434 B R O 
maturely brought on. He went a fecond tune to London ; 
but poetry proved as fatal there as love had been in Ire¬ 
land. The fhtdy of the law appeared drier than ever ; 
lie renewed his intimacy with the belles lettres and their 
profeffors; and he wrote his poem of Univerfal Beauty 
under the eye and criticifni of Mr. Pope, who foretold the 
expanfion of his genius and fame, from a beginning fo 
wonderful in a man fo very young. Soon, however, he 
was obliged to return ; and the number of his children 
now increafing faff, made an augmentation of fortune 
ddireable. He, therefore praStifed as cliamber-counfel, 
v bile circumfhmces obliged him to remain in Ireland. In 
1737, lie went a third time to London, where his company 
was fought with avidity by the firft perfonsand characters 
of tlie age. The amiablelord LyttVeton foon diftinguifhed 
and cherifhed a mind and genius fo fimilar to his ow'd. 
Pope received him with" open arms. Mr. Pitt (the late lord 
Chatham) was particularly fond of him, and introduced 
him to the late prince of Wales, who carciled him with 
uncommon familiarity, and prefented him with many ele¬ 
gant and valuable tokens of Ids friendfhip. Here, fluflied 
with ambition, glowing with emulation, and elevated with 
praife, his genius feared to its zenith, and fnatched all its 
lire from the altar of Apollo, to animate the foremoft pro* 
dilutions of human powers, his tragedy of Gulhmis Vafa. 
After this he took a houfe at Twickenham, near to Mr. 
Pope’s, for the advamage of his intimacy and friendfhip, 
furnilhed it genteelly, Hired fervants, and font for Mrs. 
Brooke, who followed him to London, and was propofed 
by the prince to be nurfe to his prefent majefty, of whom 
theprincefs was at that time pregnant. 
Thus every wifh was gratified, and every profpeCt 
fmiled, in love and in friendfhip, in fortune and in fame ; 
all was flattering, and all was gay. But this bright fky 
was foon and fucldenly overcaft ; he w as feized with a vio-' 
lent and obflinate ague. The phyfician gave him over; 
and he was ordered, as a laft but forlorn hope, to return 
to his native air. He did fo, and recovered; purpofing 
to go back immediately to London, and refume thefociety 
and advantages he had left behind; but unfortunately this 
defign was never put in execution.- 
After publilhing the Farmer’s Letters, he devoted him- 
felf wholly to the mufes. He wrote feveral of his fineft 
tragedies, and formed golden hopes of their fuccefs upon 
the Englifh ftage, from hisintereft with Mr. Garrick; but 
here he was deceived. In 1774, Garrick had preffed him, 
earnefily to write for the flage, and offered to enter into, 
articies with him for a fluffing a line for all lie flvould write, 
during life, provided lie wrote for him alone. This Gar¬ 
rick looked upon as an extraordinary compliment to Mr. 
Brooke’s abilities; but he could not, however, bring him. 
over to his opinion, or prevail with him to accept his 
offer ; on the contrary, he rejected it with fome degree off 
haughtinefs, for which Garrick never forgave him. He 
was then in the full career to fortune and to fame ; and 
would have thought it a difgrace to let- out his talents for 
hire, and tie himfelf down to neceflity.. The Irifh ftage 
however was ftill open; he tried it, and was tolerably fuc- 
cefsful, but not adequately to his hopes and his occafions. 
Ever too fanguine in expectations and projects, generous 
to profulion, arid thoughtlefs of the morrow, his hand was 
as open as his heart was fenlible ; no friend palled by hint 
uncherlfhed, no diffrefs. unrelieved. Hence his circunv- 
ftances became deranged ; which, diffrefs was heightened 
by the' declining hea J th of liis wife. Shortly after file, 
died; and with her all his.happinefs, and the better part 
of his exiltence, fled; for his intellects never, after reco¬ 
vered the (hock of this Reparation, after a union of near 
fifty years, enjoyed with a harmony of affeCtion which 
misfortune. ove in vain to embitter, which'no length of 
time could fat-uue, nor any thing interrupt bin death. The 
agitation of las lirind brought him into a (late of alrnolt 
tot..! ifobecility. The care of the phyficians, indeed, .in 
fome ineafure reftored.him ; hut (Ml die powers of liis 
mind were decayed, and. his genius flalhed only by fits. 
B R O 
This indeed is too evidently perceivable in thofe of his 
works which were finilhed after this period. In the lat¬ 
ter volumes of the Fool of Qjudity, and his fubfequent 
novel of Juliet Grenville, we trace, with a mixture #F re¬ 
gret and awe, the magnificent ruins of genius. Mr. Brooke, 
with many great and ftill more amiable qualities, was not 
without his faults. His feelings never waited the decilion 
of his judgment; he knew not how to mortify, to rertrain, 
or fufpend them for a moment’; like fondled children, they 
were fpoiled by too much indulgence. This unhappy 
foftnefs was the fource of a thoufand misfortunes to him. 
In confequence of it, he was perpetually duped in his 
friendfliips as well as his charities. His abilities were as 
warmly'exerted in the fervice of apparent worth, as his 
purle was open to the femblance of diffrefs ; be was thus 
fometimes reduced to the mortifying lituatiori of appear¬ 
ing the advocate and friend of characters diametrically 
oppoiite to his own. It muff alfo be owned that he was 
too profufe and improvidentbut it was the prodigality- 
of feeling; it was the profit feme fs of a generous, not of an 
oftentatious, mind. He died at Dublin, Oct. 10, 1783. 
BROOK'LIME. See Veronica- 
BROOK'LYN, a towr.-of United America, in the (late, 
of New Yotk. The number of inhabitants in the year 
1790 w as 1603. 
BROOM, f. XJirom, Sax.] A well-known houfehold im¬ 
plement, fometimes called a befom. We fay, a birch-broom 
a hair-broom, a rujh-broom, sheath-broom, &c. The primi¬ 
tive brooms, from whence the denomination is given to 
all the reft, was made of .the genifta, or wild broom grow¬ 
ing on commons. 
BROOM , f. in botany. See Genis-ta, Spartium^, 
and Aspai.athus. 
BROOM (Butcher's),/! in botany. See Ruscus. 
BROOM-FLOWER, gives the denomination to an or¬ 
der of knights inftituted by St. Lewis of France, on occa- 
fion of his marriage. The motto was, Exaltat humiles, and 
the collar of the order made up of broom-flowers and 
hulks, enamelled and intermixed with fleur-de-lys of gold, 
fet in open lozenges, enamelled white, chained together, 
and at it hung a crofs florence of gold. Some alfo fpeak 
of another order of the genejle or broom eftablifhed by 
Charles Martel, afterwards Charles VI. 
BROOM-GALL, a name given to a remarkable fpecies- 
of gall found on t he genijla vulgaris, or common-broom. 
This is occafioned, like all other gaffs, by the punCtnre- 
and eating of an infeCt; and, when opened; is . found to 
contain admail oblong worm, of a red colour, but whole 
fize requires the ufe of a glafs to fee it dillinCtly. 
BROOM-RAPE, f in botany. See Orobanceie. 
BROOM (William), the coadjutor of Pope in trans¬ 
lating the Odylfey, was born in Chelhire, as is faid, of 
very mean parents : he was educated upon the foundation 
at Eton, and was' captain of the fchool a whole year, 
without any vacancy by which he might have obtained a- 
fcholarfliip at King’s college, Cambridge. Being by this, 
delay, Rich as is faid to have happened very rarely, foper- 
annuated, lie was fent to St. John’s college by, the contri¬ 
bution of his friends, where lie obtained a fmall exhibi¬ 
tion. At this college lie lived for fome-time in the fame 
chamber with the well-known Ford, by whom Dr. John- 
fon heard him delcribed as a contracted fcholar, and a 
mere verfifier, unacquainted with life, and n-nlkilful in- 
converfation. His addiction to metre was then fuch, that 
his companions familiarly called him P'oeU When he had 
opportunities of mingiing'with mankind, he cleared him¬ 
felf, as Ford like wife owned, from great part of hisfeho- 
laftic ruft He appeared early in the world as- a tranflator 
of the Iliad into profe, in conjunction v-ith Ozeli and 
Oldifworrh. How iheir feveral par'S wore diftri billed is 
r®t known. This is the thuifh non of which 1 zed heart¬ 
ed as.Riperior, in Toh.nd-’s 07/micn, to that oi Pope : it 
has long lince vanilhed (Dr. Johnfon older ver) and is now 
in no danger from the critics. He was introduced to Mr. 
Pope, who was then viffting Sir John Colton at Muding- 
