Richard Brome ; (c. 1590? – 24 September 1652) was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.

Life

Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

's ''

Bartholomew Fair The Bartholomew Fair was one of London's pre-eminent summer charter fairs. A charter for the fair was granted to Rahere by Henry I to fund the Priory of St Bartholomew; and from 1133 to 1855 it took place each year on 24 August within the preci ...

'', indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity. Scholars have interpreted the allusions to mean that Brome may have begun as a menial servant but later became a sort of secretary and general assistant to the older playwright. A single brief mention of his family's need seems to show that he had a wife and children and struggled to support them. He may have had some experience as a professional actor: a 1628 warrant lists him as a member of the Queen of Bohemia's Men. Yet he had already started writing for the stage by this date. An early collaboration, ''A Fault in Friendship'' (now lost) was licensed in 1623 for

Prince Charles's Men Prince Charles's Men (known as the Duke of York's Men from 1608 to 1612) was a playing company or troupe of actors in Jacobean and Caroline England. The Jacobean era troupe The company was formed in 1608 as the Duke of York's Men, under the titu ...

; a 1629 solo Brome effort, ''The Lovesick Maid'' (also lost), was a success for the King's Men. ''

The Northern Lass ''The Northern Lass'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy by Richard Brome that premiered onstage in 1629 and was first printed in 1632. A popular hit with its audience, and one of his earliest successes, the play provided a foundation for Bro ...

'' (1632) was another success, and made Brome's reputation. Due to the survival of various legal documents, much more is known about Brome's professional activities than his personal life. Once established as a dramatist, Brome wrote for all the major acting companies and theaters of his era – for the

Blackfriars Theatre Blackfriars Theatre was the name given to two separate theatres located in the former Blackfriars Dominican priory in the City of London during the Renaissance. The first theatre began as a venue for the Children of the Chapel Royal, child ac ...

; for the

Red Bull Theatre The Red Bull was an inn-yard conversion erected in Clerkenwell, London operating in the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the City and its suburbs, developing a reputation over the years for r ...

; and from 1635 onward, for the King's Revels Company and

Queen Henrietta's Men Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors in Caroline era in London. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men. Beginnings The company ...

at the

Salisbury Court Theatre The Salisbury Court Theatre was a theatre (structure), theatre in 17th-century London. It was in the neighbourhood of Salisbury Court, which was formerly the London residence of the Bishop of Salisbury, Bishops of Salisbury. Salisbury Court was ...

. Brome's '' Sparagus Garden'' was a huge success at the Salisbury Court in 1635, earning over £1000. As a result, Brome signed a three-year contract with Richard Heton, manager of the Salisbury Court, to write three plays annually at a salary of 15 shillings per week plus one day's profit per play. Brome, however, was unable to produce dramas at the promised pace; and the stipulated payments to Brome were not kept up. In need of money, Brome resorted to

Christopher Beeston Christopher Beeston (c. 1579 – c. 15 October 1638) was a successful actor and a powerful theatrical impresario in early 17th century London. He was associated with a number of playwrights, particularly Thomas Heywood. Early life Little is kno ...

, actor, impresario, and owner of the

Cockpit Theatre The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was named The Phoenix. History The original building was an actual cockpit; that is, a st ...

(also known as the Phoenix) as well as the Red Bull. In August 1635 Beeston loaned Brome £6, and in return Brome committed to write Beeston a play. Heton tried to lure Brome back with a £10 payment for a new play; but they fell behind in his payments again, and Brome turned again to Beeston. Heton appealed to Sir Henry Herbert,

Master of the Revels The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberlain. ...

, to settle the dispute; Herbert decreed that Brome be paid six shillings a week and £5 for each new play, the payments to continue even when the theaters were closed. The dispute was complicated by the fact that the theatres endured one of their longest enforced closings due to

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pe ...

in this period; they were closed almost continuously from 10 May 1636 to 2 October 1637. Beeston ejected

from the Cockpit Theatre in 1636, forcing that company to split up for a time. The King's Revels Men, formerly at the Salisbury Court, dissolved permanently in the crisis of the closure; but the Queen's company made a resurgence, with the help of Sir Henry Herbert, who had a financial stake in the Salisbury Court Theatre. When the plague diminished enough for performances to resume in October 1637, the re-organized Queen Henrietta's Men commenced the new season at the Salisbury Court with, it is thought, Brome's ''

The English Moor ''The English Moor, or the Mock Marriage'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome, noteworthy in its use of the stage device of blackface make-up. Registered in 1640, it was first printed in 1659, and, uniquely among th ...

.'' When Brome's 1635 contract with Heton ended in 1638, new disputes arose among Brome, Beeston, and Heton; a bill of complaint was filed against Brome, though the outcome of the case is unknown. It seems that once the Puritans closed the theaters in 1642, Brome struggled seriously. He may have authored an entertainment, ''Juno in Arcadia'', which John P. Cutts has argued was performed for Queen

Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She wa ...

's arrival at Oxford in 1643. He wrote

commendatory verse The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'', to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies. Origin ...

s for the ''Beaumont and Fletcher'' First Folio (1647). In 1649–50 he edited a volume of elegies, titled ''Lachrymae Musarum,'' on the death of Henry, Lord Hastings. In 1652, in a dedication to Thomas Stanley for a quarto edition of his ''A Jovial Crew'', Brome described himself as "poor and proud." Brome died at Charterhouse Hospital, London, on 24 September 1652. Prior to this, he signed for quarterly pension payments for washing, 'beverage' and gown money from 1651 to 1652, at which point his entry in the pension book is superscribed 'mort'; a record of payment for his burial follows.

Canon

The plays Brome wrote were certainly, and strongly, influenced by Jonsonian comedy (Brome was not a tragedian). He was, admittedly and unambiguously, one of the '' Sons of Ben.'' The canon of his extant plays includes: *'' The City Wit,'' c. 1629?, revived 1637, printed 1653 *''

,'' performed 1629, printed 1632 *'' The Queen's Exchange,'' c. 1629–30?, printed 1657 *'' The Novella,'' performed 1632, printed 1653 *'' The Weeding of Covent Garden,'' performed 1633?, printed 1659 *''

The Sparagus Garden ''The Sparagus Garden'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy by Richard Brome. It was the greatest success of Brome's career, and one of the major theatrical hits of its period. Performance and publication ''The Sparagus Garden'' was acted b ...

,'' performed 1635, printed 1640 *'' The Damoiselle or the New Ordinary,'' c. 1638?; printed 1653 *'' The English Moor, or The Mock Marriage,'' performed 1637, printed 1659 *'' The Antipodes,'' performed 1638, printed 1640 *''

A Mad Couple Well-Match'd ''A Mad Couple Well-Match'd'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first published in the 1653 Brome collection ''Five New Plays'', issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dri ...

,'' performed 1639?, printed 1653 *'' The Lovesick Court, or The Ambitious Politic,'' registered 1640, printed 1659 *''

The Court Beggar ''The Court Beggar'' is a Caroline era stage play written by Richard Brome. It was first performed by the acting company known as Beeston's Boys at the Cockpit Theatre. It has sometimes been identified as the seditious play, performed at the Coc ...

,'' ?1640, printed 1653 *'' The New Academy, or The New Exchange,'' registered 1640, printed 1659 *''

The Queen and Concubine ''The Queen and Concubine'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Richard Brome and first published in 1659. It has sometimes been called Brome's best tragicomedy. Publication and date The play was first printed when it was in ...

,'' c. 1635–39?, printed 1659 *'' A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars,'' performed ?1641, printed 1652. ''The English Moor'' also survives in a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

version. Brome collaborated with

Thomas Heywood Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece '' A Woman Killed with Kindness'', ...

in ''

The Late Lancashire Witches ''The Late Lancashire Witches'' is a Caroline-era stage play and written by Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome, published in 1634. The play is a topical melodrama on the subject of the witchcraft controversy that arose in Lancashire in 1633. Perfo ...

,'' which was acted by the King's Men and printed in 1634. The play was based on contemporary events of 1633–34. Brome plays that have not survived include: ''The Lovesick Maid'' (1629); ''Wit in a Madness'' (?1637); ''The Jewish Gentleman'' (registered 1640); ''A Fault in Friendship'' (1623), perhaps with Jonson and another collaborator; two more collaborations with Heywood, ''The Life and Death of Sir Martin Skink'' (c. 1634) and ''The Apprentice's Prize'' (c. 1633–41); and ''Christianetta, or Marriage and Hanging Go by Destiny'' (registered 1640), possibly a collaboration with

George Chapman George Chapman (Hitchin, Hertfordshire, – London, 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been speculated to be the Rival Poet of Shak ...

Alfred Harbage Alfred Bennett Harbage (July 18, 1901 – May 1976) was an influential Shakespeare scholar of the mid-20th century. Life He was born in Philadelphia and received his undergraduate degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. ...

has argued that two of

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

's plays, ''

The Wild Gallant ''The Wild Gallant'' is a Restoration comedy written by John Dryden. It was Dryden's earliest play, and written in prose, except for the prologue, and the epilogue, which are in verse. It was premiered on the stage by the King's Company at their ...

'' (1663) and ''

The Mistaken Husband ''The Mistaken Husband'' is a Restoration comedy in the canon of John Dryden's dramatic works, where it has constituted a long-standing authorship problem. Performance and publication The play was first produced on stage by the King's Company a ...

'' (1674), are adaptations of otherwise-lost plays by Brome, based on the plays' internal evidence of plot and style. In an active playwriting career of not quite fifteen years, 1629 to 1642, Brome produced about two plays a year. Judging by the overall productivity of dramatists in English Renaissance drama, this appears to have been the pragmatic long-term maximum for a playwright who worked primarily as a solo artist (which in turn illustrates the impracticality of Brome's attempt to produce three plays a year).

Editions

Two important collections of Brome's works appeared in 1653 and 1659 – both, confusingly, titled ''Five New Plays''. The 1653 edition, published by

Humphrey Moseley Humphrey Moseley (died 31 January 1661) was a prominent London publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century. Life Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers C ...

, Richard Marriot, and

Thomas Dring Thomas Dring (died 1668) was a London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century. He was in business from 1649 on; his shop (as his title pages indicate) was located "at the sign of the George in Fleet Street, near St. Dunstan's ...

, contains ''A Mad Couple Well-Match'd, The Novella, The Court Beggar, The City Wit,'' and ''The Demoiselle''. It features an Epistle to the Readers by Alexander Brome, thought to be no relation to the playwright. The 1659 volume, published by Andrew Crooke and Henry Brome (again, no relation), contains ''The English Moor, The Lovesick Court, The Weeding of Covent Garden, The New Academy,'' and ''The Queen and Concubine''.Plays in such 17th-century collections were often meant to be published separately as well as together; each play had its own title page, and the dates on the title pages sometimes differed. In the 1659 volume, three plays are individually dated 1658 instead of 1659: ''The Lovesick Court, The Weeding of Covent Garden,'' and ''The New Academy''. The 1653 edition also featured a portrait with a poem by Alexander Brome written in imitation of Jonson's poem on

Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...

portrait: ::''Reader lo heere thou will two faces finde,'' ::''One of the body, t’other of the Minde;'' ::''This by the Graver go, that with much strife'' ::''Wee thinke Brome dead, hee’s drawne so to the life'' ::''That by’s owne pen’s so ingeinoisly'' ::''That who read’s it must thinke hee ne’er shall dy'' :::::::::::A∙ B∙

Influence

When the theaters reopened during the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

, a handful of Brome's plays were performed and republished; the most successful was ''A Jovial Crew,'' which was acted widely and printed in 1661, 1684, and 1708. It was adapted into an opera in 1731. Other Brome plays reappeared in adapted forms. One example: ''The Debauchee'' by

Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barrie ...

(printed 1677) is a rewrite of Brome's ''A Mad Couple Well-Match'd,'' down to the characters' names.

Notes

References

*"Brome, Richard", ''Lost Plays Database'', ed. Roslyn L. Knutson and David McInnis

* * Cutts, John P. "The Anonymous Masque-Like Entertainment in Egerton MS. 1994, and Richard Brome", ''Comparative Drama'' 1 (1968): 277–87. * Harbage, Alfred. "Elizabethan:Restoration Palimpsest." ''Modern Language Review'' Vol. 35 No. 3 (July 1940): 287–319. *Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. ''The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.'' Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978. *Lowe, Eleanor. "Confirmation of Richard Brome's Final Years in Charterhouse Hospital." ''Notes and Queries'' Vol. 54:4 S(December 2007): 416–418. *Steggle, Matthew. ''Richard Brome: Place and Politics on The Caroline Stage.'' Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2004. * Ward, A. W. ''History of English Dramatic Literature.'' 1899; Vol. 3, pp. 125–31.

External links

* *
Richard Brome Online
gen. ed. Richard Cave (Sheffield: HRI Online, 2010) . Complete scholarly editions of all sixteen plays. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brome, Richard 1590s births 1653 deaths English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights