SOURCE: Foster, Verna Ann, and Stephen Foster. “Structure and History in The Broken Heart: Sparta, England, and the ‘Truth.’” English Literary Renaissance, 18, No. 2 (Spring, 1988): 305-28.

In the following essay, Foster and Foster argue that Ford intended to draw an historical and political analogy between mythological Sparta in The Broken Heart and Elizabethan England, concluding that such an interpretation assists in revealing the play's structure and tragic outcome.

In preparation for her death, Calantha at the end of Ford's The Broken Heart disposes of her realms and her people. To her cousin and designated heir, Nearchus, prince of Argos, she says,

I would presume you would retain the royalty Of Sparta, in her own bounds: then in Argos Armostes might be viceroy; in Messene Might Crotolon bear sway 

(5.3.42-45)¹

The political detail here is curiously circumstantial for the conclusion of a tragedy, and one wonders in any case why...