To this edition are prefixed a prose commendatory letter signed 'R. B.' (probably the initials of Richard Brathwaite), additional verses by Charles Strynings and Valentine Oldys, and a prose letter signed 'T. H.' Among the new poems in this edition are an epistle 'To his friend Thomas Stanley, Esq., on his Odes,' and 'Cromwell's Panegyrick.' A third edition, with a few additional poems and with elegies by Charles Cotton and Richard Newcourt, appeared in 1668, 8vo. Brome was a spirited song-writer, and his bacchanalian lyrics have always the true ring. Phillips, in his 'Theatrum Poetarum,' says that he 'was of so jovial a strain that among the sons of Mirth and Bacchus, to whom his sack-inspired songs have been so often sung to the spritely violin, his name cannot choose but be immortal; and in this respect he may well be styled the English Anacreon.' His satirical pieces are sprightly without being offensively gross. Brome was a contributor to, and editor of, a variorum translation of Horace, published in 1666. He had formed the intention of translating Lucretius, as we learn from an epigram of Sir Aston Cokaine (Poems, p. 204); but he did not carry out his project. Commendatory poems by Brome are prefixed to the first folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's works (1647), and to the second edition of Walton's 'Angler,' 1655. He died on 30 June 1666. An Alexander Brome, who died before 25 Sept. 1666, was a member of the New River Company. There are songs of Brome's in 'Wit's Interpreter,' 'Wit restored,' 'Wit and Drollery,' 'Westminster Drollery,' 'The Rump,' and other collections. The 'Covent Garden Drollery,' 1671, edited by A. B., has been wrongly attributed to Brome.
[Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poetica, iii. 114119; Langbaine's Dramatic Poets -with Oldys's MS. annotations; Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum, 1675.]
BROME, JAMES (d. 1719), author of two books of travels, was ordained rector of Cheriton, Kent, on 9 June 1676, and became vicar of the adjoining parish of Newington in 1677. He was also chaplain to the Cinque Ports. In 1694 there appeared 'Historical Account of Mr. R. Rogers's three years' Travels over England and Wales,' and in 1700 Brome published under his own name 'Travels over England, Scotland, and Wales.' He stated in the preface that it had only lately come to his notice that his own 'Travels' had stolen, in an imperfect and erroneous form, into the world as the travels of Mr. Rogers, and that he had been forced to publish an authentic version in self-defence. A second edition appeared in 1707. Another book of travels by Brome appeared in 1712, under the title 'Travels through Portugal, Spain, and Italy.' He also published in 1693 William Somner's 'Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent,' and he is the author of several single sermons published. He died in 1719.
[Hasted's Kent, iii. 392, 399; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Notes and Queries, 3rd series, iii. 49.]
BROME, RICHARD (d. 1652?), dramatist, is thought to have died in 1652 (when his
last play was published with a dedication from his own hand), and was certainly dead in 1653 (see Alexander Brome 'To the Readers,' Works, i. 2). Nothing, or next to nothing, is known as to the date of his birth. In the prologue to the 'Court Beggar,' acted 1632, he speaks of himself as 'the poet full of age and cares.' His surname, which is punned on by Cokaine ('Weel change our faded Broom to deathless Baies'), and daringly associated by Alexander Brome [q. v.] with Plantagenet (‘’Twas Royall once, but now 'twill be Divine'), furnishes no clue as to his origin. He was no relation either of the dramatist, Alexander Brome who brought out several of his plays ('though not related to thy parts or person'), or of the 'stationer,' Henry Brome, who published others of Richard's dramas. A certain 'St. Br.,' however, is found addressing some verses ' to his ingenious brother, Mr. Richard Brome, upon this witty issue of his brain, "The Northern Lasse."' Probably his birth was as humble as was his condition of life. Alexander Brome, in the lines prefixed by him to the 'Five New Playes' of Richard, which he published in 1669, asserts of him that 'poor he came into th' world and poor went out.' But the surest testimony to his lowliness of origin lies in the fact that in his earlier days he was servant to Ben Jonson,
(See Jonson's lines 'To my faithful servant and (by his continued virtue) my loving friend, the author of this work ['The Northern Lass'], Master Richard Brome, 1632,' beginning—
I had you for a senant once, Dick Brome;
and reprinted in Jonson's 'Underwoods.")
Brome must have been in Jonson's service as early as 1614, for he is mentioned by name as the poet's 'man' in the induction to 'Bartholomew Fair' (acted 31 Oct, 1614). At what time between this and 1682 the relation of master and servant was exchanged for that of mutual friendly attachment is unknown. But this latter bond seems to have remained unbroken till Jonson's death, Gifford has shown that something like an attempt to
