ised as a
more or less fanciful autobiographical sketch. In his last work, _A
Groatsworth of Wit_, in the introduction to which he makes his
well-known attack upon Shakespeare, the adventures of Roberto, the
protagonist of the story, tally approximately with known circumstances
of Greene's life. In the opening of the story, Roberto's marriage, his
desertion of his wife, his attachment to another woman who deserts him
when he falls into poverty, all coincide with the facts in his own
career. From this we may infer that what follows has also a substratum
of truth regarding a temporary connection of Greene with Alleyn's
company as playwright, though it is evident that he describes Alleyn's
theatrical conditions as they were between 1589 and 1592 and after
Alleyn had acquired the theatrical properties of the old Admiral's
company from Richard Jones, Robert Browne, and his brother, John Alleyn,
in 1589. Greene's account of Roscius' own attempts at dramatic
composition need not be taken very seriously, though it is not at all
improbable that Alleyn, who was very ambitious, at some time tentatively
essayed dramatic composition or revision. It was certainly a very
inexperienced playwright, yet one who had some idea of the style of
phrase that caught the ear of the masses, who interpolated the tame and
prosy lines of the old _Taming of a Shrew_ so freely with selections
from Marlowe's most inflated grandiloquence, and one, also, who had
access to Marlowe's manuscripts. The plays from which these selections
were taken were all Burbage properties in 1588-89, as was also _The
Taming of a Shrew_. It was this kind of dramatic stage-carpenter work
that left an opening for Nashe's strictures in 1589 in his _Menaphon_
"Address." Several of the later covert references to Alleyn as Roscius,
by Greene and Nashe, indicate that he had tried his hand upon the
composition and revision of dramatic work, in which he had the
assistance of a "theological poet." While they undoubtedly refer to
Shakespeare as one of the "idiot art-masters" they use the plural and
include others in authority in Burbage's company.

Greene, representing himself as Roberto after his mistress had deserted
him, describes himself as sitting under a hedge as an outcast and
bemoaning his fate.

"On the other side of the hedge sat one that heard his sorrow, who,
getting over, came ... and saluted Roberto.... 'If you vouchsafe such
simple comfort as my ability will