'Tis Pity She's a Whore
Encyclopedia
'Tis Pity She's a Whore is a tragedy
written by John Ford
. It was likely first performed between 1629 and 1633, by Queen Henrietta's Men
at the Cockpit Theatre
. The play was first published in 1633, in a quarto
printed by Nicholas Okes
for the bookseller Richard Collins. Ford dedicated the play to John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough
and Baron of Turvey.
made it one of the most controversial works in English literature. The play was entirely omitted from an 1831 collected edition of Ford's plays; its title has often been changed to something euphemistic such as Giovanni and Annabella or Tis Pity or The Brother and Sister. Until well into the twentieth century, critics were usually harsh in their condemnations. The subject matter offended them, as did Ford's failure to condemn his protagonist. "Instead of stressing the villainy, Ford portrays Giovanni as a talented, virtuous, and noble man who is overcome by a tumultuous passion that brings about his destruction." Since the mid-twentieth century, scholars and critics have shown more tolerance, understanding, and appreciation of the complexities and ambiguities of the work.
Annabella, meanwhile, is being approached by a number of suitors, including Bergetto, Grimaldi and Soranzo. She is not interested in any of them, however, and when Giovanni finally tells her how he feels (obviously having failed in his attempts to repent), she requites his love immediately. Annabella's tutoress Putana encourages the relationship. The siblings consummate their relationship.
Hippolita verbally attacks Soranzo, furious with him for letting her send her husband (Richardetto) on a dangerous journey she believed would result in his death so that they could be together, then declining his vows and abandoning her. Soranzo leaves and Vasques promises to help Hippolita get revenge on Soranzo, and the pair agree to marry after they murder him.
Ironically, Richardetto is not dead but also in Parma with niece Philotis, and is also desperate for revenge against Soranzo. He convinces Grimaldi that in order to win Annabella, he should stab Soranzo (his main competition) with a poisoned sword. Unfortunately, Bergetto and Philotis, now betrothed, are planning to marry secretly in the place Richardetto orders Grimaldi to wait, and Grimaldi mistakenly stabs and kills Bergetto instead, leaving Philotis, Poggio and Donado distraught.
Annabella resigns herself to marrying Soranzo, knowing she has to choose someone and it can not be her brother. She subsequently falls ill and it is revealed that she is pregnant. Friar Bonaventura then convinces her to marry Soranzo in haste in order to avoid shame and damnation.
Meanwhile Donado and Florio go to the cardinal's house, where Grimaldi has been in hiding, to beg for justice. The cardinal refuses due to Grimaldi's high status and instead sends him back to Rome. Florio tells Donado to wait for God to bring them justice.
Annabella and Soranzo are married soon after, and their ceremony includes masque dancers, one of whom reveals herself to be Hippolita. She claims to be willing to drink a toast with Soranzo, and the two raise their glasses and drink, on which note she explains that her plan was to poison his wine. Vasques comes forward and reveals that he was always loyal to his master, and in fact he poisoned Hippolita. She dies spouting insults and damning prophecies to the newlyweds. Seeing the effects of anger and revenge, Richardetto abandons his plans and sends Philotis off to a convent to save her soul.
When Soranzo discovers Annabella's pregnancy, the two argue until Annabella realises that Soranzo truly did love her, and finds herself consumed with guilt. She is confined to her room by her husband, who plots with Vasques to avenge him against his cheating wife and her unknown lover. On Soranzo's exit, Putana comes onto the stage and Vasques pretends to befriend her in order to gain the name of Annabella's baby's father. Once Putana reveals that it's Giovanni, Vasques has the Banditti tie Putana up and remove her eyes as punishment for the terrible acts she has willingly overseen.
In her room, Annabella writes a letter to her brother in her own blood, warning him that Soranzo knows and will soon wreak his revenge. The friar delivers the letter, but Giovanni is too arrogant to believe he can be harmed and ignores advice to decline the invitation to Soranzo's birthday feast. The friar subsequently flees from Parma to avoid further involvement in Giovanni's downfall.
On the day of the feast, Giovanni visits Annabella in her room, and after talking with her, stabs her during a kiss. He then enters the feast –at which all remaining characters are present– wielding a dagger on which his sisters heart is skewered, and tells everyone of the incestuous affair. The news immediately kills Florio with shock. Soranzo begins to attack Giovanni, but Giovanni manages to stab and kill him. Vasques intervenes, wounding him then ordering the Banditti to finish the job.
Following the massacre, the cardinal orders Putana to be burnt at the stake, Vasques to be banished and the church to seize all the wealth and property belonging to the dead. Richardetto finally reveals his true identity and the play ends with the cardinal saying of Annabella "who could not say, 'Tis pity she's a whore?"
saw a 1661 performance at the Salisbury Court Theatre
. In 1894, the play was translated into French by Maurice Maeterlinck
under the name of Annabella, and produced at the Théâtre de l'Œuvre
.
In 1961 Luchino Visconti
directed a French adaptation (Dommage qu'elle soit une p…) at the Théâtre de Paris with Romy Schneider
(Annabella) and Alain Delon
(Giovanni).
Peter Greenaway
has said that the play provided him with the main template for his 1989 film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
.
In 1980, Declan Donnellan
directed a modern-dress performance of the play at Theatre Space and at the Half Moon Theatre
, London. Angelique Rockas commissioned the production and played Annabella.
, Pilot Episode, "The Killings at Badger's Drift
" (1997) – Cully Barnaby rehearses for the role of Annabella throughout the episode, and this detail ties up a loose end at the conclusion of the episode. In Angela Carter
's short story collection American Ghosts and Old World Wonders, the story "John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore" sets the story in an Old West setting typical of the films of director John Ford
. In Tom Stoppard
's play The Real Thing
, the female lead rehearses for the part of Annabella throughout the second act, and a number of passages of Ford are included in the dialogue. Addio, fratello crudele (1971) is a film adaptation by director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
, starring Charlotte Rampling
and Oliver Tobias
.
High/Middle class characters: Cardinal, Florio, Donado, Soranzo, Grimaldi, Annabella, Giovanni etc.
These characters almost always speak in verse which shows their higher status
Lower class characters: Putana, Vasques, and Poggio.
These three characters speak in prose along with Bergetto (whose lack of intelligence accounts for prose.)
In this culture the women are also regarded as lower than the men in status and blamed for most things, for example Putana is burned for merely knowing of Annabella and Giovanni's relationship whilst Vasques' life is spared when he has murdered a higher class man.
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
written by John Ford
John Ford (dramatist)
John Ford was an English Jacobean and Caroline playwright and poet born in Ilsington in Devon in 1586.-Life and work:...
. It was likely first performed between 1629 and 1633, by Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men
Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.-Beginnings:...
at the Cockpit Theatre
Cockpit Theatre
The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was christened The Phoenix....
. The play was first published in 1633, in a quarto
Quarto
Quarto could refer to:* Quarto, a size or format of a book in which four leaves of a book are created from a standard size sheet of paper* For specific information about quarto texts of William Shakespeare's works, see:...
printed by Nicholas Okes
Nicholas Okes
Nicholas Okes was an English printer in London of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, remembered for printing works of English Renaissance drama...
for the bookseller Richard Collins. Ford dedicated the play to John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough
John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough
-Life:He was the eldest son of Henry Mordaunt, 4th Baron Mordaunt, a Roman Catholic kept for a year in the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity in the Gunpowder Plot, who died in 1608. The widow, Lady Margaret, daughter of Henry Compton, 1st Baron Compton, also a Catholic, was deprived by...
and Baron of Turvey.
Controversy
The play's treatment of the subject of incestIncest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
made it one of the most controversial works in English literature. The play was entirely omitted from an 1831 collected edition of Ford's plays; its title has often been changed to something euphemistic such as Giovanni and Annabella or Tis Pity or The Brother and Sister. Until well into the twentieth century, critics were usually harsh in their condemnations. The subject matter offended them, as did Ford's failure to condemn his protagonist. "Instead of stressing the villainy, Ford portrays Giovanni as a talented, virtuous, and noble man who is overcome by a tumultuous passion that brings about his destruction." Since the mid-twentieth century, scholars and critics have shown more tolerance, understanding, and appreciation of the complexities and ambiguities of the work.
Synopsis
Giovanni, recently returned from university study in Bologna, has developed an incestuous passion for his sister Annabella, despite their blood relationship, and the play opens with his discussing this ethical dilemma with Friar Bonaventura. Bonaventura tries to convince Giovanni that his desires are evil despite Giovanni's passionate reasoning, and eventually persuades him to try to rid himself of his feelings through repentance.Annabella, meanwhile, is being approached by a number of suitors, including Bergetto, Grimaldi and Soranzo. She is not interested in any of them, however, and when Giovanni finally tells her how he feels (obviously having failed in his attempts to repent), she requites his love immediately. Annabella's tutoress Putana encourages the relationship. The siblings consummate their relationship.
Hippolita verbally attacks Soranzo, furious with him for letting her send her husband (Richardetto) on a dangerous journey she believed would result in his death so that they could be together, then declining his vows and abandoning her. Soranzo leaves and Vasques promises to help Hippolita get revenge on Soranzo, and the pair agree to marry after they murder him.
Ironically, Richardetto is not dead but also in Parma with niece Philotis, and is also desperate for revenge against Soranzo. He convinces Grimaldi that in order to win Annabella, he should stab Soranzo (his main competition) with a poisoned sword. Unfortunately, Bergetto and Philotis, now betrothed, are planning to marry secretly in the place Richardetto orders Grimaldi to wait, and Grimaldi mistakenly stabs and kills Bergetto instead, leaving Philotis, Poggio and Donado distraught.
Annabella resigns herself to marrying Soranzo, knowing she has to choose someone and it can not be her brother. She subsequently falls ill and it is revealed that she is pregnant. Friar Bonaventura then convinces her to marry Soranzo in haste in order to avoid shame and damnation.
Meanwhile Donado and Florio go to the cardinal's house, where Grimaldi has been in hiding, to beg for justice. The cardinal refuses due to Grimaldi's high status and instead sends him back to Rome. Florio tells Donado to wait for God to bring them justice.
Annabella and Soranzo are married soon after, and their ceremony includes masque dancers, one of whom reveals herself to be Hippolita. She claims to be willing to drink a toast with Soranzo, and the two raise their glasses and drink, on which note she explains that her plan was to poison his wine. Vasques comes forward and reveals that he was always loyal to his master, and in fact he poisoned Hippolita. She dies spouting insults and damning prophecies to the newlyweds. Seeing the effects of anger and revenge, Richardetto abandons his plans and sends Philotis off to a convent to save her soul.
When Soranzo discovers Annabella's pregnancy, the two argue until Annabella realises that Soranzo truly did love her, and finds herself consumed with guilt. She is confined to her room by her husband, who plots with Vasques to avenge him against his cheating wife and her unknown lover. On Soranzo's exit, Putana comes onto the stage and Vasques pretends to befriend her in order to gain the name of Annabella's baby's father. Once Putana reveals that it's Giovanni, Vasques has the Banditti tie Putana up and remove her eyes as punishment for the terrible acts she has willingly overseen.
In her room, Annabella writes a letter to her brother in her own blood, warning him that Soranzo knows and will soon wreak his revenge. The friar delivers the letter, but Giovanni is too arrogant to believe he can be harmed and ignores advice to decline the invitation to Soranzo's birthday feast. The friar subsequently flees from Parma to avoid further involvement in Giovanni's downfall.
On the day of the feast, Giovanni visits Annabella in her room, and after talking with her, stabs her during a kiss. He then enters the feast –at which all remaining characters are present– wielding a dagger on which his sisters heart is skewered, and tells everyone of the incestuous affair. The news immediately kills Florio with shock. Soranzo begins to attack Giovanni, but Giovanni manages to stab and kill him. Vasques intervenes, wounding him then ordering the Banditti to finish the job.
Following the massacre, the cardinal orders Putana to be burnt at the stake, Vasques to be banished and the church to seize all the wealth and property belonging to the dead. Richardetto finally reveals his true identity and the play ends with the cardinal saying of Annabella "who could not say, 'Tis pity she's a whore?"
Characters
- Men
- Friar Bonaventura – A friar and Giovanni's mentor
- A Cardinal – NuncioNuncioNuncio is an ecclesiastical diplomatic title, derived from the ancient Latin word, Nuntius, meaning "envoy." This article addresses this title as well as derived similar titles, all within the structure of the Roman Catholic Church...
to the Pope - Soranzo – A nobleman (Annabella's suitor and eventual husband)
- Florio – A citizen of Parma, and father of Annabella and Giovanni
- Donado – A citizen of Parma, and uncle of Bergetto
- Grimaldi – A Roman gentleman (Annabella's suitor)
- Giovanni – Son of Florio (his name is pronounced with four syllables)
- Bergetto – Nephew of Donado (Annabella's suitor and then Philotis's fiance/suitor)
- Richardetto – Hippolita's husband, disguised as a physician, also Philotis' uncle
- Vasques – Loyal servant to Soranzo
- Poggio – Servant to Bergetto
- Banditti – Outlaws, a criminal mob
- Officers
- Women
- Annabella – Daughter of Florio
- Hippolita – Wife of Richardetto (Soranzo's former paramour)
- Philotis – Niece of Richardetto (becomes Bergetto's fiance)
- Putana – Tutoress of Annabella
Notable performances
The play was revived early in the Restoration era: Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
saw a 1661 performance at the Salisbury Court Theatre
Salisbury Court Theatre
The Salisbury Court Theatre was a theatre in 17th-century London. It was located in the neighbourhood of Salisbury Court, which was formerly the London residence of the Bishops of Salisbury. Salibury Court was acquired by Richard Sackville in 1564; when Thomas Sackville was created Earl of Dorset...
. In 1894, the play was translated into French by Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
under the name of Annabella, and produced at the Théâtre de l'Œuvre
Théâtre de l'Œuvre
The Théâtre de l'Œuvre is a Paris theatre, located atop cité Monthiers, at 55 rue de Clichy in the 9° arrondissement in Paris, France. It is best known as the theatre where Alfred Jarry’s nihilistic farce Ubu Roi premiered in 1896....
.
In 1961 Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...
directed a French adaptation (Dommage qu'elle soit une p…) at the Théâtre de Paris with Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...
(Annabella) and Alain Delon
Alain Delon
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...
(Giovanni).
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
has said that the play provided him with the main template for his 1989 film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is a 1989 romantic crime drama written and directed by Peter Greenaway, starring Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, and Alan Howard in the titular roles...
.
In 1980, Declan Donnellan
Declan Donnellan
Declan Donnellan is a British theatre director and writer. He is co-founder of Cheek by Jowl theatre company. In 1992 he received an honoris causa degree from the University of Warwick and in 2004 he was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work in France...
directed a modern-dress performance of the play at Theatre Space and at the Half Moon Theatre
Half Moon Theatre
The Half Moon Theatre Company was formed in 1972 in a rented synagogue in Alie Street, Aldgate, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Half Moon Passage was the name of a nearby alley...
, London. Angelique Rockas commissioned the production and played Annabella.
In popular culture
Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
, Pilot Episode, "The Killings at Badger's Drift
The Killings at Badger's Drift
The Killings at Badger's Drift is a mystery novel by English writer Caroline Graham, the first in her Chief Inspector Barnaby series. In 1997, it was adapted as the pilot of Midsomer Murders, a popular ITV television series based on Graham's books...
" (1997) – Cully Barnaby rehearses for the role of Annabella throughout the episode, and this detail ties up a loose end at the conclusion of the episode.
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
's short story collection
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
.
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's play
The Real Thing (play)
The Real Thing is a play by Tom Stoppard, first performed in 1982. It examines the nature of honesty, and its use of a play within a play is one of many levels on which the author teases the audience with the difference between semblance and reality....
, the female lead rehearses for the part of Annabella throughout the second act, and a number of passages of Ford are included in the dialogue.
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi was an Italian playwright, screenwriter, director and author.He was born in Naples in an aristocratic family and moved to Rome immediately after the end of World War II and spent his professional life there...
, starring Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
and Oliver Tobias
Oliver Tobias
Oliver Tobias is a UK-based film, stage, and television actor and directorBorn Oliver Tobias Freitag in Zürich, Switzerland, he is the son of Austrian-Swiss actor Robert Freitag and German actress Maria Becker. He came to the United Kingdom at the age of eight and trained at East 15 Acting School,...
.
Social classes
In the Italian society of Parma, characters can be placed in 2 different social classes:High/Middle class characters: Cardinal, Florio, Donado, Soranzo, Grimaldi, Annabella, Giovanni etc.
These characters almost always speak in verse which shows their higher status
Lower class characters: Putana, Vasques, and Poggio.
These three characters speak in prose along with Bergetto (whose lack of intelligence accounts for prose.)
In this culture the women are also regarded as lower than the men in status and blamed for most things, for example Putana is burned for merely knowing of Annabella and Giovanni's relationship whilst Vasques' life is spared when he has murdered a higher class man.
External links
- The Works of John Ford, 1869, Open LibraryOpen LibraryOpen Library is an online project intended to create “one web page for every book ever published”. Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive and has been funded in part by a grant from the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation.-Books for the blind and...
– Giuseppe Patroni GriffiGiuseppe Patroni GriffiGiuseppe Patroni Griffi was an Italian playwright, screenwriter, director and author.He was born in Naples in an aristocratic family and moved to Rome immediately after the end of World War II and spent his professional life there...
's 1971 feature film based upon the play (TV, BRTVlaamse Radio- en TelevisieomroepThe Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie , or VRT, is a publicly-funded broadcaster of radio and television in Flanders ....
) (TV, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
) - Scanned text, HathiTrustHathiTrustHathiTrust is a very large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via the Google Books project and Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally by libraries....
Digital Library - List of performances
- Production notes at Anglo American Theatre Group
- CurtainUp Review of Tis Pity – review of a modern performance by the Friendly Fire Theatre
- Times Online Review – review of a performance at the Southwark PlayhouseSouthwark Playhouse-History:Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice, Tom Wilson & Mehmet Ergen. They identified the need for a high quality accessible theatre which would also act as a major resource for the community...
- Shock Tactics – character notes from a modern-dress production by Shock Tactics at Wilson's SchoolWilson's SchoolWilson's School is a boys' grammar school in Wallington, in the London Borough of Sutton, UK. Admission is based on performance in an entrance test with around 1,000 pupils being taught there....