"As easy may my intellectual soul Be lent away, and yet my body live, As lend my body, palace to my soul, Away from her, and yet retain my soul,"
have something of Ida's incorruptible purity of principle when she asks Ateukin "can his warrant keep my soul from hell?" Ida's scorn of the man who would
"be a king of men and worldly pelf Yet hath no power to rule and guide himself,"
"Shall the large limit of fair Britanny By me be overthrown, and shall I not Master this little mansion of myself? Give me an armour of eternal steel! I go to conquer kings; and shall I not then Subdue myself?"[15]
In no pre-Shakespearean drama outside of Greene's own work is the simple beauty of chaste womanhood presented with the passion and sympathy that are to be found in _Edward III._ Certainly Ida of _James IV._, the Countess of Salisbury of _Edward III._, and Imogen of Shakespeare's _Cymbeline_ are a trio of womanly beauty and purity. In respect of poetry, the Countess of Salisbury scenes of _Edward III._, in spite of their somewhat cloying sweetness, transcend any sustained passages in Greene's works. Yet the poetry of _James IV._ is of the same order. If Greene could but have prolonged his vagrant notes of beauty he would have equalled the best in this play. In respect of dramaturgy and human psychology _James IV._ is far in advance of _Edward III._ The simple and undeveloped story of love is in the hands of the more skilled plotter of plays complicated to a fit representation of the social implications of an act, and the passion of Edward is in James developed to the awful inward struggle of a sinning soul. In the absence of facts as to the authorship of _Edward III._, and as to the date of its composition, it is impossible to draw any conclusions as to influence or inter-relationship. It is clear, however, that Greene's play is written in the spirit of _Edward III._, in that it is an adaptation of the romantic motive that Greene knew so well how to compass to the purposes of the popular chronicle play.
_James IV._, which is the last undoubted play of Greene's composition, is also the best. Dramatically it is far in advance of any other of his plays, and there is almost no trace of the affected classical and mythological allusion that had marked his earlier writing. Considerations of style and structure indicate that it was written soon after _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_. Allusions to contemporary events, such as Dorothea's mention of the Irish uprisings, the idea of a union of England and Scotland, that run through the play, and the brave words spoken by Dorothea, who is not herself a maid, as a delicate compliment to Elizabeth in her French wars,