John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore was first published in 1633 but so close are its affinities with Jacobean revenge tragedy that critics have often wondered whether it had not in fact been written much earlier; there is, however, no firm evidence for this. The “whore” of the title is a young woman called Annabella who lives in Parma, Italy, with her brother Giovanni and her father Florio. Her mother is dead and Annabella's sole source of moral guidance is her “tut'ress”, Putana, whose name ominously translates as “whore”. When the play opens, Annabella's brother Giovanni has just returned from his studies at the renowned Italian university of Bologna (it was particularly famous for its classes in

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Published 12 December 2002

Citation: Hopkins, Lisa. "Tis Pity She's a Whore". The Literary Encyclopedia. 12 December 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8367, accessed 9 February 2010.]