John Ford (dramatist)

Born in Ilsington in Devon in 1586, John Ford was possibly educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and studied law at the Middle Temple, but little else is known of his life. He is first heard of in 1606, when he wrote Fame's Memoriall, a tribute to the late Earl of Devonshire. Ford is best known for the tragic play Tis Pity She's a Whore, 1633, a family drama of incest. He was the most significant playwright during the reign of Charles I, but, like most of his contemporaries, collaborated with others, including Thomas Dekker, John Webster and William Rowley. His plays invariably deal with conflicts between individual passion and conscience and the laws and morals of society at large.