Friar Bacon and Friar BungayRobert Greene (1558-1592) was the author of romances, pamphlets, lyrics, and plays. He was educated at Cambridge and Oxford, and led a remarkably irresponsible and dissolute life. The comedy Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay was probably written and produced around 1589, and was first printed in 1594. Its account of the marvelous exploits of Friar Bacon is drawn from The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon, a sixteenth-century account of the legends surrounding the Oxford Franciscan, Roger Bacon (b. 1214). The play was an important influence both on Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Shakespeare's The Tempest. Daniel Seltzer was professor of English at Harvard University and at Princeton University, as well as an actor on stage and in films. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
1ST SCHOLAR acting area art thou Bacon and Friar beauty beauty's Beccles Belcephon brave brazen head Brazen-nose Bungay Castile CLEMENT Collier conjure court CYRUS HOY damsel devils doctors doth doubt Dyce Earl of Lincoln Eleanor Elizabethan EMPEROR England English Enter ERMSBY Exeunt Exit fair Margaret farewell father fool Fressingfield Friar Bacon Friar Bungay frolic glory Greene's Griselda Harleston hath heaven Henley HENRY Henry's Hercules here's honor HOSTESS jolly friar keeper's king Lacy's LAMBERT Laxfield learned Lincoln earl looks Lord Lacy maid of Fressingfield Marlowe's Marry MASON Master Burden merry Fressingfield MILES nigromancy omnes Oxford passions Peggy Phoebus Plantagenet play Prince Edward Prince of Wales prose pyromancy pyromantic quarto RAFE Robert Greene royal Scene secret Serlsby Shakespeare's Sirrah skill spirits stage direction sword Tamburlaine tell thee Tetragrammaton theater thine thou shalt thoughts unto VANDERMAST W. W. Greg WARREN watch'd wealth yield