is turn to
visit "Circe." "Being at the University of Cambridge, I light amongst
wags as lewd as my selfe, with whome I consumed the flower of my youth,
who drew me to travell into Italy and Spaine, in which places I saw and
practizde such villainie as is abhominable to declare...." He comes
back, and after the pleasures and excitement of travel, ordinary
every-day life seems to him tasteless; the mere idea of a regular career
of any sort is abhorrent to him. "At my return into England, I ruffeled
out in my silks, in the habit of _Malcontent_, and seemed so discontent
that no place would please me to abide in, nor no vocation cause mee to
stay myselfe in."[111]

In this uncertainty, and with his head full of Italian remembrances and
romantic adventures, he thought, being not yet twenty, to try his hand
at writing. His first attempt was a novel, a love story in the Italian
fashion, in which very much loving was to do for very little probability
and less observation of character and nature. It was called "Mamillia";
it was finished in 1580, and published three years later.

Greene at that time was again in Cambridge, and strange to say, among
the many whims that crossed his mind, a fancy took him to apply himself
to study. Gifted as he was, this caused him no trouble; he acquired much
varied knowledge, of which his writings show sufficient proof, and was
received M.A. in 1583.[112] He then left the university and went to
London, where the most curious part of his life, that was to last only
nine years longer, began.

The reception awarded to "Mamillia" seems to have encouraged him to
continue writing. It had, in fact, crude as it seems to us now, many
qualities that would ensure it a welcome: its style was euphuistic; its
tone was Italian; its plot was intricate, and, lastly, there was very
much love in it. He continued therefore in this vein, writing with
extreme facility and rapidity improbable love stories, with wars, kings,
and princesses, with euphuism and mythology, with Danish, Greek,
Egyptian and Bohemian adventures. There was a "Myrrour of Modesty" which
has for its heroine the chaste Susannah, a "Gwydonius, the card of
fancie," again a tale in the Italian style, an "Arbasto" which tells of
the wars and loves of a Danish king, a "Morando," containing a series of
discussions and speeches on love, all of them entered or published in
1584-6. Then came his "Planetomachia," 1585, where the several planets
describe