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Robert Greene and His “Editors”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Chauncey Sanders
Chauncey Sanders*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
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Extract

Three works attributed to Robert Greene, all published posthumously, have served as the basis for almost all that has been written about the life of that interesting Elizabethan author; portions of these works have been accepted as pure autobiography, and the information contained in such passages has been used to confirm similar details, apparently also autobiographical, in the earlier works. The hazard involved in the use, for purposes of biography, of material contained in the novels of Greene, or of any other writer of fiction, should be obvious to any modern critic; but the earlier scholars were evidently unaware of the danger.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , June 1933 , pp. 392 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1933

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References

1 Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. J. Churton Collins (Oxford, 1905), i, 26, n.

2 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart (London, 1881–86), xii, [191]-196.

3 John Clark Jordan, Robert Greene (New York, 1915), pp. 169–170.

4 Transcript of Stationers' Registers, 1554–1640, ed. Edward Arber (1875–94), ii, 620.

5 See, for example, The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Greene and Peele, ed. Alexander Dyce (London, 1874), p. 4; Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 145–151; and Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 5, 9.

6 Theodore Vetter, “Robert Greene und seine Prose,” in Verhandlungen der Vierundvierzigsten Versammlung Deutscher Philologen und Schulmänner in Dresden (1897), pp. 147–151.

7 Greene, Groats-vvorth of Witte, ed. Bodley Head Quarto (London and New York, 1923), p. [3]; a similar statement occurs in the epistle to the Gentlemen Readers, p. [5].

8 Kind-hartes Dreame, ed. Bodley Head Quarto (London, 1923), pp. 6–7.

9 Stat. Reg., ed. Arber, i, 510; ii, 778–779, 857.

10 This work was entered December 8, 1592 (Stat. Reg., ed. Arber, ii, 623), and was published without date, at the end of 1592 or early in the next year.

11 Kind-hartes Dreame, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. 6–7. The epistle is printed in italics, words here italicized being in roman.

12 Ames, Typographical Antiquities, ed. Herbert (London, 1785–90), ii, 1113, n.

13 Slat. Reg., ed. Arber, i, 561, 580; ii, 853, 856. See also W. W. Greg, “ ‘Bad’ Quartos outside Shakespeare—‘Alcazar’ and ‘Orlando,‘” The Library, 3rd series, x (1919), 197.

14 On the exact date see Samuel A. Tannenbaum, “The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore” (New York, 1927), pp. 53–55, 95.

15 Henslowe's Diary, ed. W. W. Greg (London, 1904–08), ii, 253.

16 The statement of Professor Adams, in his Life of William Shakespeare (Boston and New York, 1923), p. 136: “… at best Greene wrote a crabbed hand, …” illustrates the use that is made of Chettle's statement. Unfortunately there seems to be no extant specimen of Greene's handwriting. See the editorial note prefaced to W. W. Greg's English Literary Autographs, 1550–1650 (Oxford, 1925).

17 See Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 154; and Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 52.

18 Stat. Reg., ed. Arber, ii, 620.

19 I have found among the various forms of provisional entries, only one which resembles the Groatsworth entry. In that one (Stat. Reg., ed. Arber, ii, 428) permission is granted to Richard Jones to print a book “of his own perill,” indicating, it seems, only that the Company was doubtful about the right of Jones to print the work involved. Our entry differs from that one in suggesting, apparently, that the publisher, Wright, wished to make some one else the scapegoat in case of trouble.

20 The sixth is the Defence of Conny-catching, which certainly has some claim to recognition as a work of Greene's despite the apparent objections to that ascription; see Jordan, Robert Greene, pp. 96–107.

21 Works, ed. Grosart, xi [113].

22 The earlier discussions of the relation between the Quippe and The Debate between Pride and Lowliness, by F. T., are briefly referred to by Jordan, Robert Greene, p. 122.

23 See above, p. 392.

24 As a slight indication in support of the second of these alternatives, there is the fact that Greene states definitely that Philomela, which was published in the summer of 1592, was written earlier (Works, ed. Grosart, xi, [113]). If the Groatsworth, the Repentance, and the Vision are what they purport to be, Greene's anxiety to hurry them out, and his vague and contradictory statements concerning the time of their composition, seem strangely unmotivated.

25 Groatsworth, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 37.

26 Ibid., pp. 43–47.

27 Ibid., pp. 45–46.

28 Ibid., p. 51.

29 Foure Letters, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. 19–20.

30 Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 24, n.

31 Foure Letters, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 19. Of course Harvey is merely being insulting in charging that Greene spent his time in a disreputable district; but the theatrical associations of Shoreditch might have attracted Greene and might even have led him to maintain an establishment there.

32 It has always been assumed that Greene's mistress was with him during his final illness; see Harvey, Foure Letters, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 21. Nashe does not deny this. If the Shoreditch record refers to the child of Greene by the sister of Cutting Ball, that child was a boy.

33 An essay toward an analysis of the style of the Groatsworth was made by Miss Florence Trotter in a University of Chicago master's dissertation, Greene's Groatsworth of Wit (Chicago, 1912). There was nothing conclusive in that study, but the results of the tests there applied tend to disprove Greene's authorship of the work. The fact that Greene may have written some parts of the pamphlet without having written it all, and the heterogeneous nature of the second half of the work, make it unlikely that any tests of the style would furnish convincing proofs of authorship

34 See Greene, Works, ed Grosart, viii, 109; xii, 274; Disputation, ed. Bodley Head Quarto (London, 1923), p. 30; Blacke Bookes Messenger, ed. B. H. Q. (London, 1924), pp. [1]–[2].

35 Disputation, loc. cit.; Blacke Bookes Messenger, loc. cit.

36 Greene, Groatsworth, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. [6].

37 Ibid., p. 47.

38 Ibid., p. 51.

39 Since Never too Late, Francescos Fortunes, and the Mourning Garment, and almost certainly, the Vision belong to 1590, while 1591 produced only one novel, the Farewell to Follie (the Maidens Dreame, a poem, and the first two conny-catching pamphlets coming at the very end of that year), the story of Roberto would best fit into 1591. For another reason it seems likely to have followed the two versions of the prodigal son story, Never too Late—with its sequel, Francescos Fortunes—and the Mourning Garment, and to have preceded the Farewell to Follie. According to our hypothesis the story was left unfinished—even if the Groatsworth be genuine, the story of Roberto is unfinished—and this suggests that Greene had exhausted his resources in treating the prodigal son theme in the earlier works; having started another version in the adventures of Roberto, he found that the work palled, and put it aside until inspiration should furnish a satisfactory conclusion.

40 Jordan, in his Robert Greene, pp. 215–219, gives in convenient form a number of early allusions to Greene which testify to his popularity.

41 The letter to the playwrights, for instance, may have been designed by Greene to appear in the Groatsworth as a letter written by Roberto. The self-accusation of atheism might well have been made by Roberto, who was “hardened in wickedness” (Groatsworth, ed. B. H. Q., p. 38); whereas Greene, speaking in his own person, gives no indication that he was an atheist, except in the doubtful Repentance. On the contrary, in a long series of references, he speaks of atheism always with utter abhorrence; and while it may be wise to keep in mind the truth of Gabriel Harvey's remark that some men “that were not greatly religious in conscience, yet were religious in pollicy” (Works, ed. Grosart (London, 1885), i, 292), still we cannot assume that Greene intended to admit his own disbelief rather than Roberto's, in the Groatsworth letter.

42 Ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. [35]–37.

43 In selecting Chettle as the prominent figure in this hypothesis I have been swayed by his admission that there were contemporary ascriptions of the pamphlet to him and to Nashe. Chettle is obviously more likely to have been the guilty one. Nashe is probably one of the playwrights addressed in the famous letter; his style is quite unlike that of the Groatsworth, and we have no evidence, as we have with Chettle, that he could successfully have imitated Greene; and finally, Nashe had a literary reputation of his own in 1592, while Chettle was unknown and, probably, needy.

44 Nashe, Works, ed. McKerrow (London, 1904–10), i, 154.

45 Greene, Blacke Bookes Messenger, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. viii.

46 “Vol. 4 in the Bodley Head Quartos, pages 35–36” [Mr. Harrison's note].

47 There is no evidence, I think, except that in the conny-catching pamphlets themselves (Second Part, ed. B. H. Q., p. 6; Disputation, ed. B. H. Q., pp. 30, 40–41), that the London rogues were at all concerned about Greene or his books; Greene's allusions to their uneasiness are doubtless mere advertisements.

48 Kind-hartes Dreame, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 6.

49 Collins, Plays and Poems of Greene, i, 49.

50 Dramatic and Poetical Works of Greene and Peele, ed. Dyce, p. 2, n.

51 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 155, n.

52 Notes and Queries, 3d Series, i (1862), 322.

53 Hand-book to the Popular, Poetical, and Dramatic Literature of Great Britain (London, 1867), p. 289.

54 Hermann Ulrici, Shakespeares Dramatische Kunst, dritte Auflage (Leipzig, 1868), i, 166, n.

55 F. Bodenstedt, Shakespeares Zeitgenossen (Berlin, 1858–60), iii, 67.

56 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 151–157.

57 Robert Greene, p. 78: “As to the authenticity of this pamphlet there can be no doubt.”

58 Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 50–53.

59 For example, by Collins, Plays and Poems of Greene, i, 52.

60 The pamphlet was entered (S. R., ed. Arber, ii, 603) to Thomas Scarlet, and was printed by Scarlet for Burbie; see the reproduction of the title-page in ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. [3].

61 Kind-hartes Dreame, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. [5].

62 See Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 52.

63 Kind-hartes Dreame, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. [35]–37.

64 Ibid., pp. [5]–7.

65 Collins said (Plays and Poems of Greene, i, 52) that the author of this work “translated into English sapphics the prayer given at the end” of the Repentance; this may be so, but the prayer—if Collins has reference, as I suppose, to that on page 85 of Dr. McKerrow's edition of the work—strikes me as rather conventional and not a close translation of the Repentance prayer.

66 The Second Part of the French Academie, ed. 1594, contains (b4–b4v) an account of Greene; his name is not mentioned, but a quotation from the Repentance makes the allusion clear and indicates that the translator took the work to be genuine.

67 Foure Letters, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 22.

68 Ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 32.

69 See Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 156–157; Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 52.

70 Repentance, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. [19]–26.

71 Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 52.

72 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 153.

73 Storojenko, in Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 155: “But perhaps the strongest evidence in proof of the authenticity of this work is the style and spirit in which it is written—that spirit of unaffected repentance, sincere contrition of heart and self-abasement with which it is impregnated. The reader will no doubt remember that signs of such a state of mind are evinced in other productions of Greene's; but in none in so great a degree as in his ‘Repentance,‘ especially in the first part.”

74 Grosart, in Greene, Works, i, xii: “Only the ghoul-like heart of Dr. Gabriel Harvey could have doubted, much less made mock of the final ‘Repentance’ of Robert Greene, … Sincerity and reality pulsate in every word of those ultimate utterances, and I for one do not envy the man who can read them with dry eyes even at this late day.” See also Jordan, Robert Greene, pp. 78–79.

75 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 153.

76 Ibid., 156.

77 Storo jenko evidently overlooked the following passage: “But I thanke God, that hee put it in my head, to lay open the most horrible coosenages of the common Conny-catchers, Cooseners, and Crosse-biters, which I haue indifferently handled in those my seuerall discourses already imprinted. And my trust is, that those discourses will doe great good, and bee very beneficiali to the Commonwealth of England.” (Repentance, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. 25–26.)

78 Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 52–53.

79 Ibid., 51, n. 3.

80 Collins is frequently inexact in giving titles; this work is properly The Blacke Bookes Messenger.

81 “Cited by Dyce, Account of Greene, p. 2 (one vol. edit.)” [Collins' note].

82 See the reproduction of the title-page in ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. [1]; and the entry to Danter in the Stationers' Register (S. R., ed. Arber, ii, 621).

83 Camb. Hist. of Eng. Lit., iv, 449; see also McKerrow, Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers (London, 1910), pp. 83–84; S. R., ed. Arber, i, 561, 580, ii, 706; Adams, Life of William Shakespeare, p. 516.

84 S. R., ed. Arber, ii, 610, 710.

85 See the reproduction of the title-page of the Thirde Part of Conny-catching, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. [3]; McKerrow, Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers, p. 236. Also S. R., ed. Arber, ii, 127; and above, p. 393.

86 Repentance, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. [3].

87 See above, pp. 394–396.

88 Kind-hartes Dreame, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. [5].

89 Ibid., pp. [5]–7.

90 Ibid., pp. [35]–37.

91 Chettle and Danter, who printed the Repentance, had been partners in business in 1591; see above, p. 394.

92 It is worth noting that Thomas Bowes, whose use of a story from the Repentance is taken as proof of his acceptance of it (see above, p. 405), is not likely to have been much concerned about the authenticity of an anecdote which so well served his purpose.

93 Foure Letters, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. 21–22.

94 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 155.

95 Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 52.

96 Nashe wrote: “For the lowsie circumstances of his poverty before his death, and sending that miserable writte to his wife, it cannot be but that thou lyest, learned Gabrieli.” (Works, ed. McKerrow, i, 287.)

97 Harvey wrote: “I was altogether vnacquainted with the man, & neuer once saluted him by name: …” (Foure Letters, p. 19.)

98 There is what seems to be a strange inconsistency between Harvey's version of Greene's letter and that given in the Repentance (ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 32). Harvey says that the letter was written beneath the bond; the sum involved does not appear in the letter itself. In the other version the bond is a part of the letter.

99 Foure Letters, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. 19–22.

100 Ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. 38, 43–47, 50–51.

101 Works, ed. McKerrow, i, 287.

102 Foure Letters, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 21.

103 Ibid., pp. 21–22.

104 See above, p. 405.

105 Plays and Poems of Greene, i, 52.

106 Ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. [19]–27.

107 B.H.Q., pp. 12–18.

108 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, xii, 202–208.

109 They are distinguished by their dates. The Norwich experience occurred when Greene was “new come from Italy,” presumably before 1580; the affair of Greenes Vision seems to belong to 1590; and the other must be dated in 1592.

110 The account in the Repentance (ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 17) specifically denies that there were two conversions before that of 1592: “… seeing all my life was lead in lewdnes, and I neuer but once felt any remorse of conscience, how can God pardon mee, that repent rather for feare then for loue?” The story of the first conversion differs from the other two in having a definite locale and in making a zealous and learned preacher responsible for the sinner's awakening. Collins pointed out (Plays and Poems of Greene, i, 18) that the preacher in question was doubtless John More, known as the Apostle of Norwich, who died at the beginning of the year in which the Repentance was written (C. H. and T. Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses (Cambridge, 1858–61), ii, 117–118). Thus the story becomes a graceful tribute to a famous preacher, and the teller of it—whether Greene or another—may have had some motive for his praise, of which we are not now aware.

111 Strange Newes, in Works, ed. McKerrow, i, 287: “In a night & a day would he haue yarkt vp a Pamphlet as well as in seauen yeare, …”

112 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 155; Jordan, Robert Greene, pp. 78–79.

113 Plays and Poems of Greene, ed. Collins, i, 53.

114 Gabriel Harvey, Foure Letters, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. [13].

115 Stationers' Register, ed. Arber, ii, 619: “… a booke intituled The Repentance of a Conycatcher with the Life and death of [blank] MOURTON and Ned BROWNE, …”

116 The Blacke Bookes Messenger, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, pp. [1]–[2].

117 Like the Blacke Bookes Messenger, the Repentance is written in the first person.

118 Repentance, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 7.

119 Ibid., p. 14.

120 Ibid., p. 10.

121 Ibid., pp. 11–12.

122 Greene refused to claim intimacy on equal terms with the conny-catchers. Cf. his statement in the epistle prefixed to A Notable Discouery of Coosnage, ed. Bodley Head Quarto (London, 1923), p. [7]: “The odde mad-caps I haue beene mate too, not as a companion, but as a spie to haue an insight into their knaueries, that seeing their traines I might eschew their snares: …” The value of this statement as an indication of Greene's actual relations with these people is, of course, questionable; nevertheless it shows that he would not be likely to proclaim himself a fellow of the “fraternitie” of conny-catchers.

123 See above, p. 406.

124 Repentance, ed. Bodley Head Quarto, p. 14.

125 Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, i, 156.

126 This material is suspiciously like the “rules” which appear toward the end of the Groatsworth (ed. B. H. Q., pp. 41–42).