Criticism > Literary Criticism (1400-1800) > Ford, John - Verna Ann Foster and Stephen Foster (essay date 1988)

Ford, John - Verna Ann Foster and Stephen Foster (essay date 1988)

Verna Ann Foster and Stephen Foster (essay date 1988)

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

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