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Xerox University Microfilms 77-2513 SHETLAND, Dudley Bourne, 1945- RICHARD BROME AS A DRAMATIC CRAFTSMAN. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1976 Theater Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 4^ 0 1976 DUDLEY BOURNE SWETLAND ALL RIGHTS RESERVED RICHARD BROME AS A DRAMATIC CRAFTSMAN DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University Dudley B. Swetland ***** The Ohio State University 1976 Reading Committee: Approved by Roy H. Bowen John A. Walker Charles C. Ritter Ad^i^er Department of Theatre ACÎÎNOV.'LEDGH'IENTS The author wishes to recognize the support and assistance of the following people in helping to compile information for this study of the plays of Richard Brome: Professor Donald R. Glancy who was instrumeital in initially dir­ ecting the author to the plays of Richard Brome. Professor Roy H. Bowen whose advice and careful attention to scholarly detail was instrumental in the organization of this study. Professor John A. Walker for his assistance and constructive comments which were invaluable in completing this study. I would also like to express my appreciation to all those, faculty and staff alike, whose support has made this study possible. It is hoped that this discussion of Brome as a dramatic craftsman will be an aid to future scholars interested in researching the works of lesser known playwrights of the period. May 10, 1945......... Boxn, Portland, Maine 1968................ B.F.A., Kent State University Kent, Ohio 1970.............. M.A., Kent State University Kent, Ohio 1970-197....... 1 . Administrative Specialist Eepuhlic of VietNam 1971-I97 2.... ....... Administrative Specialist AFEES, Ft. Hamilton, New York FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Theatre Theatre History. Professors Morrow and Woods Dramatic Literatirre. Professors Morrow and Glancy Dramatic Criticism. Professors Morrow and Glancy Acting and Directing. Professors Bowen and Glancy TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOVÆEDGfflENTS........................................ ii VITA................................................... iii INTRODUCTION............................................ 1 Chapter I. BROME'S ROMANTIC COMEDIES....................... 11 The Northern Lasse.......... 11 The Covent Garden Needed. .......... 19 The Novella..................... 26 The Lovesick Coiirt ........ 32 The Queen and the Concubine. ...............' 39 The Damoiselle......... 4? II. BROME'S SOCIOLOGICAL COMEDIES. ................ 55 The City Nit.......... 56 The Sparagus Garden........ 6l The New Academy........ 69 The English Moor........ ?6 The Antipodes. ....................... 84 A Mad Couple Well Match'd...................... 92 A Joviall Crew............. 100 III. BROME'S COURT COMEDIES.......................... 108 The Queen's Exchange................... 109 The Court Beggar.. .... 119 IV. BROME'S TREAMENT OF CHARACTER AS REVEALED THROUGH ACTION AND DIALOGUE............. I30 Lovers............. 132 Normative Types......................... 143 Decadent Aristocracy.............. 150 Nouveau Riche.............. 158 Aspirants to Gentility ......... I6I Sycophants. ......... I65 "Nohle" Nobility............................... I68 Villains...................................... 171 V. CONCLUSION ..................... 177 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................... 191 INTRODUCTION The plays of Richard Brome provide a genuinely humourous look at pre-Restoration London. They also provide an accurate portrait of the playwright and his concern over the rapidly changing politics and economy of his city. And they are practically the only evidence handed down to us that a playwright named Richard Brome ever lived. These plays provide mute testimony to Brome who was horn sometime around 1590 and died either in I652 or early 1653*^ There are fifteen plays in total, though he probably had a hand in the writing of at least twenty-three.^ Also extant is an example of Brome's collaborativ efforts with Thomas Dekker, their play entitled The Late Lancashire Witches based on an actual historical incident.^ We do know that Brome served in some capacity as Ben Jenson's "servant". Jon son, himself, states in his preface to Brome ' s The Northern Lasse; Professor Ralph J. Kaufmann's, Richard Brome : Caroline Playwright (New York: Columbia University Press, I96I) and Margaret Webb's unpublished dissertation, "Richard Brome, Caroline Dramatist : A Study of Brome ^s Development as a Playwright" (University of California, Berkley, 1972). ^Clarence Andrews, Richard Brome : A Study of His Life and Works (in Yale Studies in English, XLVI , New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1913) p. 46. I had you for a Servant once, Dick Drome And you perform'd a Servants faithful parts.^ Ihe length and type of Drome's "servatude" is not known. There appears an entry in Sir Henry Herbert's license book, dated October 2, 1623f identifying Drome's earliest dramatic collaboration. Though the text is lost, the play's title was A Fault in Friendship, written by Richard Drome and "young Jonson". Six years later, in 1629, Drome was to have his first commercial (and artistic) success with The Northern Lasse. The estimates of Drome's length of service to Jonson run from eleven to twenty years. There are however no records to support such estimations. What is known, and readily evidenced in Drome's works, is that he was heavily influenced by Jonson's dra ,iatic techniq^ue. 3n plot construction and treatment of character, Drome's debt to his master is undeniable."^ Drome's contri areas will be treated in depth later. Drome's plays provide us with an interesting, though possibly exaggerated, insight into the London society reflected in his plays. This is not to say that Drome was writing dramatic "newspapers". On the contrary, his plays provide editorial comments highly biased and therefore often amusing, dealing with subjects as diverse as the unfaithful lover and the economy of the typical London citizen. However Drome With the exception of the discussion of The Antipodes, all quotations from Drome's works and the preface to the plays will be taken from The Dramatic Works of Richard Drome Containing Fifteen Comedies Now First Collected in Three Volumes. (London; John Pearson, 1873; reprint edition New York: Ames Press, 1966). England. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 196?). 3 . never used his dramatic skills in a purely didactic manner. In this respect he differed substantially from his mentor, Ben Jonson. Certainly much of the genius of Richard Brome is attributable to his ability to "internalize" the dramatic argument, i.e. make the thematic statement grow out of the dramatic situation. Brome's principal strength as a Caroline dramatist can be traced to his treatment of character. He was influenced by both the commedia dell arte and commedia erudita, ^ principally evidenced by his irascible old men. Like Jonson, Brome portrayed the humor characters (avarice, love­ sick, melancholy) but Brome's treatment of these characters was more dimensionally developed than many of Jonson's through his use of other less motivational character traits. A cursory examination of Brome's characters, especially when referred to by other, characters as possessing "a strange humour" might lead one to view these people solely as humour figures. This however would negate the depth of character portrayed which Brome developed. Chapter IV will deal with a consideration of Brome's development of characters. In order to discuss the plays of Richard Brome, it is necessary to understand the central idea being treated by the playviright in each of his plays.

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