Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit
Encyclopedia
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, who was then starting out on his career as an actor and playwright.
The main body of the text is an account of the visit of two brothers, Roberto and Lucanio, to the courtesan
Courtesan
A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
Lamilia. This is followed by the later career of Roberto as a playwright. The story is interspersed with poems and fables.
The actual authorship of the pamphlet has been disputed. Some authorities consider it to be wholly by Greene himself. Others take the view that it is a heavily revised compilation of material left by him. It has also been attributed to the writer and printer Henry Chettle
Henry Chettle
Henry Chettle was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era.The son of Robert Chettle, a London dyer, he was apprenticed in 1577 and became a member of the Stationer's Company in 1584, traveling to Cambridge on their behalf in 1588. His career as a printer and author is...
, who arranged its publication.
Publication
The pamphlet was first published by William Wright in 1592. It was reprinted by Thomas CreedeThomas Creede
Thomas Creede was a printer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in London, he conducted his business under the sign of the Catherine Wheel in Thames Street from 1593 to 1600, and under the sign of the Eagle and Child in the Old Exchange from 1600 to...
in 1596. The publication caused "a literary scandal" because of its comments about other playwrights. The essay was one of several publications that followed Greene's death, occasioned by fascination with his dissolute lifestyle. Others were The Repentance of Robert Greene and Greene's Vision. All purported to record Greene's dying statements.
Contents
The pamphlet begins with an account of the brothers Roberto and Lucanio Gorinius, whose father is a wealthy usurer. Roberto is a scholar, while Lucanio is being groomed to take over the family business. After their father dies Roberto takes his brother to visit the dazzling courtesan Lamilia, who enchants Lucanio. The characters sing songs, tell fables and comic anecdotes. Roberto attempts to make a deal with Lamilia to share the proceeds if she can fleece the naive Lucanio, but Lamilia tells Luciano about his brother's proposal and kicks Roberto out of the house. Roberto then meets an actor who tells Roberto he can make a living as a playwright.Two years later Roberto is a successful playwright and Lucanio is penniless, having spent all the money he inherited on Lamilia, who has now dumped him. Roberto employs his own brother, but Lucanio leaves and spends the rest of his life as a pimp. Roberto's success does not stop him squandering all his money until he is left dying with only one groat left.
The narrator then states that the life of Roberto is similar to his own life, and exhorts his readers to follow a more honourable path, summed up in ten precepts. He then addresses three unnamed "Gentlemen his Quondam acquaintance, that spend their wits in making Plaies", telling them to reform their ways. One is referred to as a "famous gracer of Tragedians" who has denied the existence of God. The other is a "young Juvenal
Juvenal
The Satires are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD.Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman genre of satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a...
" who co-wrote a comedy with Greene. The third is "no lesse deserving than the other two" but has been driven to "extreme shifts" to survive. All should beware of actors and newcomers, especially "an vpstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Iohannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey."
The pamphlet continues with further exhortations to repentance followed by an allegory about a grasshopper and an ant, the former representing fecklessness, the latter representing thrift. The text ends with a letter to his wife, which is said to have been found after Greene's death. Greene apologises to her for his neglect and exhorts her to look after their son.
Shakespeare reference
The comment about the "upstart crow beautified with our feathers" is commonly taken to refer to Shakespeare, criticised for being an actor who has the temerity to write plays, and for either committing plagiarismPlagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
or excessive pride. The passage quotes a line, "Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde" which appears to allude to Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VI, Part 3 or The Third Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...
, which contains the line "O tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide", but scholars are not agreed on exactly what is meant by the cryptic comments.
Greene evidently complains of an actor who believes he can write as well as university-trained playwrights, alludes to the actor with a quotation from a Shakespearean play, and uses the term "Shake-scene," a unique term never used before or after Greene's screed, to refer to the actor. Most scholars accept that Greene refers to Shakespeare, who would in this period have been an "upstart" as an actor who is writing and contributing to plays such as the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
, which were most likely written and produced (though not published) before Greene's death.
Greene's colourful and irresponsible character have led some, including Stephen Greenblatt
Stephen Greenblatt
Stephen Jay Greenblatt is a literary critic, theorist and scholar.Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term...
, to speculate that Greene may have served as the model for Shakespeare's Falstaff
Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. In the two Henry IV plays, he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight, Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is...
. Greenblatt also suggests that a line from Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
is a dig at Greene's phrase "beautified with our feathers". When Polonius reads a letter by Hamlet addressed to "the most beautified Ophelia", he disparages Hamlet's prose, commenting that "beautified is a vile phrase".
The three other writers
would all be members of a group known as the University Wits
University Wits
The University Wits were a group of late 16th century English playwrights who were educated at the universities and who became playwrights and popular secular writers...
, a coterie of university educated writers associated with Greene. The "famous gracer of Tragedians" is generally taken to refer to Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
who was repeatedly accused of having atheistic views. Greene comments that he is an admirer of Machiavelli, who is several times mentioned in Marlowe's work.
The "young Juvenal" may be Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge was an English dramatist and writer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.-Early life and education:...
, who co-wrote work with Greene, including the comedy A Looking Glass for London
A Looking Glass for London
A Looking Glass for London and England is an Elizabethan era stage play, a collaboration between Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene. Recounting the Biblical story of Jonah and the fall of Nineveh, the play is a noteworthy example of the survival of the Medieval morality play style of drama in the...
. However, Lodge was out of the country at the time and Greene's language implies that all three playwrights know of Greene's illness. Most modern commentators think Greene is referring to Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
, who was later called a young Juvenal by Francis Meres
Francis Meres
Francis Meres was an English churchman and author.He was born at Kirton in the Holland division of Lincolnshire in 1565. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of Oxford...
, perhaps alluding to Greene's use of the term. Greene's phrase "bombast out a blank verse" appears to be a reference to a remark by Nashe written in the preface to Greene's own book Menaphon (1589). Nashe defended Greene against his detractors, who "out-brave better pens with the swelling bumbast of a bragging blanke verse". Nashe was also much younger than Greene, unlike Lodge, which would explain why Greene calls him "sweet boy". However, there are no known comedies co-written by Greene and Nashe.
The third writer is typically identified as George Peele
George Peele
George Peele , was an English dramatist.-Life:Peele was christened on 25 July 1556. His father, who appears to have belonged to a Devonshire family, was clerk of Christ's Hospital, and wrote two treatises on bookkeeping...
, who, like Greene, was notorious for his chaotic lifestyle. Peele may have already been collaborating with Shakespeare, since the early play Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, and possibly George Peele, believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, and is often seen as his attempt to emulate the violent and bloody revenge plays of his contemporaries, which were...
is now generally taken to have been co-written by them.
Both Peele and Nashe may also have worked with Shakespeare on Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, part 1
Henry VI, Part 1 or The First Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare, and possibly Thomas Nashe, believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...
. According to Gary Taylor
Gary Taylor (English literature scholar)
Gary Taylor is George Matthew Edgar Professor of English at Florida State University, author of numerous books and articles, and joint editor of the Oxford Shakespeare and .-Life:...
there is considerable evidence for Nashe's dominant role in the authorship of the first act of the play. By the time the "tiger's heart" line in Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VI, Part 3 or The Third Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...
was written, Shakespeare was working alone. Greene's warning, therefore, arose in circumstances when Shakespeare was rapidly moving from a junior to a senior role in his relationship to more established writers.
Authorship
Some scholars think that all or part of the Groats-Worth may have been written shortly after Greene's death by one of his fellow writers. Henry ChettleHenry Chettle
Henry Chettle was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era.The son of Robert Chettle, a London dyer, he was apprenticed in 1577 and became a member of the Stationer's Company in 1584, traveling to Cambridge on their behalf in 1588. His career as a printer and author is...
has been the favoured candidate, and was suspected at the time, since the manuscript from which it was printed was prepared by him and was in his handwriting. The publication offended at least two contemporary writers. Chettle responded to the complaints in the preface to his Kind Heart's Dream, published later that year. He denied writing the work, stating that he had only transcribed it from Greene's original manuscript into his own hand before publication. He added that he had no wish to know one of the complainants, but wished he had edited out some of the offensive material about the second. It is widely believed that the two authors he comments on are Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
and Shakespeare, though this is far from certain. Chettle wrote,
About three months since died M. Robert Greene, leaving many papers in sundry booksellers' hands, among other his Groatsworth of Wit, in which a letter written to divers play-makers is offensively by one or two of them taken, and because on the dead they cannot be avenged, they willfully forge in their conceits a living author [...] With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them I care not if I never be. The other, whom at that time I did not so much spare as since I wish I had, for that, as I have moderated the heat of living writers and might have used my own discretion (especially in such a case, the author being dead), that I did not I am as sorry as if the original fault had been my fault, because myself have seen his demeanor no less civil than he excellent in the quality he professes. Besides, the diver of worship have reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing that approves his art.
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
was also accused at the time of having written it. He denied it in the 1594 edition of his book Pierce Penniless.
In 1969 Warren B. Austin undertook a pioneering computer-aided analysis of the work of Chettle and Greene. He concluded that the Groats-Worth of Wit was written by Chettle on the basis of word choice frequencies. Austin's analysis convinced many scholars, but in 2006 Richard Westley came to the opposite conclusion, accusing Austin of pre-selecting evidence to support his view. Westley concluded that the pamphlet was the work of Greene and that the evidence of Chettle's quirks was the result of his role as a transcriber. Steve Mentz, writing in 2008, argued that the Groats-Worth contained a substantial amount of material written by Greene, but that its idiosyncratic structure suggested that there was significant editorial intervention in the source material creating "an unusual sort of collaboration" between Chettle and Greene.