The Broken Heart

The Broken Heart is a Caroline era tragedy written by John Ford, and first published in 1633. "The play has long vied with 'Tis Pity She's a Whore as Ford's greatest work...the supreme reach of his genius...."^[1] The date of the play's authorship is uncertain, and is generally placed in the 1625–32 period by scholars. The title page of the first edition states that the play was acted by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. The text is preceded by the motto "Fide Honor," an anagram for "John Forde," which Ford employs in other of his plays as well. The volume was dedicated to William Lord Craven, Baron of Hampsteed-Marshall.^[2]

^ Logan and Smith, pp. 129–30.
^ Craven, eldest son of a Lord Mayor of London, was a prominent soldier of the era who fought with King Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War, and was later rumored to have secretly married Elizabeth of Bohemia after the death of her first husband, Frederick V, Elector Palatine.

[1] Logan and Smith, pp. 129–30.

[2] Craven, eldest son of a Lord Mayor of London, was a prominent soldier of the era who fought with King Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War, and was later rumored to have secretly married Elizabeth of Bohemia after the death of her first husband, Frederick V, Elector Palatine.

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