Robert Greene (1558?-1592), English dramatist and prose writer, born in Norwich and educated at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. After traveling in Europe between 1578 and 1583, he settled in London. Greene was a prolific and popular prose writer. Some of his prose romances were Mamillia (1583), written in imitation of Euphues, by John Lyly; The Myrrour of Modestie (1584); Perimedes the Blacke-Smith (1588); and Menaphon (1589), written in imitation of Arcadia, by Sir Philip Sidney. Greene's Pandosto, the Triumph of Time (1588) provided William Shakespeare with a plot source for The Winter's Tale.

Greene also wrote verse and songs, which were incorporated into his drama and prose. He wrote many pamphlets, including a series on the London underworld. The autobiographical Greene's Groatsworth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance, which has an alleged allusion to Shakespeare as an “upstart crow,” and The Repentance of Robert Greene, Master of Arts were written in 1592. Greene's dramatic works include The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1592) and The Scottish History of James IV (1592).