Greene, ROBERT,

Greene, ROBERT, an English poet and dramatist, was born at Norwich about 1560. He was placed at St John's College, Cambridge, and took his degree of A.B. there in 1578. He afterwards travelled in Spain and Italy. On his return he re-entered the university, and took his degree of A.M. at Clare Hall in 1583. He was incorporated at Oxford in 1588. On leaving Cambridge he proceeded to London, where he supported himself by writing plays and romances. He led a very irregular life, but his literary activity was ceaseless. 'Glad was that printer,' says Nashe, 'that might be so blest to pay him deare for the very dregs of his wit.' His romances, many of which are written in Lyly's manner, are frequently tedious and insipid; but they abound in beautiful poetry. One of them, Pandosto: The Triumph of Time, supplied Shakespeare with hints for the plot of The Winter's Tale. The most popular of his plays was Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, which has an interesting story, and (in spite of occasional lapses into bombast) is attractively written. As Greene helped to lay the foundations of the English drama, even his worst plays are valuable in the eyes of students; but his literary fame rests on the poetry which he scattered through his romances—some of his pastoral songs being unsurpassed for tenderness and natural grace. Though his life may have been dissolute, his works are singularly free from grossness. He died of the consequences of a debauch, 3d September 1592, and was buried next day in the New Churchyard, near Bedlam. On his death-bed he sent a most pathetic letter to his wife, whom he had deserted. After his death appeared the singular pamphlet entitled The Repentance of Robert Greene, Master of Arts, in which he lays bare the wickedness of his former life. His Groat's Worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance contains one of the few authentic contemporary allusions to Shakespeare. Chattle, in Kind-Harts Dreame, describes him as 'of face amible, of body well-proportioned, his attire after the habite of a scholler-like gentleman, onely his haire was somewhat long.' Greene's plays and poems were edited by Alexander Dyce; his complete works (15 vols.), with a biography from the Russian of Storojenko, are included in the Huth Library of Dr Grosart, who also edited a selection, Green Pastures (1894).