Robert Greene

The son of a saddler, Robert Greene was born at Norwich; he entered St. John's, Cambridge as a sizar in 1575 (B.A. 1580, M.A. from Clare College 1583) and was incorporated at Oxford in 1588. Leading a dissolute life, Greene traveled in Italy and Spain, abandoned his family; he published plays and romances and was the center of literary controversy. He was attacked by Gabriel Harvey (Greene had ridiculed the use of English hexameters) and defended by Thomas Nashe. His spiteful early criticism of Shakespeare rendered him notorious.

TEXT RECORDS:

1589Dorons Eclogue joyned with Carmelas.
1590The Song of a Countrie Swaine at the Returne of Philador.
1591Prologue to The Comicall Historie of Alphonsus.

PUBLICATIONS:

Mamillia: a mirrour or looking glasse for the ladies of England. 1583.
Arbasto: the anatomie of fortune. 1584.
Gwydonius: the carde of fancie. 1584.
The debate between follie and love. 1584.
Morando: the tritameron of love. 1584, 1587.
The myrrour of modestie. 1584.
Planetomachia. 1585.
Euphues his censure to Philautus. 1587.
Penelopes web. 1587.
Alcida: Greenes metamorphosis. 1588.
Pandosto: the triumph of time. 1592.
Perimedes the blacke-smith. 1588.
Ciceronis amor: Tullies love. 1589.
Menaphon: Camillas alarum to slumbering Euphues. 1589.
The Spanish masquerado. 1589.
Greenes never too late. 1590.
Greenes mourning garment. 1590.
The Royal exchange. 1590.
Greenes farewell to folly. 1591.
A maydens dream; upon the death of Christopher Hatton. 1591.
A notable discovery of coosnage. 1591.
The blacke bookes messenger. 1592.
Philomela: the Lady Fitzwaters nightengale. 1592.
A quip for an upstart courtier. 1592.
Greenes groats-worth of witte. 1592.
The repentence of Robert Greene. 1592.
Mamillia: the second part of the triumph of Paris. 1593.
The historie of Orlando Furioso. 1594.
The honorable historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay. 1594.
The Scottish historie of James the Fourth. 1598.
The comicall historie of Alphonsus King of Aragon. 1599.
Greenes Orpharion. 1599.
A paire of turtle doves; or the tragicall historie of Bellora and Fidelio. 1606.
Works, ed. A. B. Grosart. 15 vols, 1881-86.
The poetry of Robert Greene, ed. Tetsumaro Hayashi. 1977.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

St. John's College Cambridge
Clare College Oxford

poet
dramatist
novelist

Henry Chettle
Dr. Thomas Lodge
Christopher Marlowe
Thomas Nashe
George Peele
Thomas Watson

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

Bodenham, Bel-vedere (1600); England's Helicon (1600, 1614); Poetical Rhapsody (1602, 1621); Edward Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum (1675); William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687); Gerard Langbaine, Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691); Charles Gildon, Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1699); Giles Jacob, Poetical Register (1719); Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 1 F 136-37; Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753) 87-91; David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); "Some Account of Robert Greene" Town and Country Magazine 7 (February 1775) 87; Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); George Ellis, Specimens of Early English Poetry (1790; 1801); Samuel Egerton Brydges, Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum (1800); Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 225-26; Poetical Register for 1801 (1802); William Beloe, Anecdotes of Literature 1 (1807) 294-95, 2 (1807) 168-96, 6 (1812) 1-20; "Robert Greene" The Polyanthus [Boston] 4 (March 1807) 238-40; Censura Literaria 7 (1808) 126-30, 265-72, 8 (1808) 7-17, 133-40, 380-391, 9 (1809) 108; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Samuel Egerton Brydges, introduction in Greene, Groatsworth of Wit (1813); Joseph Haslewood, British Bibliographer 4 (1814) 159-68, 338-39, 379-82; Retrospective Review 3 (1821) 97-126; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Alexander Dyce, in Works, 2 vols (1831); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-Poetica 7 (1877) 52-100; Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); J. C. Jordan, Robert Greene (1915); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27); Lewis, OHEL (1954); Saunders, Renaissance Poets (1983); Spenser Encyclopedia, "Greene" (1990) 340; Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Robert Greene:

1.	1589  Thomas Watson, "Ad Lectorem Hexasticon" Greene, Ciceronis Amor, Tullies Love (1589) sig. A3v.
2.	1589  Thomas Burneby, in Greene, Ciceronis Amor, Tullies Love (1589) sig. A4.
3.	1589  Edward Rainsford, in Greene, Ciceronis Amor, Tullies Love (1589) sig. A4.
4.	1589  Thomas Brabine, "In Praise of the Author" Greene, Menaphon (1589) sig. *3v.
5.	1589  Thomas Lodge, "Sonnet" Greene, The Spanish Masquerado (1589) sig. A2v.
6.	1592  Gabriel Harvey, in Foure Letters and Certaine Sonnets (1592) Sig. D2.
7.	1598  Francis Meres, in Palladis Tamia (1598) fol. 286.
8.	1610  Henry Upcher, in Greene's Arcadia (1610); Censura Literaria 7 (1808) 265-66.
9.	1610  David Erskine Baker, in Companion to the Play-House (1764) 2:Sig. P2.
10.	1793  Anonymous, "Knowledge, Learning, and Taste during the Reign of Elisabeth" Universal Magazine 90 (September 1793) 171.
11.	1808  Joseph Haslewood, "List of the Works of Robert Greene" Censura Literaria 8 (1808) 380-91.
12.	1812  Samuel Egerton Brydges, in British Bibliographer 3 (1812) xi.
13.	1815  Philip Bliss, in Athenae Oxonienses (1815) 5: i 246-47.
14.	1817  Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and His Times (1817; 1838) 304.
15.	1821  Anonymous, in Retrospective Review 3 (1821) 101.
16.	1837  Henry Hallam, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (1837-39; 1882) 2:267-68.
17.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 1:415.
18.	1880  Edmund Gosse, in The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880) 1:402-04.
19.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 19.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Robert Greene:

1.	1675  Edward Phillips, in Theatrum Poetarum (1675) 2:161-62.
2.	1687  William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687) 74-77.
3.	1690  Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 1:F 136-37.
4.	1691  Gerard Langbaine, in Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) 241-43.
5.	1719  Giles Jacob, in Poetical Register: or the Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1719) 126-27.
6.	1753  Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 1:87-91.
7.	1802  Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 225-26.
8.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 16:241-44.
9.	1817  Nathan Drake, in Shakespeare and his Times (1817; 1838) 238-43.
10.	1819  Thomas Campbell, in Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1845) 41-42.
11.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:168-69.
12.	1874  William Minto, in Characteristics of English Poets (1874) 311-19.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1592  Dr. Thomas Lodge:   Robert Greene, in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit (1592); Censura Literaria 4 (1807) 43-44.
2.	1592  Christopher Marlowe:   Robert Greene, in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit (1592); Censura Literaria 4 (1807) 43.
3.	1592  George Peele:   Robert Greene, in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1592; Censura Literaria 4 (1807) 44.