Robert Greene

Robert Greene (1558–1592) was a popular Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer. He is said to have been born in Norwich. He attended Cambridge where he received a BA in 1580, and an M.A. in 1583 before moving to London, where he arguably became the first professional author in England. He was prolific and published in many genres including romances, plays and autobiography.

Greene's most famous play is Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. He is also known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Witte, bought with a million of Repentance, widely believed to contain an attack on William Shakespeare.

According to the author Brenda Richardson, the "chief problem" in compiling a biography of Robert Greene was his name. Robert was one of the most popular given names of the era and Greene was a common surname.