for the present _A Looking-Glass for London and England_, which is not entirely Greene's own composition, and _George-a-Greene_, concerning which doubts must exist, we are provided with the order of succession of the four remaining plays in the order of publication of their prototypes: _Alphonsus of Arragon, Orlando Furioso, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, James IV._ Further investigation provides more explicit chronological data. _Alphonsus of Arragon_ is the earliest of Greene's extant plays. Its date has been set at 1587 or 1588 by Gayley, who has carefully worked over the conclusions of Fleay, Storojenko and others. That Greene had been interested in Alphonsus as early as 1584 is clear from his mention of the name in the dedication to _The Card of Fancy_. The play was not written before _Tamburlaine_, for that hero is mentioned in it; on the other hand there are several considerations that seem to show that it was written soon after _Tamburlaine_ in an effort to share some of that play's popularity. Greene's words in the prologue: "Will now begin to treat of bloody Mars, Of doughty deeds and valiant victories." seem to announce a purpose to begin a new warlike vein. The play resembles _Tamburlaine_ in bombast, in rant, in comparing a victorious warrior with the gods, in the motive of Asiatic and Mohammedan conquest, and in its double original design. Unlike _Tamburlaine_ only one of the parts was completed. There is a possibility that the two plays are mentioned in conjunction by Peele in his well-known "Farewell" verses to Sir John Norris and his companions (1589): "Bid theatres and proud tragedians, Bid Mahomet's Poo and mighty Tamburlaine, King Charlemayne, Tom Stukeley and the rest, Adieu." By the ingenuity of Mr Fleay we are able to conjecture that "Mahomet's Poo" probably refers to the brazen head, or poll, through which the Prophet speaks in the fourth act of the play.