fallslikesnow

Robert Greene was baptized in Norwich 1 on July 11, 1558. 2 He died in London, September 3, 1592. Of the life that extended between these dates there is little of actual record. On November 26, 1575, Greene was matriculated as a sizar at St. John's Cambridge. From that college he received his primary degree in 1578. 3 In 1583, July 7, he was at Clare Hall, 4 where he was granted the degree of Master of Arts. Sometime in 1585 or '86 he was married. Oxford conferred a degree in July, 1588; so that he was henceforth the Academiae Utriusque Magister in Artibus of which he was so vain. "Hee inherited more vertues than vices," says Nashe again. "Debt and deadly sinne, who is not subject to? with any notorious crime I never knew him tainted." ... "A good fellowe he was;" considerable of a drinker. "Hee made no account of winning credite by his workes, ... his only care was to have a spel in his purse to conjure up a good cuppe o...

The passage in which " Robert Greene." warns his friends and fellow-poets against the ingratitude of the players runs as follows:— " Yes, trust them not: for there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the only Shake-scene in a countrie ." The allusion to Shakespeare's name is unequivocal, and the words about the tiger's heart point to the outburst, "Oh Tyger's hart wrapt in a serpents hide!" which is found in two places: first in the play called The True Tragedie of RicJtard Duke of Yorke, and the Death of the good King Henrie the Sixt, and then (with "womans" substituted for "serpents"), in the third part of King Henry VI., founded on the True Tragedie, and attributed to Shakespeare. It is preposterous to interp...