But in spite of the facts that are brought to his judgment the beauties of the play are such as to compel every editor to soften judgment by inclination and include the play among Greene's dramas. Certainly Greene is the only university man of his day who, knowing the affectations of literature, at the same time knew real life in the concrete well enough to write _George-a-Greene_. If truth were told it was through plays of the type of _George-a-Greene_, rather than through the more ambitious university men's plays, that the current of pure English comedy was to flow. And it is because _George-a-Greene_ integrates itself so perfectly with the development of Greene's dramatic genius, and represents so well that realism reached by a settling down of art from above, rather than arising from the vulgar fact, that we are willing to say that if Greene did not write this play he could have written one much like it. _George-a-Greene_ seems to bring to consummation the developing principles of Greene's art. As in the case of _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ there is in this play a quite unhistorical chronicle element concerning English kings. But unlike _James IV._, which is derived from an Italian original, this play tells an English story based on the native Robin Hood strain. Again, like _Friar Bacon_, the original story, which contains no romantic element, is augmented by a love story. If the play is Greene's it may represent the last and purest expression of his charming doctrine of beauty and his simple philosophy of content. To Greene beauty lay in fresh and joyous colours and in uncomplex forms. And his philosophy of repose is evolved out of the sublimation of the emotional riot of his early life. Again and again these notes are struck in _George-a-Greene_. Now it is the well-known strain: "The sweet content of men that live in love Breeds fretting humours in a restless mind." Again it is contentment put into better precept: "a poor man that is true Is better than an earl, if he be false;" and "'tis more credit to men of base degree, To do great deeds, than men of dignity."