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'The cock in the fable scratched up a pearl from the dunghill, and it is possible that some ingenious student may discover pearls in what is certainly the rubbish heap of Brome's plays.'

J. A. Symonds.

PREFACE

This study is but a part of the original thesis, the title of which was Richard Brome, a Study of his Life and Works, with an Edition of the Antipodes, reprinted from the Quarto of 1640, with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. The edition of the play I hope to bring out later. My aim in the present study has been, first, to bring together all the facts previously known about Brome, together with the results of research on his work up to the present time. To this material I have been able to add a considerable number of biographical details, and have made a study of his position with relation to his contemporaries, the structure of his plays, and the influences exerted upon him. To this I have added, in an appendix, a special study of one play as illustrative of the statements made about his work in general.

Though the study of Brome by my predecessor, Dr. E. K. R. Faust (Halle, 1887), is, in general, a careful piece of work, so much has been added to our knowledge of Elizabethan drama during the twenty-five years that have elapsed since the publication of his thesis, that it seemed to me the ground might be profitably surveyed again from a different point of view.

My thanks are due, first to Professor Henry A. Beers, under whom the thesis was written; to Professors Albert S. Cook and John M. Berdan for valuable suggestions and criticisms; to Professor Charles W. Wallace, of the University of Nebraska, for the use of some manuscript notes; to my colleague, Professor Charles W. Cobb, for assistance with the section on Brome's versification; and, finally, I feel especially grateful to Dr. William P.

McCune, who, while working in the same century, has given me much valuable aid all through my task.

A portion of the expense of printing this thesis has been borne by the Modern Language Club of Yale University, from funds placed at its disposal by the generosity of Mr. George E. Dimock of Elizabeth, New Jersey, a graduate of Yale in the Class of 1874.

AMHERST COLLEGE, Oct. 1, 1912.

C. E. A.

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