tion as to the
ways of the time. _Philomela_ returns once more to euphuism, but Greene is
soon back again with _A Quip for an Upstart Courtier_, a piece of social
satire, flying rather higher than his previous attempts. The zigzag is kept
up in _Orpharion_, the last printed (at least in the only edition now
known) of the author's works during his lifetime. Not till after his death
did the best known and most personal of all his works appear, the famous
_Groat's Worth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance_, in which the
"Shakescene" passage and the exhortation to his friends to repentance
occur. Two more tracts in something the same style--_Greene's Repentance_
and _Greene's Vision_--followed. Their genuineness has been questioned, but
seems to be fairly certain.

This full list--to which must be added the already mentioned _Pandosto, the
Triumph of Time_, or _Dorastus and Fawnia_, and the translated _Debate
between Folly and Love_--of a certainly not scanty life-work (Greene died
when he was quite a young man, and wrote plays besides) has been given,
because it is not only the earliest, but perhaps the most characteristic of
the whole. Despite the apparently unsuitable forms, it is evident that the
writer is striving, without knowing it, at what we call journalism. But
fashion and the absence of models cramp and distort his work. Its main
features are to be found in the personal and satirical pieces, in the vivid
and direct humanity of some touches in the euphuist tract-romances, in the
delightful snatches of verse which intersperse and relieve the
heterogeneous erudition, the clumsy dialogue, and the rococo style. The two
following extracts give, the first a specimen of Greene's ornate and
Euphuist style from _Orpharion_, the second a passage from his
autobiographical or semi-autobiographical confessions in the _Groat's
Worth_:--

"I am Lydia that renowned Princess, whose never matched beauty
seemed like the gorgeous pomp of Phoebus, too bright for the day:
rung so strongly out of the trump of Fame as it filled every ear
with wonder: Daughter to Astolpho, the King of Lydia: who thought
himself not so fortunate for his diadem, sith other kings could
boast of crowns, nor for his great possessions, although endued
with large territories, as happy that he had a daughter whose
excellency in favour stained Venus, whose austere chastity set
Diana to silence with a blush. Know