Prose Narrative: II. Greene and His Followers

In the twentieth century Robert Greene 1 (1560-1592) could hardly haveescaped becoming a journalist. He had in remarkable degree the “nose fornews,” the untiring pen, the ability to give the public just what the publicwanted. He was the literary chameleon of his age, imitating, often superficially but usually with a certain added charm, anything that his contemporaries had successfully created. There is no more typical Elizabethan thanGreene, brought up as he was at Norwich rather poorly and rather puritanically, educated at Cambridge rather broadly than deeply, seasoned by Italiantravel, and experienced, on the one hand, in all the squalors of lowest Londonand, on the other (as his dedications show), in all the arts of social blandishment. These things, plus endless energy and a personal attractiveness thatstill reflects itself in what he wrote, made him a man of the first note, thoughas an author he seldom rose above the second rank.