Richard Brome was born around 1590, but nothing is known of his origins. He was a manservant to Ben Jonson, and is mentioned in this capacity in the Induction to Jonson's Bartholomew Fair (1614). Almost nothing else is known of Brome's early career, until his name appears in a list of personnel of the Queen of Bohemia's players in 1628.

In 1629 Jonson's play The New Inn was performed on the stage, where it failed. At the same time, a play by Richard Brome, the now-lost The Love-Sick Maid, or the Honour of Young Ladies, achieved great critical and commercial success. Brome followed The Love-Sick Maid with The Northern Lass, a sentimental city comedy, in which the eponymous central character is

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First published 17 September 2002

Citation: Steggle, Matthew. "Richard Brome". The Literary Encyclopedia. 17 September 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5193, accessed 9 February 2010.]