Greene, Robert (1558?-1592), was an English writer. He was one of the most colorful and important members of a group of university-trained writers called the University Wits. The Wits, attempting to make their living by popular literature, made major contributions to the development of Elizabethan drama, fiction, poetry, satire, and journalism.
Greene’s first publications were prose romances. Perhaps the best are Pandosto (1588), which became a source for William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (about 1611) and Menaphon (1589). Greene’s best-known play is Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (about 1589), a comedy that skillfully blends themes of love, magic, and extreme patriotism.
Greene was born in Norwich and received degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. He deserted his wife and child and led a dissolute life in London. His most vivid journalism exploits his own immoral life and observes the London of his day. The best-known example is the pamphlet Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance (1592). It contains a famous attack on Shakespeare (see Shakespeare, William (Early career in London)). Greene died on Sept. 3, 1592.
