_), the stilted, flowery talk that does duty for so many
conversations, and the unreality brought in the train of his
dearly-loved Greek mythology. Not unfittingly we may conclude our
criticism of his plays with his own description of his art, given in the
first prologue to _Sapho and Phao_.

Our intent was at this time to move inward delight, not outward
lightness, and to breed (if it might be) soft smiling, not loud
laughing; knowing it to the wise to be as great pleasure to hear
counsel mixed with wit, as to the foolish to have sport mingled
with rudeness. They were banished the theatre of Athens, and from
Rome hissed, that brought parasites on the stage with apish
actions, or fools with uncivil habits, or courtesans with immodest
words. We have endeavoured to be as far from unseemly speeches, to
make your ears glow, as we hope you will be free from unkind
reports, to make our cheeks blush.

* * * * *

Unlike Lyly, Robert Greene is the dramatizer of actions rather than
speeches. Primarily a writer of romances, he carries the same principle
with him to the stage, providing a throng of characters and an abundance
of incident, with rapid transition from place to place, regardless of
time and the technicalities of acts and scenes. The result is a
continuous flow of pictures, in subject darting about from one set of
characters to another lest any section of the narrative drag behind the
rest, hardly ever dull yet rarely impressive, bearing the complexity of
many issues to its appointed end in general content. This is
plot-structure in its elementary yet ambitious form: an abounding wealth
of material is condensed within the limits of a play, but its
arrangement reveals no attempt at a gradual and subtle evolution of
events to a climax. It succeeds in maintaining interest by its variety,
leaving the pleased spectator with the sense of having looked on at a
number of very entertaining scenes. Unfortunately the bustle of action
invites superficiality of treatment: the end is attained by the use of
bold splashes of colour rather than by accurate drawing. Spaniards,
Italians, Turks, Moors fill the stage like a pageant; in the best known
play, _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, magicians perform wonders, country
squires kill each other for love, prince and fool exchange places,
simple folk go a-fairing, kings pay state visits, devils fly off with
p