Ford, JOHN, dramatist, was the second son of Thomas Ford of Ilsington, Devonshire. He was baptised at Ilsington, 17th April 1586. After studying for a short time at Exeter College, Oxford, he became in November 1602 a member of the Middle Temple. His first work was an elegy on the death of the Earl of Devonshire, entitled Fame's Memorial (1606), with a dedicatory sonnet to Penelope, Countess of Devonshire (the 'Stella' of Sidney's sonnets); and in the same year he published Honour Triumphant; or the Peers' Challenge . . . Also the Monarchs' Meeting; or the King of Denmark's Welcome into England. He was writing for the stage as early as 1613, when his unpublished comedy, An Ill Beginning has a Good End, was acted at the Cockpit; but the first of his published plays is The Lover's Melancholy, produced 24th November 1628 and printed in 1629, a comedy of no particular merit. His most powerful tragedy, 'Tis pity She's a Whore, acted at the Phoenix in Drury Lane, was published in 1633, with a dedicatory epistle to John, first Earl of Peterborough. To the same year belongs The Broken Heart, dedicated to Lord Craven. The closing scenes, deeply impressive but strangely fantastic, were passionately admired by Charles Lamb. Love's Sacrifice (1633), dedicated to the author's cousin, John Ford of Gray's Inn, is in parts excellent, but disappointing as a whole. Far more satisfactory is The Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck (1634), dedicated to the Earl (afterwards Duke) of Newcastle. The Fancies Chaste and Noble (1638), dedicated to the Earl of Antrim, has an interesting but badly handled plot. The Lady's Trial (1638), had it been equal at all points, would have been a good play; it fails in the last act. The Sun's Darling, licensed for the stage in March 1623-24 and posthumously published in 1656, was written in company with Dekker, who probably supplied the pleasing lyrical passages. Two other plays by Dekker and Ford, The Fairy Knight and The Bristowe (Bristol) Merchant, were produced in 1624, but were not published. The Witch of Edmonton, produced circa 1621 and published in 1658, was written with Dekker and William Rowley. Ford's share was probably confined to the scenes which relate to Frank Thorne. On one occasion Ford collaborated with Webster; but the tragedy, A late Murder of the Son upon the Mother, licensed for the stage in September 1624, was not given to the press. To Webster's Duchess of Malfi (1623) Ford prefixed a copy of commendatory verses. Among the plays unfortunately destroyed by Bishop Warburton's cook were four pieces by Ford, a tragedy, and three comedies. The tragedy, Beauty in a Trance, was entered in the Stationers' Register in 1653, and the three comedies, The London Merchant, The Royal Combat, and An Ill Beginning has a Good End, were entered in 1660; but all four remained unpublished.
After the publication (1639) of The Lady's Trial Ford passes from notice. There is a tradition that he secured a competence by his professional labours, and ended his days in Devonshire. It is certain that he was not dependent on the stage for his livelihood. In procuring practice he was doubtless aided by the influence of his maternal uncle, Lord Chief-justice Popham. Ford had little comic talent, but his place among the tragic poets is unassailable. There is often a want of spontaneity in his writings; he is too elaborate and too subtle; but his two great tragedies, 'Tis Pity and The Broken Heart, are not far inferior to Webster's masterpieces. William Gifford edited Ford's works in 1827; another edition by Hartley Coleridge appeared in 1840; and in 1869 Alexander Dyce issued a revised edition of Gifford's Ford.