"All this I'll do, to free me from the rod Of vengeance; _else I'll swear my fate's my god_."
Thus there is no solution of the conflict between passion on the one side, and law, duty and religion on the other; and passion triumphs, in the dying words of "the student struck blind and mad by passion"--
"O, I bleed fast! Death, thou'rt a guest long look'd for; I embrace Thee and thy wounds: O, my last minute comes! Where'er I go, let me enjoy this grace Freely to view my Annabella's face."
It has been observed by J.A. Symonds that "English poets have given us the right key to the Italian temperament.... The love of Giovanni and Annabella is rightly depicted as more imaginative than sensual." It is difficult to allow the appositeness of this special illustration; on the other hand, Ford has even in this case shown his art of depicting sensual passion without grossness of expression; for the exception in Annabella's language to Soranzo seems to have a special intention, and is true to the pressure of the situation and the revulsion produced by it in a naturally weak and yielding mind. The entire atmosphere, so to speak, of the play is stifling, and is not rendered less so by the underplot with Hippolita.
_'Tis Pity she's a Whore_ was translated into French by Maurice Maeterlinck under the title of _Annabella_, and represented at the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre in 1894. The translator prefixes to the version an eloquent appreciation of Ford's genius, especially in his portraits of women, whose fate it is to live "dans les ténèbres, les craintes et les larmes."
Like this tragedy, _The Broken Heart_ was probably founded upon some Italian or other novel of the day; but since in the latter instance there is nothing revolting in the main idea of the subject, the play commends itself as the most enjoyable, while, in respect of many excellences, an unsurpassed specimen of Ford's dramatic genius. The complicated plot is constructed with greater skill than is usual with this dramatist, and the pathos of particular situations, and of the entire character of Penthea--a woman doomed to hopeless misery, but capable of seeking to obtain for her brother a happiness which his cruelty has condemned her to forego--has an intensity and a depth which are all Ford's own. Even the lesser characters are more pleasing than usual, and some beautiful lyrics are interspersed in the play.