The Broken Heart

ISBN: 9781330236284 出版年：2016 页码：153 John Ford Forgotten Books

Ford for us to allow our natural prejudice against it to obscure its manifest merits. The drama nuques tionably contains some of the author's strongest writ ing. The story, taken, like that of Love's Sacrifice, from an Italian source, tells of a brother and sister who conceive a mad passion for one'another,_and abandon themselves with what Jeffrey calls a splen did and perverted devotedness to their unlawful loves. Ultimately the sister isforced into marriage, and the husband discovers his wife's guilt. What could arise from so horrible a situation save despair, frenzy, and murder P — a fitting close for so dreadful a chapter of events. The question likely to suggest itself after the perusal of this awful tragedy is — should such a succession of scenes be made the subject Of the playwright's art? It has been said, better no dramas at all than those with such disgusting themes! An Opinion with which one is inclined to concur. Yet it must be granted that Ford has managed the plot both with dexterity and dignity, considering the delicate matter he has in hand. While we turn from Giovanni with repulsion and loathing, toward the un fortunate and distracted Arabella our sympathies are unconsciously drawn. In the scene where the sister meets death from her brother's dagger the dramatist reaches the climax of tragic power. No passage from any of the old playwrights, save certain memorable ones in Shakespere and two or three in Webster, conveys more Of what might be termed the inevitable ness of doom than this.