Brodrick and the survivors of his ship's company were taken by the Glasgow frigate to Gibraltar, where he hoisted his flag in the St. George. In the following February he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and was shortly afterwards superseded by Admiral Boscawen, under whom he commanded during the blockade of Toulon, and in the action of 18-19 Aug., culminating in the burning or capture of the French ships in Lagos Bay [see Boscawen, Edward]. When Boscawen returned to England, Brodrick blockaded the French ships at Cadiz so closely, that even the friendly Spaniards could not resist making them the subject of insolent ridicule. They are said to have stuck up a notice in some such terms as 'For sale, eight French men-of-war. For particulars apply to Vice-admiral Brodrick.' The French ships did not stir out till the passage was cleared for them by a gale of wind, which compelled the blockading squadron to put into Gibraltar. Brodrick then returned to England. He had no further employment, and died 1 Jan. 1769 of cancer in the face.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. v. 69; Beatson's Naval and Mil. Mem. (under date); official documents in the Public Record Office.]
BROGHILL, Baron. [See Boyle, Roger.]
BROGRAVE, Sir JOHN (d. 1613), lawyer, was the son of Richard Brograve by his wife, daughter of —— Sares. He was probably educated at Cambridge. In 1576 he was autumn reader at Gray's Inn. He was elected one of the treasurers of that society in February 1579-80, and again in February 1583-4. In 1580 he was appointed her majesty's attorney for the duchy of Lancaster, and he continued to hold that office under King James I, who conferred upon him the honour of knighthood. He was nominated one of the counsel to the university of Cambridge in 1581. He resided at Braughing in Hertfordshire, of which county he was custos rotulorum for thirty years. [He was M.P. for Preston 1586, 1597, and 1601, and for Boroughbridge 1592.] He died on 11 Sept. 1613, and was buried at Braughing. By his marriage with Margaret, daughter of Simeon Steward of Lakenheath, Suffolk (she died 5 July, 1593), he had issue three sons and two daughters.
He is the author of 'The Reading of Mr. John Brograve of Grayes Inne, made in Summer 1576, upon part of the Statute of 27 H. 8. C. 10, of Vses, concerning Jointures, beginning at the twelfth Branch thereof.' Printed in 'Three Learned Readings made upon three very usefull Statutes, by Sir James Dyer, Brograve and Tristram Risdon,' London, 1648, 4to. (Cf. MS. Harl. 829, art. 3.)
[Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, iii. 154, 157-159; Chauncy's Hertfordshire, 226-8; Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. (1680), 294, 298, 307; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, ii. 610; Baga de Secretis, pouch 48; Addit. MS. 5821, f. 271; Lansd. MS. 92, art. 52, 1119; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 609, iii. 174; Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies (1841), 84.]
BROKE. [See also Brook and Brooke.]
BROKE or BROOKE, ARTHUR (d. 1563), translator, was the author of 'The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Iulieit written first in Italian by Bandell, and nowe in English by Ar. Br. In ædibus Richard Tottelli.' The colophon runs: 'Imprinted at London in Flete Strete within Temble barre at the signe of the hand and starre of Richard Tottill, the XIX. day of Nouember An. do. 1562.' The book was entered in the Stationers' Register late in 1562 as 'The Tragicall History of the Romeus and Juliett with sonettes.' The volume is mainly of interest as the source whence Shakespeare drew the plot of his tragedy of 'Romeo and Juliet.' It is written throughout in rhymed verse of alternate lines of twelve and fourteen syllables. Broke did not (as the title-page states) translate directly from the Italian of Bandello, but from the 'Histoires Tragiques extraictes des Œuvres de Bandel' (Paris, 1559), by Pierre Boaistuau surnamed Launay and François de Belle-Forest. Broke does not adhere very closely to his French original: he developes the character of the Nurse and alters the concluding scene in many important points, in all of which he is followed by Shakespeare. In the address to the reader Broke shows himself a staunch protestant, and deplores the introduction into the story of 'dronken gossyppes and superstitious friers (the naturally fitte instrumentes of unchastitie).' He also notices that the tale had already been acted on the stage with great applause. The popularity of Broke's undertaking is proved not only by Shakespeare's literal adoption of its story, but by two imitations of it, issued almost immediately after its first publication (Bernard Garter's 'Tragical History of two English Lovers,' 1565, and William Painter's 'Romeus and Giuletta' in the 'Palace of Pleasure,' 1566).
Only three copies of the first edition of Broke's translation are now known to be extant: one in the Malone collection at the Bodleian, a second in Mr. Huth's library, and the third—an imperfect copy—among Capell's books at Trinity College, Cambridge.
