In _The Scottish Historie of James IV._ (acted 1592, licensed for publication 1594) Greene seems to have reached the climax of his dramatic powers. The "historical" character of this play is pure pretence. The story is taken from one of Giraldi Cinthio's tales. Its theme is the illicit passion of King James for the chaste lady Ida, to obtain whose hand he endeavours, at the suggestion of a villain called Ateukin, to make away with his own wife. She escapes in doublet and hose, attended by her faithful dwarf; but, on her father's making war upon her husband to avenge her wrongs, she brings about a reconciliation between them. Not only is this well-constructed story effectively worked out, but the characters are vigorously drawn, and in Ateukin there is a touch of Iago. The fooling by Slipper, the clown of the piece, is unexceptionable; and, lest even so the play should hang heavy on the audience, its action is carried off by a "pleasant comedie"--i.e. a prelude and some dances between the acts--"presented by Oboram, King of Fayeries," who is, however, a very different person from the Oberon of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_. _George-a-Greene the Pinner of Wakefield_ (acted 1593, printed 1599), a delightful picture of English life fully worthy of the author of _Friar Bungay_, has been attributed to him; but the external evidence is very slight, and the internal unconvincing. Of the comedy of _Fair Em_, which resembles _Friar Bacon_ in more than one point, Greene cannot have been the author; the question as to the priority between the two plays is not so easily solved. The conjecture as to his supposed share in the plays on which the second and third parts of _Henry VI._ are founded has been already referred to. He was certainly joint author with Thomas Lodge of the curious drama called _A Looking Glasse for London and England_ (acted in 1592 and printed in 1594)--a dramatic apologue conveying to the living generation of Englishmen the warning of Nineveh's corruption and prophesied doom. The lesson was frequently repeated in the streets of London by the "Ninevitical motions" of the puppets; but there are both fire and wealth of language in Greene and Lodge's oratory. The comic element is not absent, being supplied in abundance by Adam, the clown of the piece, who belongs to the family of Slipper, and of Friar Bacon's servant, Miles.