to do before that time which greatly comforted his welwillers to see how mightily the grace of God did worke in him He confessed himselfe that he was neuer heart sicke but said that al his paine was in his belly And although he continually scowred yet still his belly sweld and neuer left swelling vpward vntill it sweld him at the hart and in his face During the whole time of his sicknes he continually called vpon God and recited these sentences following O Lord forgiue me my manifold offences O Lord haue mercie vpon me O Lord forgiue me my secret sinnes and in thy mercie Lord pardon them all Thy mercie O Lord is aboue thy works And with such like godly sentences hee passed the time euen till he gaue vp the Ghost And this is to bee noted that his sicknesse did not so greatly weaken him but that he walked to his chaire backe againe the night before he departed and then being feeble laying him downe on his bed about nine of the clocke at night a friend of his tolde him that his Wife had sent him commendations and that shee was in good health whereat hee greatly reioiced confessed that he had mightily wronged her and wished that hee might see her before he departed Whereupon feeling his time was but short hee tooke pen and inke wrote her a Letter to this effect SWeet Wife as euer there was any good will or friendship betweene thee and mee see this bearer my Host satisfied of his debt I owe him tenne pound and but for him I had perished in the streetes Forget and forgiue my wronges done vnto thee and Almighty God haue mercie on my soule Farewell till we meet in heauen for on earth thou shalt neuer see me more This 2. of September 1592. VVritten by thy dying Husband Robert Greene. Greenes Prayer in the time of his sicknesse O Lord Iesus Christ my Sauiour and redeemer I humbly beseech thee to looke downe from heauen vpon mee thy seruant that am grieued with thy spirite that I may patiently endure to the end thy rod of chastisement And forasmuch as thou art Lorde of life and death as also of strength health age weakenes and sicknes I do therefore wholy submit my selfe vnto thee to bee dealt withall accor +ding to thy holy will and pleasure And seeing O mercifull Iesu that my sinnes are innumerable like vnto the sandes of the sea and that I haue so often offended thee that I haue worthely deserued death and vtter damnation I humbly pray thee to deale with me according to thy gratious mercie and not agreeable to my wicked deserts And graunt that I may O Lorde through thy spirite with patience suffer and beare this Crosse which thou hast worthily laid vppon mee notwithstanding how greeuous soeuer the burthen thereof be that my faith may be found laudable and glorious in thy sight to the increase of thy glory my euerlasting felicitie For euen thou O Lord most sweete Sauior didst first suffer paine before thou wert crucified Since therefore O meeke Lambe of God that my way to eternall ioy is to suffer with thee worldly greeuances graunt that I may be made like vnto thee by suffering paciently aduersitie trouble and sicknes And lastly forasmuch as the multitude of thy mercies doth put away the sinnes of those which truely repent so as thou remembrest them no more open the eye of thy mercie and behold me a most miserable and wretched sinner who for the same doth most earnestly desire pardon and forgiuenes Renew O Lorde in mee whatsoeuer hath beene decayed by the fraudulent mallice of Sathan or my owne carnall wilfulnes receiue me O Lord into thy fauour consider of my contrition and gather vp my teares into thy heauenly habitation and seeing O Lorde my whole trust and confidence is onely in thy mercie blot out my offences and tread them vnder feet so as they may not be a witnesse against me at the day of wrath Grant this O Lord I humbly beseech thee for thy mercies sake Amen FINIS
my youth who drew mee to trauell into Italy and Spaine in which places I sawe and practizde such villaime as is abhominable to declare Thus by their counsaile I sought to furnish my selfe with coine which I procured by cunning sleights from my Father and my friends and my Mother pampered me so long and secretly helped mee to the oyle of Angels that I grew thereby proue to all mischiefe so that beeing then conuersant with notable Braggarts boon companions and ordinary spend-thrifts that practized sundry superficiall studies I became as a Sien grafted into the same stocke whereby I did absolutely participate of their nature and qualities At my return into England I ruffeled out in my silks in the habit of Malcontent and seemed so discontent that no place would please me to abide in nor no vocation cause mee to stay my selfe in but after I had by degrees proceeded Maister of Arts I left the Uniuersitie and away to London where after I had continued some short time driuen my self out of credit with sundry of my frends I became an Author of Playes and a pennier of Loue Pamphlets so that I soone grew famous in that qualitie that who for that trade growne so ordinary about London as Robin Greene. Yong yet in yeares though olde in wickednes I began to resolue that there was nothing bad that was profitable whereupon I grew so rooted in all mischiefe that I had as great a delight in wickednesse as sundrie hath in godlinesse and as much felicitie I tooke in villainy as others had in honestie Thus was the libertie I got in my youth the cause of my licentious liuing in my age and beeing the first steppe to hell I find it now the first let from heauen But I would wish all my natiue Countrymen that reade this my repentaunce First to feare God in their whole life which I neuer did Secondly to obey their Parents and to listen vnto the wholesome counsaile of their Elders so shall their dayes be multiplied vppon them heere on earth and inherite the crowne of glorie in the kingdome of heauen I exhort them also to leaue the company of lewd and ill liuers for conuersing with such Copes-mates drawes them into sundry dangerous inconueniences nor lette them haunt the company of harlots whose throates are as smooth as oyle but their feet lead the steps vnto death and destruction for they like Syrens with their sweete inchaunting notes soothed me vp in all kind of vngodlines Oh take heede of Harlots I wish you the vnbridled youth of England for they are the Basiliskes that kill with their eyes they are the Syrens that allure with their sweete lookes and they leade their fauorers vnto their destruction as a sheepe is lead vnto the slaughter From whordome I grew to drunkennes from drunkennes to swearing and blasphemiug the name of God hereof grew quarrels frayes and continual controuersies which are now as wormes in my conscience gnawing incessantly And did I not through hearty repentance take hold of Gods mercies euen these detestable sinnes woulde drench me downe into the damnable pit of destruction for Stipendium peccati mors Oh knowe good Countrymen that the horrible sins and intollerable blasphemie I haue vsed against the Maiestie of God is a blocke in my conscience and that so heauy that there were no way with me but desperation if the hope of Christs death and passion did not helpe to ease mee of so intollerable and heauie a burthen I haue long with the deafe Adder stopt mine eares against the voice of Gods Ministers yea my heart was hardened with Pharao against all the motions that the spirit of God did at any time worke in my mind to turn me from my detestable kind of liuing Yet let me confesse a trueth that euen once and yet but once I felt a feare and horrour in my conscience then the terrour of Gods iudgementes did manifestly teach me that my life was had that by sinne I deserued damnation and that such was the greatnes of my sinne that I deserued no redemption And this inward motion I receiued in Saint Andrews Church in the Cittie of Norwich at a Lecture or Sermon then preached by a godly learned man whose doctrine and the maner of whose teaching I liked wonderfull well yea in my conscience such was his singlenes of hart and zeale in his doctrine that hee might haue conuerted the most monster of the world Well at that time whosoeuer was worst I knewe my selfe as bad as he for being new come from Italy where I learned all the villanies vnder the heauens I was drownd in pride whoredome was my daily exercise and gluttony with drunkennes was my onely delight At this Sermon the terrour of Gods iudgementes did manifestly teach me that my exercises were damnable and that I should bee wipte out of the booke of life if I did not speedily repent my loosenes of life and reforme my misdemeanors At this Sermon the said learned man who doubtles was the child of God did beate downe sinne in such pithie and perswasiue manner that I began to call vnto mind the daunger of my soule and the preiudice that at length would befall mee for those grosse sinnes which with greedines I daily committed in so much as sighing I said in my selfe Lord haue mercie vpon mee and send me grace to amend and become a new man But this good motion lasted not long in mee for no sooner had I met with my copesmates but seeing me in such a solemne humour they demaunded the cause of my sadnes to whom when I had discouered that I sorrowed for my wickednesse of life and that the Preachers wordes had taken a deepe impression in my conscience they fell vpon me in ieasting manner calling me Puritane and Presizian and wished I might haue a Pulpit with such other scoffing tearmes that by their foolish perswasion the good and wholesome lesson I had learned went quite out of my remembrance so that I fel againe with the Dog to my olde vomit and put my wicked life in practise and that so throughly as euer I did before Thus although God sent his holy spirit to call mee and though I heard him yet I regarded it no longer than the present time when sodainly forsaking it I went forward obstinately in my misse Neuerthelesse soone after I married a Gentlemans daughter of good account with whom I liued for a while but forasmuch as she would perswade me from my wilfull wickednes after I had a child by her I cast her off hauing spent vp the marriage money which I obtained by her Then left I her at six or seuen who went into Lincolneshire and I to London where in short space I fell into fauor with such as were of honorable and good calling But heere note that though I knew how to get a friend yet I had not the gift or reason how to keepe a friend for hee that was my dearest friend I would bee
so harde but the drops of raine will hollowe so there is no heart so voide of grace or giuen ouer to wilfull follie but the mercifull fauour of God can mollifie An instance of the like chaunced to my selfe being a man wholy addicted to all gracelesse indeuors giuen from my youth to wantonnes brought vp in riot who as I grew in yeares so I waxed more ripe in vngodlines that I was the mirrour of mischiefe and the very patterne of all preiudiciall actions for I neither had care to take any good course of life nor yet to listen to the friendly perswasions of my parents I seemed as one of no religion but rather as a meere Atheist contemning the holy precepts vttered by any learned preather I would smile at such as would frequent the Church or such place of godly exercise would scoffe at any that would checke mee with any wholesome or good admonition so that herein I seemed a meere reprobate the child of Sathan one wipt out of the booke of life and as an outcast from the face and fauor of God I was giuen ouer to drunkennes so that I lightly accounted of that company that would not intertaine my inordinate quaffing And to this beastly sinne of gluttotonie I added that detestable vice of swearing taking a felicitie in blaspeming prophaning the name of God confirming nothing idlely but with such solemne oths that it amazed euen my companions to heare mee And that I might seeme to heape one sinne vpon another I was so rooted therein that whatsoeuer I got I stil consumed the same in drunkennes Liuing thus a long time God who suffereth sinners to heape coles of fire vpon their owne heads and to bee fed fat with sinne against the day of vengeance suffered me to go forward in my loose life many warninges I had to draw me from my detestable kind of life and diuers crosses to contrary my actions but all in vaine for though I were sundry times afflicted with many foule and greeuous diseases and thereby scourged with the rod of Gods wrath yet when by the great labor frendship of sundry honest persons they had though to their great charges sought procured my recouery I did with the Dog Redire in vomitum I went again with the Sow to wallow in the mire and fell to my former follies as frankly as if I had not tasted any iot of want or neuer been scourged for them Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati my daily custome in sinne had cleane taken away the feeling of my sinne for I was so giuen to these vices aforesaide that I counted them rather veniall scapes faults of nature than any great and greeuous offences neither did I care for death but held it onely as the end of life For comming one day into Aldersgate street to a welwillers house of mine hee with other of his friendes perswaded mee to leaue my bad course of life which at length would bring mee to vtter destruction whereupon I scoffingly made them this answer Tush what better is he that dies in his bed than he that endes his life at Tyburne all owe God a death if I may haue my desire while I liue I am satisfied let me shift after death as I may My friends hearing these words greatly greeued at my gracelesse resolution made this reply If you feare not death in this world nor the paines of the body in this life yet doubt the second death the losse of your soule which without hearty repentance must rest in hell fire for euer and euer Hell quoth I what talke you of hell to me I know if I once come there I shal haue the company of better men than my selfe I shal also meete with some madde knaues in that place so long as I shall not sit there alone my care is the lesse But you are mad folks quoth I for if I feared the Iudges of the bench no more than I dread the iudgements of God I would before I slept diue into one Carles bagges or other and make merrie with the shelles I found in them so long as they would last And though some in this company were Fryers of mine owne fraternitie to whom I spake the wordes yet were they so amazed at my prophane speeches that they wisht themselues foorth of my company Whereby appeareth that my continuall delight was in sinne and that I made my selfe drunke with the dregges of mischiefe But beeing departed thence vnto my lodging and now grown to the full I was checked by the mightie hand of God for Sicknes the messenger of death attached me and tolde me my time was but short and that I had not long to liue whereupon I was vexed in mind and grew very heauy As thus I sate solempuly thinking of my end and feeling my selfe waxe sicker and sicker I fell into a great passion and was wonderfully perplexed yet no way discouered my agony but sate still calling to mind the lewdnes of my former life at what time sodainly taking the booke of Resolution in my hand I light vpon a chapter therein which discouered vnto mee the miserable state of the reprobate what Hell was what the worme of Conscience was what tormentes there was appointed for the damned soules what vnspeakable miseries what vnquenchable flames what intollerable agonies what incomprehensible griefs that there was nothing but feare horrour veration of mind depriuation from the sight and fauour of God weeping and gnashing of teeth and that al those tortures were not termined or dated within any compasse of yeares but euerlasting world without end concluding all in this of the Psalmes Ab inferis nulla est redemptio After that I had with deepe consideration pondered vpon these points such a terrour stroke into my conscience that for very anguish of minde my teeth did beate in my head my lookes waxed pale and wan and fetching a great sigh I cried vnto God and said If all this be true oh what shall become of me If the rewarde of sinne be death and hell how many deaths and hels do I deserue that haue beene a most miserable sinner If damnation be the meed for wickednes then am I damned for in all the world there neuer liued a man of worser life Oh what shall I doe I cannot call to God for mercie for my faultes are beyond the compasse of his fauour the punishment of the body hath an ende by death but the paines of the soule by death are made euerlasting Then what a miserable case am I in if I die yet if my death might redeeme my offences wash away my sinnes oh might I suffer euery day twentie deathes while seuen yeares lasteth it were nothing but when I shall end a contempt to the world I shal enioy the disdaine of men the displeasure of God my soule that immortall creature shall euerlastingly bee damned Oh woe is mee why doe I liue nay rather why was I borne Cursed
be the day wherein I was born and haplesse be the brests that gaue me sucke Why did God create me to bee a vessell of wrath Why did hee breath life into me thus to make me a lost sheepe Oh I feele a hell already in my conscience the number of my sinnes do muster before my eies the poore mens plaints that I haue wronged cries out in mine eares and saith Robin Greene thou art damnd nay the iustice of God tels mee I cannot bee saued Now I do remember though too late that I haue read in the Scriptures how neither adulterers swearers theeues nor murderers shall inherite the kingdome of heauen What hope then can I haue of any grace when giuen ouer from all grace I exceeded all other in these kinde of sinnes If thus vppon earth and aliue I feele a hell oh what a thing is that hell where my soule shall euerlastingly liue in torments I am taught by the scripture to pray but to whom shoulde I pray to him that I haue blasphemed to him that I haue contemned and despised whose name I haue taken in vaine No no I am in a hell Oh that my last gaspe were come that I might be with Iudas or Cain for their place is better than mine or that I might haue power with these hands to vnlose my soule from this wretched carcasse that hath imprisoned so many wicked villainies within it Oh I haue sinned not against the Father nor against the Sonne but against the holy Ghost for I presumed vpon grace and when the spirit of God cried in my mind thoght and said drunkennes is a vice whoredome is a vice I carelesly in contempt resisted this motion and as it were in a brauery committed these sinnes with greedines Oh now I shall crie with Diues to haue one drop of water for my tongue but shall not be heard I haue sinned against my owne soule and therefore shalbe cast into vtter darknesse and further I shall not come till I haue paid the vttermost farthing which I shal neuer be able to satisfie O happy are you that feele the sparks of Gods fauour in your hearts happy are you that haue hope in the passion of Christ happy are you that beleue that God died for you happy are you that can pray Oh why doth not God shew the like mercie vnto mee The reason is because in all my life I neuer did any good I alwaies gloried in sinne and despised them that imbraced vertue God is iust and cannot pardon my offences and therefore I would I were out of this earthly hell so I were in that second hell that my soule might suffer tormentes for now I am vexed both in soule and bodie In this despairing humor searching further into the said Booke of Resolution I found a place that greatly did comfort mee laid before me the promises of Gods mercie shewing mee that although the Iustice of God was great to punish sinners yet his mercie did exceede his works and though my faults were as red as skarlet yet washt with his bloud they shoulde bee made as white as snow therein was laid before mine eyes that Dauid who was called a man after his owne heart did both commit adultery and sealde it with murther yet when hee did repent God heard him and admited him to his fauour Therin was laid before me the obstinate sinne of Peter that not onely denied his Maister Christ but also forswore himselfe yet so soone as hee shed tears and did hartily repent him his offences were pardoned Therein was laid open the theefe that had liued licentiously and had scarse in all his life done one good deed and yet hee was saued by hope in the mercies of God Therein was also laide open how the seueritie of the Law was mittigated with the sweet and comfortable promises of the Gospell insomuch that I began to be somewhat pacified a little quieted in mind taking great ioy and comfort in the pithie perswasions and promises of Gods mercie alleadged in that Booke And yet I was not presently resolued in my conscience that God would deale so fauorably with me for that stil the multitude of my sinnes presented me with his Iustice and would therefore reason thus with my selfe Why those men before mentioned were elected and predestinated to be chosen vessels of Gods glory therfore though they did fal yet they rose againe did shew it in time with some other fruits of their election But contrariwise I the most wicked of all men was euen brought vp from my swadling clouts in wickednes my infancy was sin my riper age increast in wickednes I tooke no pleasure but in ill neither was my minde sette vpon any thing but vpon the spoyle then seeing all my life was lead in lewdnes and I neuer but once felt any remorse of conscience how can God pardon mee that repent rather for feare than for loue Yet calling vnto mind the words of Esay that at what time soeuer a sinner doth repent him from the bottome of his heart the Lord would wipe away all his wickednes out of his remembrance Thus beeing at a battaile betweene the spirite and the flesh I beggane to feele a greater comfort in my mind so that I did teares confesse and acknowledge that although I was a most miserable sinner yet the anguish that Christ suffered on the Crosse was able to purge and cleanse me from all my offences so that taking hold with faith vpon the promises of the Gospell I waxed strong in spirite and became able to resist and withstand all the desperate attempts that Sathan had giuen before to my weake and feéble conscience When thus I had consideratly thought on the wretchednes of my life and therewithall looked into the vncertainty of death I thought good to write a short discourse of my the same which I haue ioyned to this treatise containing as followeth The life and death of Robert Greene Maister of Artes. I Neede not make long discourse of my parentes who for their grauitie and honest life is well knowne and esteemed amongst their neighbors namely in the Cittie of Norwitch where I was bred and borne But as out of one selfe same clod of clay there sprouts both stinking weeds and delightfull flowers so from honest parentes often grow most dishonest children for my Father had care to haue mee in my Non-age brought vp at schoole that I might through the studie of good letters grow to be a frend to my self a profitable member to the common-welth and a comfort to him in his age But as early pricks the tree that will proue a thorne so euen in my first yeares I began to followe the filthines of mine owne desires and neyther to listen to the wholesome aduertisements of my parentes nor bee rulde by the carefull correction of my Maister For being at the Uniuersitie of Cambridge I light amongst wags as lewd as my selfe with whome I consumed the flower of
sure so to behaue my selfe towards him that he shoulde euer after professe to bee my vtter enemie or else vowe neuer after to come in my company Thus my misdemeanors too many to bee recited caused the most part of those so much to despise me that in the end I became friendles except it were in a fewe Alehouses who commonly for my inordinate expences would make much of me vntil I were on the score far more than euer I meant to pay by twenty nobles thick After I had wholy betaken me to the penning of plaies which was my continuall exercise I was so far from calling vpon God that I sildome thought on God but tooke such delight in swearing and blaspheming the name of God that none could thinke otherwise of mee than that I was the child of perdition These vanities and other trifling Pamphlets I penned of Loue and vaine fantasies was my chiefest stay of liuing and for those my vaine discourses I was beloued of the more vainer sort of people who beeing my continuall companions came still to my lodging and there would continue quaffing carowsing and surfeting with me all the day long But I thanke God that hee put it in my head to lay open the most horrible coosenages of the common Conny-catchers Cooseners and Crosse-biters which I haue indifferently handled in those my seuerall discourses already imprinted And my trust is that those discourses will doe great good and bee very beneficiall to the Common-wealth of England But oh my deare Wife whose company and sight I haue refrained these sixe yeares I aske God and thee forgiuenesse for so greatly wronging thee of whome I seldome or neuer thought vntill now Pardon mee I pray thee where soeuer thou art and God forgiue mee all my offences And now to you all that liue and reuell in such wickednesse as I haue done to you I write and in Gods name wish you to looke to your selues and to reforme your selues for the safegard of your owne soules dissemble not with God but seeke grace at his handes hee hath promist it and he will performe it God doth sundry times deferre his puishment vnto those that runne a wicked race but Quod defertur non aufertur that which is deferde is not quittanst a day of reckoning will come when the Lord will say Come giue account of thy Stewardship What God determineth man cannot preuent he that binds two sinnes together cannot go vnpunisht in the one so long the Pot goeth to the Pit that at last it comes broken home Therefore all my good friends hope not in money nor in friends in fauors in kindred they are all vncertaine and they are furthest off when men thinke them most nigh Oh were I now to begin the flower of my youth were I now in the prime of my yeares how far would I bee from my former follyes what a reformed course of life would I take but it is too late onely now the comfortable mercies of the Lord is left me to hope in It is bootlesse for me to make any long discourse to such as are gracelesse as I haue beene all wholesome warninges are odious vnto them for they with the spider sucke poison out of the most pretious flowers to such as God hath in his secrete councell elected fewe words will suffize But howsoeuer my life hath beene let my repentant ende be a generall example to all the youth in England to obey their parentes to flie whoredome drunkennes swearing blaspheming contempt of the word and such greéuous and grosse sinnes least they bring their parents heads with sorrow to their graues and least with mee they be a blemish to their kindred and to their posteritie for euer Thus may you see how God hath secrete to himselfe the times of calling and when hee will haue them into his vineyard some hee calles in the morning some at noone and some in the euening and yet hath the last his wages aswell as the first For as his iudgementes are inscrutable so are his mercies incomprehensible And therefore let all men learne these two lessons not to despaire because God may worke in them through his spirit at the last houre nor to presume least God giue them ouer for their presumption and deny them repentance and so they die impenitent which finalis impenitentia is a manifest sinne against the holy Ghost To this doth that golden sentence of S. Augustine allude which hee speaketh of the theefe hanging on the Crosse. There was saith hee one theefe saued and no more therefore presume not and there was one saued and therefore despaire not And to conclude take these caueats hereafter following Certaine Cauiats sent by Robert Greene to a frend of his as a farewell written with his owne hande 1 THe feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome therfore serue God least he suffer thee to be lead into temptation 2 Despise neither his worde nor his Minister for her that heareth not can haue no faith without faith no man can be saued 3 Obey thy Prince for he that lifteth his hande against the Lords anointed shall be like vnto a withered plant 4 Despise not the counsaile of thy Father nor the wholesome admonition of thy mother for he that listeneth not to their lessons shall be cut off in his youth 5 Spend the prime of thy yeares in vertue so dost thou lay an earnest pennie of honorable age 6 Flie the sweetnes of the grape for a man that is giuen to much wine shall neuer be rich 7 Take not the name of God in vaine for then thou shalt not bee guiltlesse nor shall the curse of God come neare thy house 8 A man that delights in harlots shall heape sinne vpon his soule he shall be an open shame in the streets and his place shall not be knowne 9 He that robbeth from his neighbour purchaseth discredit to himselfe and his kindred and he shall not go to his graue with honor 10 Who medleth with pitch shall be defiled and he that eateth the bread of Robbers fatneth himselfe against the day of vengeance 11 Giue not thy youth ouer to the Deuill neyther vow the dregs of thy olde age vnto God for a repentant mind commeth from God 12 Remember thy end and thou shalt neuer doe amisse and let the law of the Lord be a lanthorne to thy feete so shall thy pathes bee aright and thou die with honour Robert Greene. The manner of the death and last end of Robert Greene Maister of Artes. AFter that he had pend the former discourse then lying sore sicke of a surfet which hee had taken with drinking hee continued most patient and penitent yea he did with teares forsake the world renounced swearing and desired forgiuenes of God and the worlde for all his offences so that during all the time of his sicknesse which was about a moneths space hee was neuer heard to sweare raue or blaspheme the name of God as he was accustomed