John Ford (1586-1639) was an English playwright whose works have often been cited as examples of the 'decadence' of Caroline Drama. In the 19th century he was admired by Charles Lamb but attacked by William Hazlitt and others, who accused him of lacking a sense of morality. However, many 20th-century critics have praised his insight into character and his skill in writing dialogue
His best known play is the bloody tragedy 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1627). Other works inlcude Love's Sacrifice (1627), the tragicomedy The Lover's Melancholy (1628), and Perkin Warbeck (1634), described by T. S. Eliot as "one of the very best historical plays in the whole of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama".
