The Broken Heart

Abstract

One of the first problems to present itself in connection with The Broken Heart is the discrepancy between its modern critical reputation and its minimal and unsatisfactory performance history. It is common for literary critics to hail it not only as Ford’s masterpiece but as one of the finest of all non-Shakespearean tragedies. Yet it was the only one of Ford’s major plays not to be revived before the end of the nineteenth century, and it has still not, at the time of writing, had a satisfactory modern performance. Prior to the RSC’s decision to include it in their 1994 autumn programme, the one professional revival had been directed by Laurence Olivier at Chichester in 1962, and its relative lack of success (the Spectator called it a ‘painful evening’ and The Times spoke of ‘a slight sense of let-down … not from the production but from the play’) seems to have discouraged further attempts to repeat the experiment.¹ Moreover, the terms in which the play is frequently praised (‘in The Broken Heart we have the nearest English approach to the pure form of French classical tragedy’) do not make it sound particularly appealing to English theatrical tastes.² It would be easy to conclude that here we have a simple opposition between literary and dramatic valuations, with the quality of Ford’s poetry ensuring a continued critical interest in a theatrical dodo.