Robert Greene (1558-1592) was a popular English pamphleteer and dramatist. He was baptized in Norwich on July 11th, 1558. Greene matriculated as a sizar at St. John’s, Cambridge where he received his BA. Later, he received his MA at Clare College, Cambridge. Upon graduation, Greene married and embarked on his literary career; he soon abandoned his wife and newborn child. He is known as one of the “University Wits,” a group that includes George Peele, Thomas Nashe, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, John Lyly, and Thomas Lodge. Greene is best known now for a pamphlet he may or may not have had a hand in, Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit in which the author implies that Shakespeare is an “upstart crow.” He died on September 3rd from (according to Gabriel Harvey) a surfeit of pickled herrings and Rhenish wine. He would have died in the streets if it wasn’t for the care of a Dowgate shoemaker.

Greene, Robert