Greene, Robert 1558-92
English dramatist

Born in Norwich, Norfolk, and educated at Cambridge, he wrote plays and romances. The latter are often tedious and insipid, but they abound in beautiful poetry. One of them, Pandosto (1588), supplied Shakespeare with hints for the plot of The Winter's Tale. The most popular of his plays was Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (c.1591). As Greene helped to lay the foundations of the English drama, even his worst plays are valuable historically. After his death appeared the pamphlet entitled The Repentance of Robert Greene, Master of Arts, in which he lays bare the wickedness of his former life. His Groatsworth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance (1592) contains one of the few authentic contemporary allusions to Shakespeare.

Bibliography: W H Chapman, William Shakespeare and Robert Greene: The Evidence (1912)