This is one of Robert Greene’s pamphlets in the form of a Romantic novel, but as usual with Greene there is an underlying moral subject. It was written in 1587 and on the front cover it is described as “Pleasant for age to avoid drowsy thoughts, profitable for youth to eschew other wanton pastimes, and bringing to both a desired content”

Robert Greene 1558-92 one of the Elizabethan ‘university wits’ earned his living from his writing, one of the early jobbing writers who relied on sales of his books rather than on patronage, there is no record of connections with the Tudor Court. He died in poverty at a young age and is famous amongst Shakespeare scholars for his reference to a young Shakespeare in his ‘Greene’s groats-worth of witte brought with a million repentance’: Greene tried his hand at anything that might sell starting off with novels that owed much to John Lyly then moving onto romances. He wrote many framework stories based on ideas from the Italian renaissance, usually with a moral theme and published in pamphlet form. The connection with Shakespeare continues here, because Shakespeare probably used Greene’s Pandosto as a primary source for his play “A Winter’s Tale”. He would have had no trouble in finding a copy because Greene’s Pandosto was reprinted five times after initial publication.

Pandosto is subtitled; ‘The Triumph of Time’ and uses the familiar trop of mistaken Identity, but the moral theme here is jealousy. Greene tells us at the star that: Pandosto, “furiously incensed by causeless jealousy, procured the death of his most loving and loyal wife and his own endless sorrow and misery.” Pandosto king of Bohemia invites his friend Egistus king of Sicily to his court and soon Egistus is entranced by the wit and knowledge of Pandosto’s wife Bellaria. Pandosto becomes insanely jealous and plans to poison Egistus, but the would be poisoner reveals the plot to Egistus who wisely decides to head off back home to Sicily. Bellaria discovers she is pregnant and Pandosto after a mock trial imprisons her. The baby is born and Pandosto puts it to sea in a small boat to take its chances but fortune smiles and it is washed up on the shores of Sicily and the baby girl Fawnia is raised by a couple of Shepherds. Time passes and Egistus son the princely Dorastus who would “rather to die in the field with Mars than dally with Venus in the chamber” meets and falls in love with the beautiful Fawnia. He becomes so entranced that he dresses up as a shepherd in order to sneak out of the palace to meet her. They decide to elope and of course end up at the court of Pandosto, disguised as merchants.............................

Greene manages to pack in much of what he knew would be popular for his Elizabethan readers. There is the moral story, there is a pastoral, there is a love story and there is the divine right of kings. Most events are at the mercy of the wheel of fortune, but Greene does start to explore the difficulties of lovers who are at different levels of society, the extreme case here of a Prince falling in love with a shepherd girl ( but of course she is of royal birth). Greene is a good story teller and the 85 pages flow by. His writing still owes much to John Lyly’s euphuistic style, but this does not interrupt the pace of the story telling. An easy and enjoyable read for those who are accustomed to Elizabethan story telling and so 3 stars. ( )