Lovesick Courtier

Anon. (if not Richard Brome) (1638)

Historical Records

The Burn transcript of Herbert's Office-Book

Herbert's Office-Book is lost, and survives only in various partial transcripts. In 1996, N. W. Bawcutt published new records deriving from a hitherto overlooked transcript, made by the nineteenth-century scholar Jacob Henry Burn, of some of the material in it. These records include:

Broome, Florentine Frend, allowed 1638 Queen's Company.

Love Sick Courtier, all^d for Salisbury Court, 1638

(Cited from Bawcutt, Control and Censorship, 202)

Theatrical Provenance

Queen Henrietta's Men at Salisbury Court

Probable Genre(s)

Unknown (if not the same as The Love-Sick Court)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

None known (if not the same as The Love-Sick Court)

References to the Play

None known

Critical Commentary

Bawcutt, publishing this record for the first time, suggested that this title was an error for Richard Brome's play The Love-Sick Court, an extant satirical tragicomedy whose exact date and provenance were hitherto unknown. This suggestion has been accepted by Brome scholars including Matthew Steggle (122), and Eleanor Lowe in her 2010 edition of The Love-Sick Court. As far as I know, no-one has yet made in detail the counter-argument that this is indeed a record of a hitherto unknown lost play.

For What It's Worth

The Florentine Friend is discussed here.

Works Cited

Brome, Richard. The Love-Sick Court, ed. Eleanor Lowe. In Richard A. Cave, gen. ed., Richard Brome Online

Steggle, Matthew. Richard Brome: Place and Politics on the Caroline Stage. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2004.

Site created and maintained by Matthew Steggle, Sheffield Hallam University; updated 11 May 2010.