Robert Greene: Love, Scandal, and Shakespeare’s Literary Rival

The Elizabethan playwright Robert Greene was as famous for his tangled romantic life as for his pen. His plays—filled with cuckolded husbands and reckless seductions—often mirrored his own dramas. Rumors of betrayals, secret lovers, and marital strife dogged him until his early death at 32. Let’s dissect the real-life romances behind the ink-stained reputation.

##1. Who was Robert Greene’s wife?

Greene’s wife, Anne Wife, bore a surname that seemed almost too on-the-nose for a man who wrote satires about foolish husbands. Their marriage, documented in parish records, was stormy from the start. Greene openly mocked his "shrewish" spouse in pamphlets, calling her “a very devil” in A Notable Discovery of Coosnage. But letters reveal a more complex bond: he once begged a patron to “pity my poor wife” during his financial struggles, suggesting affection beneath the bitterness.

##2. Did Robert Greene accuse his wife of infidelity?

Yes—and the scandal made him a laughingstock. In 1591, Greene sued a merchant named Richard Epenetton for allegedly seducing Anne. The case, recorded in London’s Court of Arches, exposed juicy details: Greene claimed Anne had “run away with [Epenetton’s] ring” and “kept his company in secret.” But the court dismissed the suit, mocking Greene’s own reputation as a drunkard. The episode probably inspired his play A Looking Glass for London and England, where a king’s jealousy leads to public humiliation.

##3. What’s the story about Greene’s “concealed concubine”?

After Greene’s death, his publisher Henry Chettle claimed the playwright died in a boarding house “kept by a widow,” suggesting he’d been living with a mistress. Chettle wrote that Greene left behind a “concealed concubine” and a “sucking child,” though no records confirm this. The rumor fueled Puritan whispers about Greene’s “