Did Gabriel Harvey Write Greene's Groatsworth of Wit?

Abstract

RESEARCHERS Warren Austin and Barbara Kreifelts both conducted computer studies which indicated that Robert Greene did not write Greene's Groatsworth of Wit.1 Their methodologies were questioned, however, with one criticism being that they focused on a sampling of Greene's works rather than his entire canon.2Groatsworth was supposedly written while Greene lay ill and dying. Under the theory that, given these circumstances, an author would be unlikely to stretch to include words he had not previously employed, I compared vocabulary in Groatsworth with all forty undoubted works by Robert Greene, plus six pieces which are sometimes attributed to him.3 This is an extensive corpus made up primarily of prose pieces. I nevertheless found fifty-five words in Groatsworth which were not located elsewhere in Greene's writings: (modern spelling; I checked -s, -ed, -er, and -ing forms for verbs, and plurals for nouns unless the plural is given): adjudge; brink; changings; compunction (2×); contaminate; cornet (verb, mistake for ‘curvet,’ neither used by Greene); antic; brothel; burr; complot (Greene used ‘plot’); crank (2×); deeplier; demerit (2×); deservedly; diabolical; emmet (Greene used ‘ant’); extempore; fardel; footback; flaunt; gracer; hospital (meaning house of entertainment); gloser; idolatrous; increaser; jeopardy; likings; melodiously; mockery; newcomer; noverint; outcrack; outcountenance; outlive (2×); prompter; quorum (English, not Latin); relentless; shallow-witted; sinloke (sinlock? not in OED); strengthless; tabernacle; talkative; taverner; tippler; ulcerous; unreproved; unrequested; unsaverly (compositor error? Green used unsavory); unseamed; unthrifty; wainscot; whoremonger; windmill; witchcrafts; and wray.