The significance of these things in the study of the chronology of Greene's plays should be manifest. There were during Greene's literary life three extraordinary dramatic successes on the London stage--_Tamburlaine, Dr Faustus_ and _The Spanish Tragedy_. It is reasonable to suppose that the man who, in prose composition, always struck when the iron was hot, would, as a playwright, use the same expedition to take advantage of a popular wave of enthusiasm. That Greene's _Alphonsus of Arragon_ was written under the inspiration of Marlowe's _Tamburlaine_, and that _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_ was written as a reflex from _Dr Faustus_ is so certain as to require no demonstration. And it is only less certain that we have in _Orlando Furioso_ a reminiscence of _Tamburlaine_ and of _The Spanish Tragedy_, and that _James IV._ was inspired as a pseudo-historical play by the growing popularity of the chronicle type. According to the best authority obtainable _Tamburlaine_ appeared in 1587, _The Spanish Tragedy_ before 1587, and _Dr Faustus_ in 1588. With these conditions before us, and in the light of Greene's known character and the habits of the times, it is scarcely possible to think that Greene should have waited until _Dr Faustus_ had somewhat dimmed the lustre of _Tamburlaine_ before imitating the latter; or that he should have ignored the undoubted vigour of the magician motive to imitate a form that had enjoyed prior popularity, only to take up for treatment a drama in the occult spirit, when this type in its turn had been laid on the shelf in favour of the newer form of chronicle play. Ignoring then for the present _A Looking-Glass for London and England_, which is not entirely Greene's own composition, and _George-a-Greene_, concerning which doubts must exist, we are provided with the order of succession of the four remaining plays in the order of publication of their prototypes: _Alphonsus of Arragon, Orlando Furioso, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, James IV._ Further investigation provides more explicit chronological data.
_Alphonsus of Arragon_ is the earliest of Greene's extant plays. Its date has been set at 1587 or 1588 by Gayley, who has carefully worked over the conclusions of Fleay, Storojenko and others. That Greene had been interested in Alphonsus as early as 1584 is clear from his mention of the name in the dedication to _The Card of Fancy_. The play was not written before _Tamburlaine_, for that hero is mentioned in it; on the other hand there are several considerations that seem to show that it was written soon after _Tamburlaine_ in an effort to share some of that play's popularity. Greene's words in the prologue: