letter urged Nashe to defend Greene's memory and his own reputation. Nashe, who had been assailed in 'Fovre Letters,' stood in little need of exhortation. On 12 Jan. 1592-3 was licensed his 'Strange Newes,' one of a series of pamphlets directed against Gabriel Harvey. He was more active in ridiculing Harvey than in defending Greene. He had no wish to be regarded as one of Greene's intimate friends. Harvey had called him 'Greene's inwardest companion.' Nashe retorts, 'neither was I Greene's companion any more than for a carowse or two.' 'A thousand there bee,' he writes, 'that have more reason to speake in his behalfe than I, who, since I first knew him about town, haue beene two yeares together and not seene him.' He declares that, so far as his own observation went, Greene's conduct was orderly, and he denies but his denial weighs little—that Greene died in the abject condition described in the 'Fovre Letters.' Harvey, who had never seen Greene, speaks of his 'fond disguisinge of a master of arte with ruffianly haire,' and of his ' vnseemely apparell.' Nashe jocularly notices that 'a iolly long red peake like the spire of a steeple hee cherisht continually without cutting, whereat a man might hang a iewell, it was so sharpe and pendant.' Chettle gives a pleasant description of him: 'Of face amible, of body well proportioned, his attire after the habite of a scholler-like gentleman, onely his haire was somewhat long.' The woodcut portrait in John Dickenson's 'Greene in Conceipt,' 1598, is doubtless fanciful.
No less than twenty-eight separate publications (chiefly romances and prose tracts) appeared in Greene's lifetime. Ten other books issued after his death have been assigned to him. Of Greene's earliest publication, (1) ‘Mamillia,’ mention has already been made. His second publication, (2) ‘The Myrrovr of Modestie. … By R. G., Maister of Artes,’ 1584, 16mo (Brit. Mus.), partly deals with the story of Susanna and the elders; it was dedicated to the Countess of Derby. (3) ‘Gwydonius, the Carde of Fancie,’ 4to, dedicated to the Earl of Oxford, was entered in the ‘Stationers' Register’ 11 April 1584, and published in the same year (Sir F. Freeling's sale-catalogue); reprinted, under the title of ‘Greene's Garde of Fancie,’ in 1587, 1593, and 1608. Commendatory Latin hexameters by Richard Portington are prefixed, and appended is ‘The Debate betweene Follie and Loue, translated out of French [of Louise Labé].’ In 1584 also appeared (4) ‘Arbasto, the Anatomie of Fortune … Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit vtile dulci,’ 4to, and (5) ‘Morando, the Tritameron of Loue,’ 4to. Of the original edition of ‘Arbasto,’ licensed for publication on 13 Aug. 1584, two imperfect copies are preserved (one at Lamport Hall and the other in the library of Mr. C. Davis), which together give the entire text; other editions appeared in 1594, 1617, 1626. Arbasto is a hermit, once king of Denmark, who had been unfortunate in his love affairs. The story was dedicated to ‘the Ladye Mary Talbot, Wife to the Right honorable Gilbert, Lorde Talbot.’ ‘Morando,’ a series of dialogues on the subject of love, dedicated to the Earl of Arundel, was reissued with the addition of a second part in 1587 (Brit. Mus.) Only one of Greene's pamphlets is dated 1585, (6) ‘Planetomachia: or the first parte of the generall opposition of the seuen Planets. … Conteyning also a briefe Apologie of the sacred and misticall Science of Astronomie,’ 4to (British Museum), love-tales and astrological fancies, dedicated to the Earl of Leicester.
On 11 June 1587, his ‘Farewell to Follie’ was entered in the ‘Stationers' Register,’ but the publication was postponed. Another pamphlet, licensed eight days later, (7) ‘Penelope's Web’ (Bodleian), was issued without delay in 1587, 4to, dedicated to the Countesses of Cumberland and Warwick. Penelope and her attendants discourse on love and marriage. A second edition appeared in 1601. (8) ‘Euphues, his Censure to Philautus, wherein is presented a Philosophicall Combat betweene Hector and Achylles, discovering in four discourses … the Vertues necessary to be incident in every Gentleman,’ 4to (Brit. Mus.), was licensed on 18 Sept. 1587, and published in the same year, with a dedication to the Earl of Essex; reprinted in 1634. This pamphlet, which was intended to serve as a continuation to Lyly's ‘Euphues,’ aimed at presenting the exquisite portraiture of a perfect martialist.’ (9) ‘Perimedes the Blacke-Smith, a golden methode how to use the minde in pleasant and profitable exercise. … Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit vtile dulci,’ 1588, 4to (Bodleian), licensed 29 March, has a dedication to Gervase Clifton and a commendatory French sonnet by J. Eliote. Prefixed is an interesting ‘Address to the Gentlemen Readers,’ which contains a satirical notice of Marlowe's ‘Tamburlaine.’ It may be gathered from this address that one of Greene's plays had been unsuccessful on the stage, and that his blank verse had been pronounced inferior to Marlowe's. The book is a collection of love-stories (largely borrowed from Boccaccio), which the Memphian blacksmith Perimedes and his wife Delia relate to one another of an evening after their day's work is done. Some delightful poetry is in-
