An old-spelling, critical edition of John Ford's The Lover's Melancholy

The Lover's Melancholy is probably the first of eight plays written by John Ford alone. Published in 1629, probably written and performed in 1628, The Lover's Melancholy apparently comes between his early collaborations, such as The Sun's Darling and The Witch of Edmonton, and his later independent successes, such as The Broken Heart and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.

This dissertation presents an accurate text of The Lover's Melancholy arrived at through collation of twenty-seven photostatic copies of the 1629 quarto. Also collated was one copy of each subsequent edition of the play. All variants and emendations are reported.

This dissertation also contains a full bibliographic description and analysis of the 1629 quarto, a literary introduction to the play, and commentary on all obsolete, difficult, or conventional terms, constructions, and practices.