Tis Pity She’’s a Whore: By John Ford

John Ford’s tragedy, first printed in 1633, is the first major English play to take as its theme a subject still rarely handled: fulfilled incest between brother and sister. This Revels Plays edition is a scholarly, modern-spelling edition of one of the most studied and performed of all plays of the period. White’s critical introduction explores the textual and theatrical histories of the play, exploring closely its relationship to the particular stage and audience for which it was written. This Revels edition allows the modern reader to become, in Ford’s words, an ’actor that but reads’.

Martin White is Emeritus Professor of Theatre at the University of Bristol