ABSTRACT
Among the scores of literary characters created by Robert Greene during his short career none is so interesting to us as the one he presents in his last books-himself. This "Robert Greene" is a wastrel who has left his wife and now lives in sin. He has been overcome by a profound feeling of self-disgust and is appalled by what he has written-the "frivolous toyes" and "follies" of romance. He publicly renounces these earlier works and begs his readers to learn from his example as a sinner who now repents. Greene's self-abasement is almost embarrassing to the reader; what turns embarrassment into poignancy is the death of the author, who is reported, in one of his own books, to have been cut down in this moment of self-realization and repentance.
