assertion that "to his contemporaries he must have seemed deficient in
originality, as least as compared with Lilly or Marlowe." "Henry VI."
was not "collaborative." Marlowe did not develop the type of chronicle
history into his "almost masterly Edward II."

But Professor Wendell further asserts that "Greene and Peele were the
chief makers of such plays" before Marlowe, and the implication is that
Shakspere, in his historical plays, "followed the superficial fashion"
set by them.

Of Greene's dramas, only two purport to have been his work,--"Friar
Bacon and Friar Bungay" and "The Scottish History of James the Fourth."
"Orlando Furioso," generally assigned to him, has no name on its title
page; "Alphonsus, King of Aragon," is probably his, as it bears the
initials "R. G."; "The Looking Glass for London and England" bears the
joint names of Lodge and Greene; "The pleasant conceyted comedy of
George-a-Green, the Pinner of Wakefield," sometimes assigned to him, is
of doubtful authorship.

"Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay" is characterized by Knight as "the old
story of the Brazen Head. There is here, unquestionably, more facility
in the versification, much less of what we may distinguish by the name
of fustian, and some approach to simplicity and even playfulness. But
whenever Greene gets hold of a king, he invariably makes him talk in the
right royal style which we have already seen; and our Henry III. does
not condescend to discourse in a bit more simple English than the Soldan
of Egypt or the King of Nineveh."

This play was first printed in 1594.

The old popular tradition of Friar Bacon and his magic arts is
interwoven with the loves of Prince Edward and Earl Lacy. Legend and
love story have nothing in common, and their connection is merely
accidental. The Friar's design fails through the stupidity of his
servant, but no explanation is given of the folly of entrusting such
weighty matters to a fool. The love story turns upon the retirement from
the amorous contest in favor of Lacy, but no reason is assigned for the
resulting trials of the successful party. There is no glimpse of history
or of historical chronicle in the piece. Of one thing we may be certain:
With all his wonderful power, Shakspere was incapable of imitating "The
honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay."

"James the Fourth" appeared in print in 1598 under the title "The
Scottish Historie of James the Fourth, slaine at Flodden, intermisted