Robert Greene
born July 1558?, Norwich, Eng.
died Sept. 3, 1592, London
one of the most popular English prose writers of
the later 16th century and Shakespeare’s most
successful predecessor in blank-verse romantic
comedy. He was also one of the first
professional writers and among the earliest
English autobiographers.
Greene obtained degrees at both Cambridge and
Oxford. He then went to London, where he became
an intimate of its underworld. He wrote more
than 35 works between 1580 and 1592. To be
certain of supplying material attractive to the
public, Greene at first slavishly followed
literary fashions. His first model was John
Lyly’s Euphues.
In the later 1580s Greene wrote prose
pastorals in the manner of Sir Philip Sidney’s
Arcadia, interspersed with charming, often
irrelevant lyrics that have given Greene a
reputation as a poet. The best of his pastorals
is Pandosto (1588), the direct source of
Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
About 1590 Greene began to compose serious
didactic works. Beginning with Greenes never too
late (1590), he related prodigal son stories.
That Greene drew on his own experience is
evident from the tract Greenes groats-worth of
witte, bought with a million of repentance,
printed posthumously in 1592 with Greene’s
admission that Roberto’s experiences were
essentially his own. In Groats-worth appears the
first printed reference to Shakespeare, assailed
as “an upstart Crow, beautified with our
feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a
Players hide, supposes he is as well able to
bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you .
. . in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in
a countrie.” (The words in italics are from
Shakespeare’s I Henry VI.) Greene is thought to
be criticizing Shakespeare the actor.
Greene’s writings for the theatre present
numerous problems; the dating of his plays is
conjectural, and his role as collaborator has
produced much inconclusive discussion. With The
Honorable Historie of frier Bacon, and frier
Bongay (written c. 1591, published 1594), the
first successful romantic comedy in English,
Greene realized his comic talent in drama. In
The Scottish Historie of James the fourth,
slaine at Flodden (written c. 1590, published
1598) he used an Italian tale but drew on fairy
lore for the characters of Oberon and Bohan. It
was a forerunner of As You Like It and A
Midsummer Night’s Dream. As Marlowe anticipated
the tragedies of Shakespeare, so, in a lesser
way, Greene furnished him a model in dramatic
comedy and romance.
In his last year Greene wrote exposés of the
Elizabethan underworld, such as A Notable
Discovery of Coosnage (1591) and the successful
and amusing A disputation betweene a hee
conny-catcher and a shee conny-catcher (1592).
