'Tis Pity She's a Whore

'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Martin Wiggins’s excellent annotations and introduction in the New Mermaids edition sets out how effectively the play undercuts social niceties with the disturbing nature of human desire. What stuck out to me was the instances where the audience’s own observation of the action is noted by the play – with characters talking about how their decisions will be judged by airy spirits or posterity once all is revealed. Soranzo insists the whore deserves no pity, while the Cardinal’s final line “tis pity she’s a whore” is unsatisfying. The play works because it hovers above such judgements, and leaves the audience ambivalent about what they’ve just seen.

View all my reviews