Edward Roome (died 1729) was an English lawyer, known as one of the writers of the comic opera ''The Jovial Crew''. Roome was the son of an undertaker for funerals in

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

in London, and was brought up to the law. In October 1728 Roome succeeded Philip Horneck as Solicitor to the Treasury. He died on 10 December 1729.

Roome and Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...

refers to him in '' The Dunciad''. A commentator remarked that Roome wrote "some of the papers called Pasquin, where by malicious innuendos he endeavoured to represent opeguilty of malevolent practices with a great man (

Francis Atterbury Francis Atterbury (6 March 1663 – 22 February 1732) was an English man of letters, politician and bishop. A High Church Tory and Jacobite, he gained patronage under Queen Anne, but was mistrusted by the Hanoverian Whig ministries, and ban ...

), then under prosecution of parliament"; Pope retaliated in ''The Dunciad'' by associating "Roome's funereal frown" with the "tremendous brow" of William Popple and the "fierce eye" of Philip Horneck. (''The Dunciad'', iii. 152). Pope states that the following epigram was made upon Roome: You ask why Roome diverts you with his jokes, Yet, if he writes, is dull as other folks? You wonder at it. This, Sir, is the case: The jest is lost unless he prints his face!

''The Jovial Crew''

Fourteen months after his death, ''The Jovial Crew'', a comic opera, adapted from

Richard Brome Richard Brome ; (c. 1590? – 24 September 1652) was an English dramatist of the Caroline era. Life Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's '' Bartholomew Fair'', in ...

's play '' A Jovial Crew'', was produced at

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...

(8 February 1731); the dialogue was curtailed, some parts omitted, and some songs added (fifty-three in all), the work conjointly of Roome, Matthew Concanen and Sir William Yonge. The opera, thus enlivened, had much success, and was frequently revived.

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roome, Edward 1729 deaths 18th-century English lawyers English opera librettists