Robert Greene, BA, MA, (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. A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B., from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences. ... The degree of Master of Arts degree is an undergraduate degree awarded by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge as well as by the University of Dublin. ... Events January 7 - French troops led by Francis, Duke of Guise take Calais, the last continental possession of England July 13 - Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul des Thermes at Gravelines. ... September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years). ... Events January 30 - The death of Pope Innocent IX during the previous year had left the Papal throne vacant. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population –mid-2004... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... A poet is some one who writes poetry. ... A pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets in order to get people to vote for their favourite politician or to articulate a particular political ideology. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Norwich (pronounced variously Norritch, Norridge) is a city in East Anglia, in Eastern England, and the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. ... The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Events March 1 - Michel de Montaigne signs the preface to his most significant work, Essays. ... 1583 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ...

Life

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 ^{[citation needed]}. Greene was one of the first Jewish 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 testify 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. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Greene's contemporary Gabriel Harvey claimed Greene died after a dinner wherein he overindulged in pickled herring and wine. Gabriel Harvey (c. ... A very popular Scandinavian food item, pickled herring has been around for a long time. ... Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of fruit, typically grapes though a number of other fruits are also quite popular - such as plum, elderberry and blackcurrant. ...

Writing

Greene's numerous "Coney-Catching" pamphlets are full of colorful inside stories of rakes and rascals duping solid citizens out of their hard-earned cash. These stories are always told from the perspective of a repentant former rascal, but few of Greene's contemporaries would have believed this repentance was more than an expedient fiction. Coney This page is a disambiguation for the word coney. ... The Tavern Scene from A Rakes Progress by William Hogarth. ...

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 a second part to Friar Bacon, (part of which may survive as John of Bordeaux). Events June - Capture of Zutphen by the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau. ... Ludovico Ariosto (September 8, 1474 – July 6, 1533) was an Italian poet, author of the epic poem Orlando furioso (1516), Orlando Enraged. He was born at Reggio, in Emilia. ... Ruggiero Rescuing Angelica by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Orlando Furioso is an epic poem written by Ludovico Ariosto in 1516. ...

Greene and Shakespeare

He is most familiar to Shakespeare scholars for his pamphlet Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit (full title: Greene's Groats-worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance), which contains the earliest mention of Shakespeare as a member of the London dramatic community. In it, Greene disparages Shakespeare (under the name 'Shake-scene') for being an actor who has the temerity to write plays, and for committing plagiarism. The 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: For other uses, see London (disambiguation). ... Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty; it is a matter of deceit: fooling a reader into believing that certain written material is original when it is not. ... Henry VI Part III is the third of William Shakespeares plays set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England, and prepares the ground for one of his best-known and most controversial plays: the tragedy of King Richard III (Richard III of England). ...

"...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 being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey".

It should be noted that all or part of the Groats-Worth may have in fact been written shortly after Greene's death by one of his fellow writers hoping to capitalize on it with a lurid tale of death-bed repentance. Look up jack of all trades in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Greene's colorful and irresponsible character have led some, for example Stephen Greenblatt, to speculate that Greene may have served as the model for Shakespeare's Falstaff. Stephen Jay Greenblatt (born 1943) is a noted Shakespeare scholar and a literary critic/theorist often seen as the leader of the school known as New Historicism or as Greenblatt likes to put it, cultural poetics. He believes that all works of literature are a products of their times and... Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare primarily as a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. Round and glorious, tradition holds that Shakespeare wrote the part for his second comedian, a fat man, John Heminges, who played a bold...

References

Crupi, Robert. Robert Greene (1986)

Dickenson, Thomas H. "Introduction" from The Complete Plays of Robert Greene (New Mermaid Edition, 1947?)

Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World (2005)

External link

• Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit e-text