curse to my joys) gave both us life and birth; Are we not therefore each to other bound 30 So much the more by nature? by the links Of blood, of reason? nay, if you will have’t, Even of religion, to be ever one, One soul, one flesh, one love, one heart, one all?	30
Fri.	Have done, unhappy youth, for thou art lost.
Gio.	Shall then, for that I am her brother born, My joys be ever banished from her bed? No, father; in your eyes I see the change Of pity and compassion; from your age, As from a sacred oracle, distils The life of counsel: tell me, holy man, What cure shall give me ease in these extremes.	40
Fri.	Repentence, son, and sorrow for this sin:For thou hast moved a Majesty above With thy unranged (almost) blasphemy.
Gio.	O, do not speak of that, dear confessor.
Fri.	Art thou, my son, that miracle of wit, Who once, within these three months, wer’t esteemed A wonder of thine age, throughout Bononia? How did the university applaud Thy government, behaviour, learning, speech, Sweetness, and all that could make up a man!I was proud of my tutelage, and chose	50
	Thy Rather to leave my books than part with thee. I did so:but the fruits of all my hopes Are lost in thee, as thou art in thyself. O, Giovanni, hast thou left the schools Of knowledge, to converse with lust and death?For death waits on thy lust. Look through the world, And thou shalt see a thousand faces shine More glorious than this idol thou ador’st: Leave her, and take thy choice; ’tis much less sin, Though in such games as those, they lose that win.	60
Gio.	It were more ease to stop the ocean
	From floats and ebbs, than to dissuade my vows.
Fri.	Then I have done, and in thy wilful flames Already see thy ruin; Heaven is just, Yet hear my counsel.
Gio.	As a voice of life.
Fri.	Hie to thy father’s house, there lock thee fast Alone wi...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE
• Critical commentary
• Select bibliography
• Notes