Richard Brome

Scholars have interpreted the allusions to mean that Brome may have begun as a menial servant but later became a sort of secretary and general assistant to the older playwright.

In need of money, Brome resorted to Christopher Beeston, actor, impresario, and owner of the Cockpit Theatre (also known as the Phoenix) as well as the Red Bull.

When the plague diminished enough for performances to resume in October 1637, the re-organized Queen Henrietta's Men commenced the new season at the Salisbury Court with, it is thought, Brome's The English Moor.

He may have authored an entertainment, Juno in Arcadia, which John P. Cutts has argued was performed for Queen Henrietta Maria's arrival at Oxford in 1643.

Judging by the overall productivity of dramatists in English Renaissance drama, this appears to have been the pragmatic long-term maximum for a playwright who worked primarily as a solo artist (which in turn illustrates the impracticality of Brome's attempt to produce three plays a year).

The 1653 edition, published by Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring, contains A Mad Couple Well-Match'd, The Novella, The Court Beggar, The City Wit, and The Demoiselle.

The 1659 volume, published by Andrew Crooke and Henry Brome (again, no relation), contains The English Moor, The Lovesick Court, The Weeding of Covent Garden, The New Academy, and The Queen and Concubine.

[f] The 1653 edition also featured a portrait with a poem by Alexander Brome written in imitation of Jonson's poem on Shakespeare's First Folio portrait: When the theaters reopened during the Restoration, a handful of Brome's plays were performed and republished; the most successful was A Jovial Crew, which was acted widely and printed in 1661, 1684, and 1708.

One example: The Debauchee by Aphra Behn (printed 1677) is a rewrite of Brome's A Mad Couple Well-Match'd, down to the characters' names.