The Scottish History of James the Fourth: Why, angry Scot, I visit thee for love; then what moves thee to wrath?

By Robert Greene

Robert Greene was, by the best accounts available, born in Norwich in 1558 and baptised on July 11th.

Greene is believed to have been a pupil at Norwich Grammar School and then attended Cambridge receiving his B.A. in 1580, and an M.A. in 1583. He then moved to London and began an extraordinary chapter in his life as a widely published author.

His literary career began with the publication of the long romance, ‘Mamillia’, (1580). Greene's romances were written in a highly wrought style which reached its peak in ‘Pandosto’ (1588) and ‘Menaphon’ (1589). Short poems and songs incorporated in some of the romances attest to his ability as a lyric poet.

In 1588, he was granted an MA from Oxford University, almost certainly as a courtesy degree. Thereafter he sometimes placed the phrase Utruisq. Academiae in Artibus Magister', "Master of Arts in both Universities" on the title page of his works.

The lack of records hinders any complete biography of Greene but he did write an autobiography of sorts, but where the balance lies between facts and artistic licence is not clearly drawn. According to that autobiography ‘The Repentance of Robert Greene’, Greene is alleged to have written ‘A Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance’ during the month prior to his death, including in it a letter to his wife asking her to forgive him and stating that he was sending their son back to her.

His output was prolific. Between 1583 and 1592, he published more than twenty-five works in prose, becoming one of the first authors in England to support himself with his pen in an era when professional authorship was virtually unknown.

In his ‘coney-catching’ pamphlets, Greene fashioned himself into a well-known public figure, narrating colourful inside stories of rakes and rascals duping young gentlemen and solid citizens out of their hard-earned money. These stories, told from the perspective of a repentant former rascal, have been considered autobiographical, and to incorporate many facts of Greene's own life thinly veiled as fiction. However, the alternate account suggests that Greene invented almost everything, merely displaying his undoubted skills as a writer.

In addition to his prose works, Greene also wrote several plays, none of them published in his lifetime, including ‘The Scottish History of James IV’, ‘Alphonsus’, and his greatest popular success, ‘Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay’, as well as ‘Orlando Furioso’, based on Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.

His plays earned himself the title as one of the ‘University Wits’, a group that included George Peele, Thomas Nashe, and Christopher Marlowe.

Robert Greene died 3rd September 1592.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stage Door
• Release date: Mar 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781787805040

Robert Greene

Robert Greene is the author of three bestselling books: The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, and The 33 Strategies of War. He attended U.C. Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he received a degree in classical studies. He has worked in New York as an editor and writer at several magazines, including Esquire, and in Hollywood as a story developer and writer. Greene has lived in London, Paris, and Barcelona; he speaks several languages and has worked as a translator. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Book preview

The Scottish History of James the Fourth by Robert Greene

Robert Greene was, by the best accounts available, born in Norwich in 1558 and baptised on July 11th.

Greene is believed to have been a pupil at Norwich Grammar School and then attended Cambridge receiving his B.A. in 1580, and an M.A. in 1583.  He then moved to London and began an extraordinary chapter in his life as a widely published author.

His literary career began with the publication of the long romance, ‘Mamillia’, (1580). Greene's romances were written in a highly wrought style which reached its peak in ‘Pandosto’ (1588) and ‘Menaphon’ (1589). Short poems and songs incorporated in some of the romances attest to his ability as a lyric poet.

In 1588, he was granted an MA from Oxford University, almost certainly as a courtesy degree. Thereafter he sometimes placed the phrase Utruisq. Academiae in Artibus Magister', Master of Arts in both Universities on the title page of his works.

The lack of records hinders any complete biography of Greene but he did write an autobiography of sorts, but where the balance lies between facts and artistic licence is not clearly drawn. According to that autobiography ‘The Repentance of Robert Greene’, Greene is alleged to have written ‘A Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance’ during the month prior to his death, including in it a letter to his wife asking her to forgive him and stating that he was sending their son back to her.

His output was prolific. Between 1583 and 1592, he published more than twenty-five works in prose, becoming one of the first authors in England to support himself with his pen in an era when professional authorship was virtually unknown.

In his ‘coney-catching’ pamphlets, Greene fashioned himself into a well-known public figure, narrating colourful inside stories of rakes and rascals duping young gentlemen and solid citizens out of their hard-earned money. These stories, told from the perspective of a repentant former rascal, have been considered autobiographical, and to incorporate many facts of Greene's own life thinly veiled as fiction. However, the alternate account suggests that Greene invented almost everything, merely displaying his undoubted skills as a writer.

In addition to his prose works, Greene also wrote several plays, none of them published in his lifetime, including ‘The Scottish History of James IV’, ‘Alphonsus’, and his greatest popular success, ‘Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay’, as well as ‘Orlando Furioso’, based on Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.

His plays earned himself the title as one of the ‘University Wits’, a group that included George Peele, Thomas Nashe, and Christopher Marlowe.

Robert Greene died 3rd September 1592.

Index of Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

THE SCOTTISH HISTORY OF JAMES THE FOURTH

INDUCTION

ACT I

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

ACT II

SCENE I

SCENE II

ACT III

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

ACT IV

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

ACT V

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE VI

ROBERT GREENE - A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

ROBERT GREENE - A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

KING OF ENGLAND

LORD PERCY

SAMLES

KING OF SCOTS

LORD DOUGLAS

LORD MORTON

LORD ROSS

BISHOP OF ST. ANDREWS

LORD EUSTACE

SIR BARTRAM

SIR CUTHBERT ANDERSON

ATEUKIN

JAQUES

A Lawyer

A Merchant

A Divine

SLIPPER  } sons to Bohan

NANO, a dwarf } sons to Bohan

ANDREW

Purveyor, Herald, Scout, Huntsmen, Soldiers, Revellers, &c.

DOROTHEA, Queen of Scots

COUNTESS OF ARRAN

IDA, her daughter

LADY ANDERSON

Ladies, &c.

OBERON, King of Fairies

BOHAN

Antics, Fairies, &c.

THE SCOTTISH HISTORY OF JAMES THE FOURTH

INDUCTION

Music playing within, enter ASTER OBERON, King of Fairies; and ANTICS, who dance about a tomb placed conveniently on the stage; out of the which suddenly starts up, as they dance, BOHAN, a Scot, attired like a ridstall man, from whom the Antics fly. OBERON manet.

BOHAN

Ay say, what's thou?

OBERON

Thy friend, Bohan.

BOHAN

What wot I or reck I that? Whay, guid man, I reck no friend nor ay reck no foe; als ene to me. Git thee ganging, and trouble not may whayet, or ays gar thee recon me nene of thay friend, by the Mary mass, sall I.

OBERON

Why, angry Scot, I visit thee for love; then what moves thee to wrath?

BOHAN

The deil a whit reck I thy love; for I know too well that true love took her flight twenty winter sence to heaven, whither till ay can, weel I wot, ay sal ne'er find love: an thou lovest me, leave me to myself. But what were those puppets that hopped and skipped about me year whayle?

OBERON

My subjects.

BOHAN

Thay subjects! whay, art thou a king?

OBERON

I am.

BOHAN

The deil thou art! whay, thou lookest not so big as the King of Clubs, nor so sharp as the King of Spades, nor so fain as the King o' Daymonds: be the mass, ay take thee to be the king of false hearts; therefore I rid thee away, or ayse so curry your kingdom that you's be glad to run to save your life.

OBERON

Why, stoical Scot, do what thou darest to me: here is my breast, strike.

BOHAN

Thou wilt not threap me, this whinyard has gard many better men to lope than thou?

[Tries to draw his sword.

But how now! Gos sayds, what, will't not out? Whay, thou witch, thou deil! Gad's fute, may whinyard!

OBERON

Why, pull, man: but what an 'twere out, how then?

BOHAN

This, then,—thou weart best be gone first; for ay'l so lop thy limbs that thou's go with half a knave's carcass to the deil.

OBERON

Draw it out: now strike, fool, canst thou not?

BOHAN

Bread ay gad, what deil is in me? Whay, tell me, thou skipjack, what art thou?

OBERON

Nay, first tell me what thou wast from thy birth, what thou hast passed hitherto, why thou dwellest in a tomb and leavest the world? and then I will release thee of these bonds; before, not.

BOHAN

And not before! then needs must, needs sall. I was born a gentleman of the best blood in all Scotland, except the king. When time brought me to age, and death took my parents, I became a courtier; where, though ay list not praise myself, ay engraved the memory of Bohan on the skin-coat of some of them, and revelled with the proudest.

OBERON

But why, living in such reputation, didst thou leave to be a courtier?

BOHAN

Because my pride was vanity, my expense loss, my reward fair words and large promises, and my hopes spilt, for that after many years' service one outran me; and what the deil should I then do there? No, no; flattering knaves, that can cog and prate fastest, speed best in the court.

OBERON

To what life didst thou then betake thee?

BOHAN

I then changed the court for the country, and the wars for a wife: but I found the craft of swains more vile than the knavery of courtiers, the charge of children more heavy than servants, and