SOURCE: “Brome as a Dramatist,” in Richard Brome: A Study of His Life and Works, Henry Holt and Company, 1913, pp. 46-77.

In the following essay, Andrews surveys Brome's surviving plays, discussing their structure, characters, versification, and moral content. Regarding the playwright's plots, Andrews declares: “In Brome, English drama reached an extreme of intricacy which has never been equaled.”

The period of Brome's activity as a dramatist extends from the end of his apprenticeship with Jonson, which we may call about 1628, to the closing of the theatres in 1642. The records of his work show that he wrote, or had a hand in, twenty-three plays at least, sixteen of which have come down to us.

In order to determine a little better Brome's position in the history of drama, it may be well to place him with respect to his contemporaries. At the time he began to be prominent as...