Robert Greene

Robert Greene (8 July 1558 - 3 September 1592) is sometimes considered to have been the first professional author in England. Greene published in many genres including romances, plays and autobiography. He is now best known for his mysterious double-edged connection to the then-up-and-coming William Shakespeare. Greene's final pamphlet Groats-Worth of Wit describes Shakespeare in very disparaging terms, and Shakespeare scholars have long puzzled over the reason for this hostility. Some, including Isaac Asimov, have hypothesised that Greene was the co-author of Shakespeare's early plays, and was dissatisfied with their results. Around 1610, Shakespeare adapted the long-dead Greene's novel Pandosto: The Triumph of Time for the stage as The Winter's Tale.

Robert Greene in Ruled Britannia
Robert Greene was a playwright known in London's theatrical circles in 1597. When the Archbishop of Canterbury informed Lope de Vega that there were possible traitors in the theatres, Greene was one of the first names de Vega expected to hear. However, he had heard that Greene was violently ill from eating rotten pickled herring, and was not likely to recover.