It should be added that the theory that Greene himself was actor as well as playwright rests on a misinterpretation of a phrase of Harvey's and is inconsistent with the invariable tone of his references to the profession.
Collections
1831. A. Dyce, The Dramatic Works of R. G. 2 vols. 1861, &c. A. Dyce, The Dramatic and Poetical Works of R. G. and George Peele. 1881-6. A. B. Grosart, The Complete Works in Prose and Verse of R. G. 15 vols. (Huth Library). 1905. J. C. Collins, The Plays and Poems of R. G. 2 vols. 1909. T. H. Dickinson, The Plays of R. G. (Mermaid Series). Dissertations: W. Bernhardi, R. G.'s Leben und Schriften (1874); J. M. Brown, An Early Rival of Shakespeare (1877); N. Storojenko, R. G.: His Life and Works (1878, tr. E. A. B. Hodgetts, in Grosart, i); R. Simpson, Account of R. G., his Life and Works, and his Attacks on Shakspere, in School of Sh. (1878), ii; C. H. Herford, G.'s Romances and Shakespeare (1888, N. S. S. Trans. 181); K. Knauth, Ueber die Metrik R. G.'s (1890, Halle diss.); H. Conrad, R. G. als Dramatiker (1894, Jahrbuch, xxix. 210); W. Creizenach, G. über Shakespeare (1898, Wiener Festschrift); G. E. Woodberry, G.'s Place in Comedy, and C. M. Gayley, R. G., His Life and the Order of his Plays (1903, R. E. C. i); K. Ehrke, R. G.'s Dramen (1904); S. L. Wolff, R. G. and the Italian Renaissance (1907, E. S. xxxvii. 321); F. Brie, Lyly und G. (1910, E. S. xlii. 217); J. C. Jordan, R. G. (1915).
Alphonsus. c. 1587
1599. The Comicall Historie of Alphonsus King of Aragon. As it hath bene sundrie times Acted. Made by R. G. Thomas Creede.
There is general agreement that, on grounds of style, this should be the earliest of Greene's extant plays. In IV. 1444 is an allusion to 'mighty Tamberlaine', and the play reads throughout like an attempt to emulate the success of Marlowe's play of 1587 (?). In IV. i Mahomet speaks out of a brazen head. The play may therefore be alluded to in the 'Mahomet's poo [pow]' of Peele's (q.v.) Farewell of April 1589, although Peele may have intended his own lost play of The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek. There is no reference in Alphonsus to the Armada of 1588. On the whole, the winter of 1587 appears the most likely date for it, and if so, it is possibly the play whose ill success is recorded by Greene in the preface to Perimedes (1588). The Admiral's revived a Mahomet on 16 Aug. 1594, inventoried 'owld Mahemetes head' in 1598, and revived the play again in Aug. 1601, buying the book from Alleyn, who might have brought it from Strange's, or bought it from the Queen's (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 167; Henslowe Papers, 116). Collins dates Alphonsus in 1591, on a theory, inconsistent with the biographical indications of the pamphlets, that Greene's play-writing did not begin much before that year. A 'Tragicomoedia von einem Königk in Arragona' played at Dresden in 1626 might be either this play or Mucedorus (Herz, 66, 78).
