"The poorest state is farthest from annoy" (ii. 2, 37).[23]
"After we passed the groves of Caledone. Where murmuring rivers slide with silent streams, We did behold the straggling Scythians camp," etc. (ii. 3, 23).
"Why this, my lord, experience teaches us: That resolution is a sole help at need" (iii. 2, 61).
"Oh, that sweet face painted with nature's dye, Those roseall cheeks mixt with a snowy white, That decent neck surpassing ivory" (iv. 1, 91).
"_Loc._ Better to live, than not to live at all. _Estrild._ Better to die renowned for chastity Than live with shame and endless infamy." (iv. 1, 133)[24]
Other minor phrases that are even more characteristic of Greene's note are, "daughters of proud Lebanon," "Aurora, handmaid of the sun," "party coloured flowers," "shady groves" (often repeated), "girt with a corselet of bright shining steel," "rascal runnagates," "overlook with haughty front," "injurious fortune," and "injurious traitor," "watery" (frequently repeated even where unnecessary), "silver streams" (often repeated), "sweet savours," "regiment," "argent streams," "university of bridewell" (to be compared with Miles' jests), "uncouth rock," "Puryflegiton" (often used; Greene uses Phlegethon), "Anthropophagie," "countercheck," "triple world," "beauty's paragon," "those her so pleasing looks," "straggling" (as an adjective expressing contempt; often used, and quite characteristic of Greene).
The considerations outlined are sufficient to incline one favourably toward the theory of Greene's authorship of _Locrine_. Yet the difficulties are such as for the present to deny the play a place among Greene's works. The date is in great doubt. The first edition of 1595 "newly set forth, overseen and corrected by W. S.," is evidently a revamped version. We cannot agree with Brooke that the play appeared before _Tamburlaine_, for, among many strains of the dramas of _The Misfortunes of Arthur_ type there are mingled undoubted influences from the revenge plays and _Tamburlaine_. It is difficult to adjust the play to any scheme of activities that has been worked out for Greene. Certainly it did not ante-date _Alphonsus of Arragon_, for there is every reason to take the prologue of that play at its word. Upon the hypothesis that it is Greene's work we should place it just before _Orlando Furioso_, the play which it resembles above all others, and about the same time as _A Looking-Glass for London and England_, which in respect of comedy it greatly resembles.