Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Robert Greene

1558–1592

Introduction

No authentic example of Greene's handwriting is currently known. As the frontispiece to the first volume of his edition of Greene (1881) Grosart reproduced a manuscript Latin prayer taken from St Augustine's Meditations and signed Robert Grene, a manuscript which he said was believed to be Greene's holograph. The manuscript was then owned by a private collector in London and is now unlocated. In fact, all circumstances militate against this manuscript's having any connection with Robert Greene the writer and dramatist. Not only is the spelling of the name different (without the medial double e), but there is also the inherent improbability of Greene's making excerpts from St Augustine, besides which the writing may well belong to the early-seventeenth century. In any case, the manuscript might be a transcript of a transcript made by one Robert Grene (and the name is hardly uncommon). Grosart's facsimile is reproduced in A.D. Wraight and Virginia F. Stern, In Search of Christopher Marlowe (London, 1965), p. 185.

Three notable items are recorded in the entries below. The most important is what is probably Edward Alleyn's part in Orlando Furioso (GrR 9). A printed exemplum of A Looking Glasse for London and England (GrR 8) is of some interest since it would seem to be one of the earliest surviving printed plays marked up as a contemporary prompt-book. There also survives a playhouse manuscript copy of a sequel to Greene's Friar Bacon (GrR 7) which can probably be likewise attributed to that author.

In addition there are just a few known extracts from Greene's verse and prose works in seventeenth-century miscellanies (GrR 0.5-6). Extracts from his Pandosto: The Triumph of Time (1588) also appear in John Evans's miscellany Hesperides, or the Muses' Garden (c. 1655-6).

Abbreviations

Grosart
The Life and Complete Works in Prose and Verse of Robert Greene, ed. Alexander B. Grosart, 15 vols, The Huth Library (privately printed, 1881-6; reprinted New York, 1964).

Verse

Song ('Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content')

First published in Greenes Farewell to Folly (London, 1591).

GrR 0.5 c.1600s

Copy, in a secretary hand, headed The songe of mesia.

A folio composite volume of miscellaneous verse, drama and other papers, in English, French and Latin, in various professional hands, 168 leaves, in modern brown leather gilt.

GrR 0.8

Copy of a version beginning Sweet are the thoughts yt harbour full content, on a leaf tipped into a music part-book.

c.1600

The book inscribed by Conyers D'arcy (1570-1653/4), of Hornby Castle, North Yorkshire.

This MS recorded in David Greer, Manuscript Additions in Parthenia and Other Early English Printed Music in America, Music & Letters, 77 (May 1996), 169-82 (p. 177).

Newberry Library, Chicago (Case VM 1579 F23f)

Prose

Arbasto: The Anatomie of Fortune

First published in London, 1584. Grosart, III, 171-253.

GrR 1

Extracts.

A tall folio miscellany of extracts from prose romances, 56 leaves (including blanks), largely written on rectos only, in modern half morocco on cloth boards.

c.1600

Note stating this MS was lent to Sidney Lee (1859-1926), literary scholar, by James Lee.

Ciceronis Amor. Tullies Loue

First published in London, 1589. Grosart, VII, 95-216.

GrR 2

Extracts.

A tall folio miscellany of extracts from prose romances, 56 leaves (including blanks), largely written on rectos only, in modern half morocco on cloth boards.

c.1600

Note stating this MS was lent to Sidney Lee (1859-1926), literary scholar, by James Lee.

Greenes Farewell to Folly

First published in London, 1591. Grosart, IX, 223-348.

GrR 3

Extracts.

A tall folio miscellany of extracts from prose romances, 56 leaves (including blanks), largely written on rectos only, in modern half morocco on cloth boards.

c.1600

Note stating this MS was lent to Sidney Lee (1859-1926), literary scholar, by James Lee.

Greenes Never too late

First published in London, 1590. Grosart, VIII.

GrR 3.5

Extracts.

An octavo commonplace book of verse and prose, in two or more secretary hands, 41 leaves, in a recycled illuminated vellum music document.

Inscribed (ff. 1r, 2r) Samuell Watts.

Early 17th century

Among the papers of the Sanford family. Formerly DD/SF 3970.

Somerset Heritage Centre (DD/SF/10/5/1 ff. 6v, 24r, 27r)
Menaphon

First published in London, 1589. Grosart, VI, 1-146.

GrR 4

Extracts.

A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, in several secretary and italic hands, with later additions, 99 pages, some entries dated 1583-88, in calf.

Late 16th century

Inscribed (p. 1) Will Parkyns and (p. 61) Per Tho Parkins. Item 32 in an unidentified sale cataloue.

Orpharion

First known publication: London, 1599. Grosart, XII, 1-94.

GrR 5

Extracts.

A tall folio miscellany of extracts from prose romances, 56 leaves (including blanks), largely written on rectos only, in modern half morocco on cloth boards.

c.1600

Note stating this MS was lent to Sidney Lee (1859-1926), literary scholar, by James Lee.

Planetomachia

First published in London, 1585. Grosart, V, 1-135.

GrR 6

Extracts.

A tall folio miscellany of extracts from prose romances, 56 leaves (including blanks), largely written on rectos only, in modern half morocco on cloth boards.

c.1600

Note stating this MS was lent to Sidney Lee (1859-1926), literary scholar, by James Lee.

Dramatic works

John of Bordeaux or The Second Part of Friar Bacon

A sequel to Greene's Friar Bacon probably also by Greene. First published in Oxford, 1936, ed. W.L. Renwick, and in W.W. Greg, Malone Society. Greene's authorship supported in Waldo F. McNeir, Robert Greene and John of Bordeaux, PMLA, 64/i (1949), 781-801.

GrR 7

Copy, with insertions in another hand and alterations by at least three more hands associated with the playhouse including the playwright Henry Chettle, untitled.

c.1590-4

Edited from this MS in Renwick and in Greg, the latter with eight pages of facsimile examples. Discussed in Harry R. Hoppe, John of Bordeaux: A Bad Quarto that never reached print, Studies in Honor of A.H.R. Fairchild (Columbia, 1946), 121-32, and, adding evidence for the casting of the play, in Laurie E. Maguire, John Holland and John of Bordeaux, N&Q, 231 (September 1986), 327-33.

A Looking Glasse for London and England

First published London, 1594. Grosart, XIV, 1-113. Edited by W.W. Greg, Malone Society (Oxford, 1932). See also Berta Sturman, A Date and a Printer for A Looking Glasse for London and England, Q4, SB, 21 (1968), 248-53.

GrR 8

An exemplum of the fourth printed edition [1603-7] with numerous MS annotations, recording entrance and exits, music, stage effects, and some deleted and additional text, evidently used as a prompt book by a London theatrical company, imperfect, lacking the original title-page, a small quarto, in modern calf gilt.

Early 17th century

Later owned by Frederick Locker-Lampson (1821-95), poet.

Recorded in Grosart, XIV, 2. Described, with facsimile pages, in Charles Read Baskerville, A Prompt Copy of A Looking Glass for London and England, MP, 30 (1932-3), 29-51.

University of Chicago (PR 2297.L8 160)
Orlando Furioso

First published in London, 1594. Grosart, XIII, 111-98. Edited by W.W. Greg and R.B. McKerrow, Malone Society (Oxford, 1907). For a discussion of the text, see Michael Warren, Greene's Orlando: W.W. Greg Furioso, in Textual Formations and Reformations, ed. Laurie E. Maguire and Thomas L. Berger (Newark & London, 1998), pp. 67-91.

GrR 9

The part of Orlando, in the hand of a playhouse scribe, with additions probably made by the actor Edward Alleyn (1566-1626), probably used for a performance by Lord Strange's company in February 1591/2, imperfect.

This MS collated in Grosart. Edited, with facsimile pages, in Two Elizabethan Stage Abridgements: The Battle of Alcazar and Orlando Furioso, ed. W.W. Greg, Malone Society (Oxford, 1922), and in Greg, Dramatic Documents, I, 176-87, & Vol. II.

A complete facsimile in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977), II, in endpocket. Facsimile examples also in Elizabethan Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers, DLB 62 (Detroit, 1987), pp. 87, 411.

A collection of papers of the actor Edward Alleyn (1566-1626).

Dulwich College (MSS 1 article 138)

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