Richard Brome was the leading comic playwright of 1630s London. Starting his career as a manservant to Ben Jonson, he wrote a string of highly successful comedies which were influential in British theatre long after Brome's own playwriting career was cut short by the closure of the theatres in 1642.
This book offers the first full-length chronological account of Brome's life and works, drawing on a wide range of recently rediscovered manuscript sources. It traces the early hostility to Brome from those who wrote him off as a mere servant; his continuing struggles with plague closures, contract disputes and theatrical takeover bids; and his literary relationships with Jonson, Shakespeare and others. Each of the surviving plays is discussed in relation to its social and political context, and its sense of place. A final chapter reviews Brome's enduring stageworthiness into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the most recent Brome revivals.
- ISBN10 0719063582
- ISBN13 9780719063589
- Publish Date 28 October 2004 (first published 1 October 2004)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Manchester University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 232
- Language English