His first works were written under the influence of the Italian school. In these early works there is a strong strain of Euphuism, which is made explicit in his _Euphues, his Censure to Philautus_ (1587). Two years later a new style had arisen through the composition of Sidney's _Arcadia_ (published in 1590), and Greene aligns himself with the new pastoral movement in his _Menaphon_. Not content with the tacit desertion of the conceits of Lyly he gives his new work the sub-title _Camilla's Alarum to Slumbering Euphues_, and attacks his old models for artificiality. So also Greene is quick to utilise contemporary events to add to the popular appeal of his writings. From the publication of the _Spanish Masquerado_ (1589), celebrating the victory over the _Spanish Armada_, there is every reason to believe Greene received his warmest recognition at court; and sincere as were his conny-catching pamphlets we may be sure that their value was not lessened in Greene's eyes by their popular appeal. Greene was neither more nor less of an imitator than his fellows; his ideals and methods of composition were, no doubt, those of his time, and if we cannot claim for him that he consistently broke ground in new domains of expression, we may at any rate be certain that he did not fall far behind in the progressive motion of the art of his era. The significance of these things in the study of the chronology of Greene's plays should be manifest. There were during Greene's literary life three extraordinary dramatic successes on the London stage--_Tamburlaine, Dr Faustus_ and _The Spanish Tragedy_. It is reasonable to suppose that the man who, in prose composition, always struck when the iron was hot, would, as a playwright, use the same expedition to take advantage of a popular wave of enthusiasm. That Greene's _Alphonsus of Arragon_ was written under the inspiration of Marlowe's _Tamburlaine_, and that _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ was written as a reflex from _Dr Faustus_ is so certain as to require no demonstration. And it is only less certain that we have in _Orlando Furioso_ a reminiscence of _Tamburlaine_ and of _The Spanish Tragedy_, and that _James IV._ was inspired as a pseudo-historical play by the growing popularity of the chronicle type. According to the best authority obtainable _Tamburlaine_ appeared in 1587, _The Spanish Tragedy_ before 1587, and _Dr Faustus_ in 1588. With these conditions before us, and in the light of Greene's known character and the habits of the times, it is scarcely possible to think that Greene should have waited until _Dr Faustus_ had somewhat dimmed the lustre of _Tamburlaine_ before imitating the latter; or that he should have ignored the undoubted vigour of the magician motive to imitate a form that had enjoyed prior popularity, only to take up for treatment a drama in the occult spirit, when this type in its turn had been laid on the shelf in favour of the newer form of chronicle play. Ignoring then