One of the leading playwrights of the 1630s, his career cut short by the closure
of the theatres in 1642. Seen in his day as a natural successor to Jonson
and Shakespeare. Neglected since. This page keeps tabs on various interesting Brome-related things.
Love, Where is now thy deity
Love, where is now thy deity,
When Fortune alters thy decree
In making of another blessed
With her thou plantedst in my breast?
And, Fortune, where is thy despite,
That gavest another my delight,
When Death has ta'en from him and thee
The precious prize, as well as me?
Of Love I blame th'inconstancy;
Of Fortune curse the cruelty;
Death, my revenger, yet, shall scape
Though he has done the greatest rape
For he is kindest of the three:
In taking her he calls for me.
His kindness carries yet a blot:
For though he calls he takes me not.
- "Love, where is now thy deity" is a song sung in Act Four of The English Moor, its lyrics preserved in the manuscript version of the play, and first published by Sara Jayne Steen in 1983. This MIDI file contains the music to a contemporary setting of the lyric, printed and discussed by John P. Cutts in 1986, and transcribed to MIDI by me.
Newly published: Richard A. Cave, gen. ed., Richard Brome Online (2010). Scholarly editions of every Brome play, illustrated with video clips of performance. I'm a contributor to the edition, so I'm biased, but - it's marvellous. Transforms our ability to say things about Brome.
Brome, Richard. Richard Brome Online (2010), gen. ed. Richard A. Cave. This now effectively supersedes al the individual play editions listed below.
Brome, Richard. The Dramatic Works of Richard Brome, ed. John Pearson,
3 vols. 1873; New York, AMS Press, 1966. Now
Brome, Richard. The Antipodes, ed. Ann Haaker. Lincoln, Nebraska:
Regents, 1966.
Brome, Richard. The Antipodes, ed. David Scott Kastan and Richard
Proudfoot. London: Nick Hern books, 2000.
Brome, Richard. The English Moore; or the Mock-Mariage, ed. Sarah
Jayne Steen. Columbia: Missouri University Press, 1983.
Brome, Richard. A Jovial Crew, ed. Ann Haaker. London: Edward Arnold,
1968.
Brome, Richard. A Critical Old-Spelling Edition of Richard Brome's A
Mad Couple Well Match'd, ed. Steen H. Spove. New York: Garland, 1979.
Brome, Richard. The Northern Lasse, ed. Harvey Fried. New York: Garland,
1980.
Brome, Richard. A Critical Edition of Richard Brome's The Weeding of
Covent Garden and the Sparagus Garden, ed. Donald S. McClure. New York:
Garland, 1980.
Brome, Richard, and Thomas Heywood. The Late Lancashire Witches,
ed. Laird H. Barber. New York: Garland, 1979.
Brome, Richard, and Thomas Heywood. The Witches of Lancashire, ed.
Gabriel Egan. . London: Globe Quartoes, 2002. [the play edited by Barber as
The Late Lancashire Witches].
Brome, Richard, and Stephen Jeffreys, A Jovial Crew. London: Warner
Chappell, 1992. A radical adaptation of Brome's play.
A Richard Brome poem, "Upon Aglaura in Folio", is not printed in
the above sources: see Sir John Suckling, The Works of Sir John Suckling:
The Non-dramatic Works ed. T. Clayton (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971)
201-2.
2. Secondary material (books):
R.J. Kaufmann, Richard Brome: Caroline Playwright (New York: Columbia
UP, 1961).
Catherine M. Shaw, Richard Brome (Boston: Twayne, 1980).
Martin Butler, Theatre and Crisis 1632-1642 (Cambridge: Cambridge
UP, 1984).
Ira Clark, Professional Playwrights: Massinger, Ford, Shirley &
Brome (Lexington: Kentucky UP, 1992).
Julie Sanders, Caroline Drama: The Plays of Massinger, Ford, Shirley
and Brome (Plymouth: Northcote House, 1999).
Matthew Steggle, Richard
Brome: Place and Politics on the Caroline Stage (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2004). "Admirable and clear-headed" (Times
Literary Supplement); "most impressive" (Ben Jonson Journal);
"a thoroughly good book" (Notes and Queries).