his quondam acquaintance,’ but that he added nothing of his own. ‘I protest,’ he writes, ‘it was all Greenes, not mine, nor Maister Nashes, as some uniustly haue affirmed.’ In the ‘Private Epistle to the Printer,’ prefixed to ‘Pierce Pennilesse’ (issued at the close of 1592), Nashe indignantly repudiates all connection with the ‘Groatsworth of Wit.’ There is, indeed, not the slightest ground for suspecting the authenticity of the tract. It narrates the adventures of a young man, Roberto, who, deserting his wife, makes the acquaintance of some strolling players, becomes ‘famoused for an arch-playmaking poet,’ continually shifts his lodging, and bilks his hostesses; consorts with the most abandoned characters, and ruins his health by sensual indulgence. Towards the end of the tract Greene interrupts Roberto's moralising: ‘Heere, gentlemen, breake I off Roberto's speech, whose life in most part agreeing with mine, found the selfe punishment as I haue done.’ Greene is not to be identified with Roberto in every detail. For instance, Roberto is represented as the son of an ‘old usurer called Gorinius,’ who is described in the most unflattering terms; whereas Greene's father is praised in ‘The Repentance’ for his honest life. Having narrated the story of Roberto, Greene takes his farewell of the ‘deceiving world’ in an impressive copy of verses, and adds a string of maxims. He then delivers an address ‘to those gentlemen his quondam acquaintance that spend their wits in making plaies,’ in which, after uttering a solemn warning to Marlowe, ‘Young Juuenall’ (probably Nashe, not Lodge), and Peele, he assailed with invective the ‘vpstart crow,’ Shakespeare. The pamphlet closes with a pathetic ‘letter written to his wife, found with this booke after his death.’ A second posthumous pamphlet, (30) ‘The Repentance of Robert Greene, Maister of Artes. Wherein by himselfe is laid open his loose life with the manner of his death,’ 4to (Bodleian), licensed 6 Oct. 1592, and published in the same year, gives a brief account, seemingly drawn from his own papers, of Greene's dissolute courses. But it was probably ‘edited,’ and the passage in which he thanks God for having put it into his head to write the pamphlets on ‘conny-catching’ has a suspicious look, as though it were introduced in order to advertise those pamphlets. Appended is an account of Greene's last sickness, with a copy, somewhat differing from the version printed by Gabriel Harvey, of the last letter to his wife; also a prayer that he composed shortly before his death. Another posthumous work is (31) ‘Greenes Vision. Written at the instant of his death. Conteyning a penitent passion for the folly of his Pen. Sero sed serio’(1592?), 4to (Brit. Mus.) The publisher, Thomas Newman, in the dedicatory epistle to Nicholas Sanders, declares that every word of this tract is Greene's own. We have Chettle's authority for the fact that Greene left at his death many papers, which, fell into the hands of booksellers. The ‘Vision’ may have been put together from some of these papers; but it certainly was not written in his last illness. It begins by declaring that ‘The Cobler of Canterbury’ (an anonymous tract published in 1590) had been wrongly attributed to Greene, much to his annoyance; yet this ‘Vision’ is to some extent modelled on ‘The Cobler.’ Chaucer and Gower are supposed to appear to Greene in a dream, and to hold a discussion about his writings, Chaucer commending and moral Gower condemning them. In the end Solomon presents himself and counsels the study of divinity.
Greene's dramatic work is not so interesting as his pamphlets. Only five undoubted plays (all posthumously published) have come down, and their chronological order cannot be accurately fixed. (32) ‘The Historie of Orlando Furioso. As it was plaid before the Queenes Maiestie,’ 1594, 4to (2nd edit. 1599; both editions are in Brit. Mus.), founded on an episode in the twenty-third book of Ariosto's poem, is mentioned in Henslowe's ‘Diary’ as having been acted 21 Feb. 1591-2 by Lord Strange's men; but the date of its original production is unknown. It is a poor play, with a very corrupt text. In Dulwich College is preserved a transcript made for Edward Alleyn of a portion of Orlando's part it differs considerably from the printed text. (33) ‘A Looking Glass for London and England. Made by Thomas Lodge, gentleman, and Robert Greene. In Artibus Magister,’ 1594, 4to (Brit. Mus.), reprinted in 1598, 1602, and 1617, is mentioned in Henslowe's Diary under date March 1591-2. This is a didactic play on the subject of Jonah and the Ninevites, with comical matter intermixed. Mr. F. Locker-Lampson has an undated edition containing some early manuscript annotations. When Lodge left England with Cavendish (in August 1591) he handed the manuscript of his ‘Euphues Shadow’ to Greene, who issued it in 1592 with a dedicatory epistle to Lord Fitzwater, and an address to the gentlemen readers. (34) ‘The Honorable Historic of frier Bacon and frier Bongay. As it was plaid by her Maiesties seruants,’ 1594, 4to (Devonshire House), reprinted in 1599, 1630, 1655, was founded on the prose tract (of which no early edition is known), ‘The Famous History of Friar
