Certainly we cannot believe that Lodge was abjuring playwriting at the very moment that he was preparing _A Looking-Glass_. The other passage occurs in Lodge's _Wits Misery_ (1596), in which Lodge says it is odious "in stage plays to make use of historical scripture." This passage should be viewed in connection with a passage in the epistle prefixed to Greene's _Farewell to Folly_ (1591), taunting the author of _Fair Em_ for "blasphemous rhetoric," and for borrowing from the scripture. Whatever may be the claims of consistency we must suppose that the argument from good policy would tend to the conclusion that the scriptural drama of Greene and Lodge was written as long as possible before these uncompromising words. Setting narrow limits, we should say that _A Looking-Glass_ was produced between the date of the production of _Tamburlaine_ and of the destruction of the Spanish Armada. In the deification of Rasni, "god on earth, and none but he," there are traces of an aspiring kingliness, and the lament of Rasni over Remilia, his queen, has the yearning note sounded in Tamburlaine's grief over the dying Zenocrate. That the play was not written during the intense excitement incident to the Armada would seem probable on general principles, for there is no hint either of imminent national danger or of the intoxication of success. The undoubted reflections of _The Spanish Tragedy_ in this play can serve only to place it in near conjunction with _Orlando Furioso_ as an early play. Whether it preceded or followed that play it is impossible now to decide.[19] As to Greene's share in the work it is impossible to speak with even the semblance of authority. The comic portions sound like Greene's work,[20] and if Greene wrote Act v. scene 4 of _James IV._ he was quite capable of writing the moralising part. In simplicity of construction the play is quite unlike Greene's other dramatic works, just as it is much better than Lodge's _The Wounds of Civil War_. Arguing from the position of their names on the title-page, one is tempted to believe that the play was planned and drafted by Lodge, and put forth by Greene somewhat after the manner used in his edition of his friend's _Euphues Shadow_ (1592).