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without dedications, the earlier with some witty remarks on the fact that the patron must pay two or three pieces' for a book which any one else may get for ‘half a crown.' Richard, however, seems to have held less independent views on the practice, or needed his forty shillings more. The Northern Lass (1632) is addressed 'To the Right Worthy, and no lesse Judicious than Ingenious Gentleman, Richard Holford, Esquire.' If this worthy had any other virtues they have been interred with him, for I can find no other mention of his name. The only fact that appears in the dedication is that Brome received 'real favors' from him. The Sparagus Garden (1640) is dedicated to William, Earl (afterward Duke) of Newcastle, Governour to the Prince his Highnesse.' The duke, besides gaining distinction in his political career, and some praise as an author, deserves the reputation of being the greatest literary patron of his time. Clarendon1 says that his generalship was impaired because he had a tincture of a romantic spirit, and had the misfortune to have somewhat of the poet in him.' Langbaine praised him for what Clarendon considers a fault and calls him our English Mæcenas.' The duke and his very literary duchess took the greatest interest in Jonson, who seems to have accepted and appreciated their patronage. Jonson wrote epitaphs, elegies, appreciative verses, an interlude for a christening, and two masques at a royal entertainment for the duke. The remark of the duke, quoted in one of the duchess's letters,2 that he never heard any one read well but Jonson suggests that the poet's relations were extremely intimate and friendly, and Jonson shows in his letters & that he considered the duke a munificent patron. Shirley

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1 Rebellion and Civil War 8. 82.

2 Gifford's Life, in Ben Jonson, Works 1. xvi.

3 Works 3. 459.

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and Dryden were not merely his friends, but collaborators,1 and Ford, Jasper Mayne,2 and Shadwell1 dedicated works to him. Flecknoe,1 Davenant,1 and the philosopher Hobbes,2 were also among those who received favors. We have no means of knowing how intimate Brome was with Newcastle. The servility of his dedication is purely a literary convention, from which it is unsafe to draw inferences. The verses, To my Lord of Newcastle on his Play called the Variety,' are as extravagant as all of their type, but the statement, ' He having commanded to give him my true opinion of it,' which is appended, must indicate, if true, that his lordship thought enough of Brome to ask for his judgment.3

William Seymour, Earl of Hertford, to whom the Antipodes (1640) is dedicated, seems to have had no other relation with Brome than that of patron of this work. In 1652 the Jovial Crew, the last play printed during the author's lifetime, was addressed to Thomas Stanley, Esq. Stanley was of the seventeenth-century type of gentleman, of broad culture, profound learning, and many interests. In addition to his long authoritative history of philosophy, he wrote several volumes of notes on Greek dramatists, and a thin collection of original poems. He was also known as a patron of several minor literary men, and seems to have been a close friend of Alexander Brome. In the octavo of 1659 there is a long commendatory poem to Richard, the most detailed and appreciative eulogy that the dramatist's

1 Firth, Preface to edition of the duchess's Letters.

2 Dict. Nat. Biog.

3 These verses are to be found in the octavo volume of 1659, immediately preceding Covent Garden Weeded.

▲ Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, complete in their collated readings of 1647, 1651, 1657, edited with notes and introduction by L. I. Guiney, Hull, 1907.

work has received. The signature, T. S., is interpreted by Ward in the Dictionary of National Biography as Thomas Shadwell, but this attribution is quite unsupported. I think there is no doubt that the verses are by Stanley, not only from the fact of the previous dedication, and his friendship with Alexander, the editor, but also from the following lines in an Epistle to T. S., later explained as Stanley, in Alexander Brome's Poems (1661)1:

A poem I have sent thee heere,

That dyes if thou shouldst be severe.

And cause I've none worth sending down
I've bought one cost me half a crown.

And Dick Brome's plays which good must be
Because they were approved by thee.

Now that we have discussed what evidence there is for Brome's friendships, we may give some consideration to his enmities. In the Musarum Delicia (p. 68), a collection of facetious verse published in 1656, there is an unsigned piece entitled Upon Aglaura printed in Folio, which also appears in the Five New Plays2 of 1659, with the initials R. B. added. This is a rather good bit of satire on Suckling's Aglaura, which was published in a sumptuous folio edition with wide margins in 1638. This uncommon format for a commonplace tragi-comedy gave the author of the satire a chance to display his wit very cleverly in the fashionable conceited style, comparing the text on the page, among other things, to a child lodged in the great bed at Ware. The including of the piece. among Brome's plays by an editor who was a close friend may be taken as evidence of authorship. As Dr. Faust has suggested, for Brome to satirize Suckling, who had ridiculed Jonson, in the Session of the Poets, was consistent with his loyalty to his former master. Immediately 2 Preceding Covent Garden Weeded.

1 P. 169.

following this poem in the same volume of 1659 is another of eight lines, called A Song,1 two verses of which are:

Nor sorrow, nor care can crosse our delights

Nor witches, nor goblins, nor Buttery sprights,

which Dr. Faust considers a reference to Suckling's Goblins, or possibly to Randolph's Amyntas. This poem, however, is not at all satirical.

The scholar just quoted has a further conjecture as to the relations of Brome and Randolph which should be discussed.2 Amyntas, or the Impossible Dowry,3 has, as one of its dramatis persona, Bromius, a blunt clown,' who is called in one of the scenes of horse-play a ' profane, rude groom.' I think, however, if one reads further in the play than the dramatis persona, the identification of Bromius with Brome appears impossible. The character is merely an uninteresting clown. He is the man' of 'Jocastus, a fantastical shepherd and a fairy knight,' who is an absurd creature that devises strange masques, and dances a morris for the entertainment of the king of the fairies. Now if Randolph is ridiculing Brome, he must also be satirizing Jonson, his own master and friend. And further, the only indication of intended satire, the pointless similarity of the names, can easily be explained away by the fact that Bromius is a very common name for Dionysus in Greek drama; and one of the derivations of the name, which makes it mean the brawler,' is quite appropriate for the low-comedy shepherd in Randolph's pastoral.

As the few external allusions left to us do not help us to judge the character of Richard Brome, we must construct

1 The last two verses of this occur again in the Jovial Crew 5, p. 445.

2 Faust, op. cit., p. 9.

3 Written before 1635, says Schelling.

it from hints scattered through his work. It seems to have impressed every one who has written of him in much the same way. Ward,1 judging from the prologues and epilogues, has expressed it very well. He says: 'He exhibits an amusing mixture of modesty and self-consciousness as a dramatic writer. He repeatedly begs his audience not to expect more than they will find; all he pretends to is' but Mirth and Sense2; he is content to term himself a 'Playmaker,' without aspiring as yet to the names of Author, or Poet,' any more than to the office of Laureate; a little wit, less learning, no poetry' is all he dare boast; but though he scarse ever durst rank himself above the worst of Poets,' 'most that he has writ has past the rest, and found good approbation of the best '5; and though he only professes to help to keep alive' the weakest branch of the stage '-that species of comedy which treats of low and home-bred subjects '— he questions whether it is in truth the weakest, or whether it be not

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as hard a labour for the Muse

To Move the Earth as to dislodge a Star."

This same contradiction in character occurs over and over again in Brome's prologues, epilogues, and his lines to Fletcher. One other trait that appears is an almost Jonsonian bluff scorn of flattery and compliment'; but this does not seem to represent a usual mood. In his offering of his last two plays to the public, the humility of tone seems more real, and the aged dramatist throws himself on the mercy of his audience and his patron with some show of genuine feeling. In spite of the fact that he is

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1 Hist. Eng. Dram. Lit. 3. 127.

3 Damoiselle, Prologue.

5 Queen's Exchange, Prologue.

7 Mad Couple, Prologue.

2 Novella, Prologue.

4 Love-Sick Court, Prologue.

• Antipodes, Prologue.

8 Court Begger, Prologue and Epilogue.

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