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imitator of his master, that he might truly pass for an original.'

The reputation of Brome since the seventeenth century has been lower, and except for the extravagant estimate of Swinburne,1 the interest in him has become historic rather than intrinsic.2

1 Fortnightly (1892) 57. 504.

2 An engraved portrait of Brome by T. Cross precedes the titlepage of Five New Plays, 1653. The verses under it by Alexander Brome declare it to be very lifelike. This portrait is reproduced in Pearson's reprint of 1873, in Garnett and Gosse's Hist. Eng. Lit. (1903) 3. 9, and in Lamb's Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets (Dent and Co., 1903) 2. 246.

CHRONOLOGY OF BROME'S PLAYS

This chronology is merely a condensation of that given in Fleay's Biographical Chronicle. In the main Fleay is right, but I have inserted an interrogation point after the dates that I think he has decided upon with insufficient evidence. The dates unmarked are unquestionably correct. Plays enclosed in parentheses are not extant. Facts enclosed in brackets are given solely on Fleay's authority. All others are from title-pages, the Herbert office-book, or the Stationers' Register.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BROME'S WORKS

This bibliography is based on the publications of Lowndes, Corser, Hazlitt, Greg, the Grolier Club, etc., and the catalogues of the British Museum and the Bodleian, as well as the Yale, Harvard, and other important libraries of America. All the facts except the dates of unimportant editions I have verified by examining the various books listed.

MANUSCRIPT

The only manuscript of a play of Brome known to be extant is one of the English Moor in the library of Lichfield Cathedral. The Bishop of Stafford, librarian of the Cathedral, has been good enough to inform me that there seems to be nothing of particular importance about the manuscript in the way of marginal notes, etc. I have not had the opportunity to compare it with the printed edition of 1659.

EDITIONS OF PLAYS

THE NORTHERN LASS

The Northern Lasse, a Comedie. As it hath been often Acted with good Applause, at the Globe and BlackFryers. By his Majesties Servants. Written by Richard Brome. Hic totus volo rideat Libellus. Mart. London: Printed by Aug. Mathevves, and are to be sold by Nicholas Vavasovr, dwelling at the little South dore of St. Paul's Church. 1632.

Quarto.

Dedicated to Richard Holford. Prefatory verses by Ben Jonson, F. T. Mag. Art. Oxon., St. Br., John Ford, Tho. Dekker, and F. T.

Other editions:

Lowndes gives 1635 as the date of the second edition, and Hazlitt and Fleay have followed him, but I have found no trace of such an edition in any other bibliographical work, or in any library or bookseller's catalogue.

Second edition, with sub-title, A Nest of Fools, 1663.
Other editions, 1684, 1700?

Sixth edition, with music to the songs by Daniel
Purcell, 1706.

Eighth edition, 1717.

Another edition, Dublin: S. Powell for E. Risk, `1726.

THE LATE LANCASHIRE WITCHES

The Late Lancashire Witches. A Well received Comedy lately acted at the Globe on the Bankeside, by the kings Majesties Actors. Written by Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome. Aut prodesse solent aut delectam. London. Printed by Thomas Harper for Benjamin Fisher, and are to be sold at his shop at the Sign of the Talbot, without Aldersgate. 1634.

Quarto.

Other editions:

The Poetry of Witchcraft. A reprint of the Late Lancashire Witches with Shadwell's Lancashire Witches and Tegue o'Divelly, the Irish Priest, by S. O. Halliwell, Esq., 1853. (Eighty copies.)

Reprinted also in Heywood's Works, Pearson's edition. London, 1874, Vol. 4.

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