Richard Brome

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Portrait engraving by Richard Brome, 1653

Richard Brome (* around 1590 ; † probably on September 24, 1652 ) was an English writer, playwright and actor of the Renaissance and was one of the better-known actors and playwrights of his time. He continued the tradition of Elizabethan theater on the Jacobean stage during the restoration period until the theater was closed in 1642.

Live and act

Little is known about Richard Brome's entire life. Neither his origin nor his exact date of birth or the time of his death are known. Useful references to Brome's life and personality can be found above all in the sonnet To my old faithful servant and by his continued virtue my loving friend, dedicated to Brome . . . Mr. Richard Brome by Ben Jonson , published in 1632 as an epidictic preface to the quarto edition of Brome's comedy The Northern Lasse . This piece established Brome's reputation as a recognized playwright and was one of his most popular works among contemporary theater audiences.

In current research, it is generally believed that Richard Brome was probably in the service of Ben Jonson as secretary as early as 1614 and that this activity led to a friendship between the two. As a friend, in addition to poets and playwrights such as Thomas Carew or Robert Herrick , Brome also belonged to the circle of admirers or students of Johnson, who regularly appear in the Devil's Apollo room under the respectful designation "sons of Ben" or "tribe of Ben" St. Dustan's Tavern met. Several of the subsequent so-called cavalier poets (“ cavalier poets ”) emerged from this group .

After his debut success The Northern Lasse , which was probably made around 1629, Brome became one of the most productive and simplest playwrights of his time. The series of his imaginative comedies, most of which were under the influence or model of Ben Jonson, all proved to be popular with audiences at the time. In their diversity, they provide a vivid, sometimes satirically exaggerated, critical picture of the colorful life in London at the time. Fifteen pieces of Richard Brome's works have survived, including The City Wit; or The Woman Wears the Breeches (probably made in 1629 and published as a four-high print in 1653), The Sparagus Garden (probably made in 1635 and published as a four-high print in 1640), The Antipodes (probably made in 1638 and published as a four-high print in 1640) and A Mad Couple Well Match'd (probably made in 1639 and published as a four-high print in 1653). Most critics consider his best work to be his comedy A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars , which was written around 1641 and first published in 1652 as a four-high edition.

Richard Brome was held in high regard among important contemporary playwrights and playwrights. For example, Thomas Dekker addressed praising verses to “my sonne Broom and his Lasse” despite his stage quarrel with Ben Jonson. On the occasion of a performance of Brome's The Northern Lasse, John Ford also publicly referred to himself as the author's very friend. Numerous younger authors from the group of the so-called university wits also praised Brome's works, in particular A Jovial Crew , and the humanistic education expressed in them. Evidence or evidence that Brome must have apparently previously received a school-academic education can also be found in the majority of his pieces, above all in the multitude and correctness of his classic quotations and allusions.

Richard Brome was also, according to the current state of research, in all probability as an equal co-author of Thomas Heywood's melodrama The Late Lancashire Witches , which appeared in print as a four-high edition in 1634 and was probably written around 1632-33.

Brome's plays were part of the repertoire of the King's Men, who were one of the two most famous actors at the time, and were performed at the Globe and Blackfriars Theaters as well as the Cockpit Theater on Drury Lane or Salisbury Court on Fleet Street and at court.

The closure of the theaters during the restoration period by the parliamentary resolution of 1642 meant financial ruin for Brome, who presumably lived largely on his income as the author of stage works. Impoverished, he probably died around 1652 in the London Charterhouse , a former charterhouse that was converted into a hospital and poor house during the reign of James I from 1611 onwards by a will from Thomas Sutton for the benefit of around 80 impoverished men.

After Brome's death in 1653 and 1659 two volumes with his collected works were published by the English poet, writer and translator Alexander Brome (1620–1666), who was not related to Richard Brome.

Works

As the sole author

  • The City Wit , around 1629 ?, listed again in 1637; printed 1653
  • The Northern Lass , 1629; printed 1632
  • The Queen's Exchange , around 1629-30 ?; printed 1657
  • The Novella , 1632; printed 1653
  • The Weeding of Covent Garden , 1633 ?; printed 1659
  • The Sparagus Garden , 1635; printed 1640
  • The Damoiselle or the New Ordinary , around 1638 ?; printed 1653
  • The English Moor, or The Mock Marriage , 1637; printed 1659
  • The Antipodes , 1638; printed 1640
  • A Mad Couple Well-Match'd , 1639 ?; printed 1653
  • The Lovesick Court, or The Ambitious Politic , registered for print 1640; printed 1659
  • The Court Beggar ,? 1640; printed 1653
  • The New Academy, or The New Exchange , registered for printing 1640; printed 1659
  • The Queen and Concubine , around 1635–39 ?; printed 1659
  • A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars , 1641 ?, printed 1652.

Together with Thomas Heywood

  • The Late Lancashire Witches , around 1634; printed 1634

Work editions

  • Richard Brome: A Jovial Crew: Or, the Merry Beggars. a comedy. Acted Both at the Queen's Theater, and the Theater-Royal, at the Same Time. Likewise All the the Beggars Cant. London 1708 (Reprinted by Lightning Source UK Ltd., Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, 2018, ISBN 978-1-379-83495-3 ).

literature

  • Clarence Edward Andrews: Richard Brome: A Study of his Life and Works. Yale Studies in English Ser: No.46, Archon Books, Hamden CT 1972, ISBN 0-208-01122-6 .
  • Richard Brome: A Study of His Life and Works.
  • Robert Fricker: The older English drama. Volume 3: Ben Jonson to Richard Brome. Francke Verlag, Bern 1987, ISBN 978-3-317-01636-0 .
  • Catherine M. Shaw: Richard Brome. Twayne Publishers, Boston 1980, ISBN 0-8057-6783-5 .
  • Adolphus William Ward:  Brome, Richard . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 6:  Bottomley - Browell. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London, 1886, pp 393 - 397 (English).
  • Brome, Richard . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 4 : Bishārīn - Calgary . London 1910, p. 631 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Brome. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
  2. ↑ See, for example, the reprint in Samuel Johnson and Alexander Chalmers (eds.): The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper: Including the Series Edited, with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical. Volume V, London 1810, p. 541, or in The Theatrical Inquisitor, Or, Monthly Mirror. Volume 3, Chapple, 1814, p. 211. See also Richard Brome. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved April 29, 2019 . and on theatre.history.com under Richard Brome . See also Adolphus William Ward:  Brome, Richard . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 6:  Bottomley - Browell. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London, 1886, pp 393 - 397 (English). On the references to Broom's life in the works of Jonson and other contemporary authors as well as the self-referential references in Brome's own writings, cf. the explanations of Clarence Edward Andrews: Richard Brome: A Study of his Life and Works. Yale Studies in English Ser: No.46, Archon Books, Hamden CT 1972, ISBN 0-208-01122-6 , p. 2ff.
  3. ↑ See Bernhard Fabian , Willi Erzgräber , Kurt Tetzeli von Rosador and Wolfgang Weiß: The English literature. , Volume 2: Authors . dtv, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 75 (full text also available as a scan on epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de (PDF)).
  4. ^ Adolphus William Ward:  Brome, Richard . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 6:  Bottomley - Browell. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London, 1886, pp 393 - 397 (English). See also the remarks by Clarence Edward Andrews: Richard Brome: A Study of his Life and Works. Yale Studies in English Ser: No.46, Archon Books, Hamden CT 1972, ISBN 0-208-01122-6 , p. 4 ff.
  5. ^ Already on the title page of the first four-high print from 1634, Brome is named as co-author alongside Heywood: 'Written, By Thom. Heywood, and Richard Broome ' . See also the overview of the current research status of the collaboration between Heywood and Brome in Heather Anne Hirschfeld: Collaborating across Generations: Thomas Heywood, Richard Brome, and the Production of The Late Lancashire Witches. In: Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies , 30 (2), spring 2000, pp. 339–374, here in particular p. 340. Cf. also Helen Ostovich: The Late Lancashire Witches, Textual Introduction. Online dhi.ac.uk . Accessed December 30, 2018.
  6. ↑ Richard Brome. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved April 29, 2019 . And Adolphus William Ward:  Brome, Richard . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 6:  Bottomley - Browell. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London, 1886, pp 393 - 397 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Brome, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Broom, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English playwright and actor
DATE OF BIRTH around 1590
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: September 24, 1652