Editions by J. M. Manly (1897, Specimens, ii. 327) and A. E. H. Swaen and W. W. Greg (1921, M. S. R.).—Dissertation: W. Creizenach, Zu G.’s J. IV (1885, Anglia, viii. 419).
There is very little to date the play. Its comparative merit perhaps justifies placing it, as Greene’s maturest drama, in 1591. Collins, i. 44, agrees; but Fleay, i. 265; Ward, i. 400; Gayley, 415, prefer 1590. Fleay finds traces of a second hand, whom he believes to be Lodge, but he is not convincing. In l. 2269 the name Adam appears for Oberon in a stage-direction, which, when compared with A Looking-Glass, suggests that the actor was John Adams of the Queen’s.
Lost Play
Warburton’s list of burnt plays (3 Library, ii. 231) contains the duplicate entries ‘Hist of Jobe by Rob. Green’ and ‘The Tragd of Jobe. Good.’ Greg suggests a confusion with Sir Robert Le Grys, who appears in the list as ‘Sr Rob. le Green’.
The statement that Greene had a share in a play on Henry VIII (Variorum, xix. 500) seems to be based on a confusion with a Robert Greene named by Stowe as an authority for his Annales (Collins, i. 69).
Doubtful Plays
Greene’s hand has been sought in Contention of York and Lancaster, Edward III, Fair Em, George a Greene, Troublesome Reign of King John, Knack to Know a Knave, Thracian Wonder, Leire, Locrine, Mucedorus, Selimus, Taming of A Shrew, Thomas Lord Cromwell (cf. ch. xxiv), and Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Henry VI.
FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE (c. 1554–1628).
Greville’s father, Sir Fulke, was a cadet of the Grevilles of Milcote, and held great estates in Warwickshire. The son was born at Beauchamp Court ten years before he entered Shrewsbury School on 17 Oct. 1564 with Philip Sidney, of whom he wrote, c. 1610–12, a Life (ed. Nowell Smith, 1907). In 1568 he went to Jesus College, Cambridge, and from 1577 was a courtier in high favour with Elizabeth, and entrusted with minor diplomatic and administrative tasks. He took part in the great tilt of 15 May 1581 (cf. ch. xxiv) and was a steady patron of learning and letters. His own plays were for the closet. He was knighted in 1597. James granted him Warwick Castle in 1605, but he was no friend of Robert Cecil, and took no great part in affairs until 1614, when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1621 he was created Lord Brooke. On 1 Sept. 1628 he was stabbed to death by his servant Ralph Haywood. D. Lloyd, Statesmen of England (1665), 504, makes him claim to have been ‘master’ to Shakespeare and Jonson.
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