Robert Greene

:This article is about the writer Robert Greene, who lived in the 16th century. There is also an article on the contemprorary writer Robert Greene

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Robert Greene, MA , BA (1558 – September 3, 1592) was an English playwright, poet, pamphleteer, and prose writer. He was born in Norwich, England, and attended Cambridge University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1580, and a Master of Arts in 1583.

Related Topics:
MA - BA - 1558 - September 3 - 1592 - English - Norwich - Cambridge University - 1580 - 1583

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Greene was an older contemporary of William Shakespeare, and some scholars speculate that Shakespeare got his start as a playwright rewriting some of Greene's plays. Greene was one of the first men in England to make a living as a professional writer. The vast array of popular pamphlets, treatises, and miscellaneous prose works that Greene produced tesitfy to his constant need for money to support the dissolute lifestyle that consumed his income, but that also provided a scandalous reputation that helped him to sell his writing. His "Conny-Catching" pamphlets, for example, are full of colorful inside stories of rakes and rascals duping solid citizen out of their hard-earned cash. (These stories are always told from the perspective of a repentant former rascal; however few of Greene's contemporaries would have believed this repentence was more than an expedient fiction).

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Greene's colorful and irresponsible character have led some, for example Stephen Greenblatt, to speculate that Greene may have served as the model for Shaksepeare's Falstaff.

Related Topics:
Stephen Greenblatt - Falstaff

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Greene's plays include The Scottish History of James IV Alphonsus and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (c.1591), as well as Orlando Furioso, based on Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem. He may also had a hand in numerous other plays, and may have written Sejamus as well as a second part to Friar Bacon, (only part of which survives as John of Bordeaux.)

Related Topics:
1591 - Ludovico Ariosto

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He is most familiar to Shakespeare scholars for his work Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, which contains the earliest mention of Shakespeare as a member of the London dramatical community in the form of an accusation that he not only was an untrustworthy actor, but apparently that he committed plagiarism. This passage quotes a line from Shakespeare's play Henry VI, part 3, but scholars are not agreed on exactly what is meant by this cryptic allusion:

Related Topics:
London - Plagiarism - Henry VI, part 3

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"for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey"

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It should be noted however that part or all of the Groats-Worth (Full title: "Greene's Groats-worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance") may have been forged by Greene's contemporaries, seeking to capitalize on Greene's death with this lurid tale of death-bed repentance.

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Greene's contemporary Gabriel Harvey claimed he died after a dinner wherein he overindulged in pickled herring and too much wine.

Related Topics:
Gabriel Harvey - Wine

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