SOURCE: "By Nature's Light: The Morality of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore," in Tulane Studies in English, Vol. 10, 1960, pp. 39-50.

In the following essay, Ribner asserts that Ford's dramatization of the moral dilemma surrounding incest in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore reveals his larger preoccupation with humankind's universal conflict between natural and divine law.

To the influence of John Ford more than to that of any of his contemporaries has been attributed that "decadence" by which the Caroline drama is so often characterized, and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore has usually been called the most "decadent" of Ford's plays. The concept of "decadence" in drama, like so many literary clichés, probably will not stand the test of close analysis, and I believe that the classic statement of Ford's supposed "decadence" by Stuart P. Sherman [in "Forde's Contribution to the Decadence of the Drama," in John Fordes Dramatische...