with thee in writings, certes thou would blush for shame, and I
weepe for sorrowe: neither could my tongue vtter yat with patience,
which my hand can scarse write with modesty, neither could thy ears
heare that without glowing, which thine eyes can hardly vewe
without griefe. Ah, Alcius, I cannot tell whether I should most
lament in thee thy want of learning, or thy wanton lyvinge, in the
on thou art inferiour to all men, in the other superiour to al
beasts. Insomuch as who seeth thy dul wit, and marketh thy froward
will, may well say that he neuer saw smacke of learning in thy
dooings, nor sparke of relygion in thy life. Thou onely vauntest of
thy gentry: truely thou wast made a gentleman before thou knewest
what honesty meant, and no more hast thou to boast of thy stocke,
than he, who being left rich by his father, dyeth a beggar by his
folly. Nobilitie began in thine auncestors and endeth in thee, and
the generositie that they gayned by vertue, thou hast blotted with
vice.[62]

The popularity of "Euphues" excited much imitation, and its influence
is strongly marked in the works of Robert Greene. Born in Norfolk in
1560, Greene studied at Cambridge and received the degree of Master of
Arts. After wasting his property in Italy and Spain, he returned to
London to earn his bread by the pen. As a pamphleteer, as a poet, and
especially as a dramatist, Greene achieved a considerable reputation.
But his improvident habits and a life of constant debauchery brought
his career to a close, amidst poverty and remorse, at the early age of
thirty-two. He died in a drunken brawl, leaving in his works the
evidence of talents and qualities which the degradation of his life had
failed to destroy.

Greene's "Arcadia" was published in 1587, and bears in its fanciful