W. W. Greg

Who was W. W. Greg?

Sir Walter Wilson Greg was one of the leading bibliographers and Shakespeare scholars of the 20th century.

Greg was born at Wimbledon Common in 1875. His father, William Rathbone Greg, was an essayist; his mother was the daughter of James Wilson. As a child, Greg was expected one day to assume editorship of The Economist, which his grandfather had founded in 1843; Greg was educated at Wixenford, Harrow and at Trinity College of Cambridge University. At Cambridge he met Ronald McKerrow, whose friendship helped shape Greg's decision to pursue a career in literature. While still in school he compiled a list of Renaissance plays printed before 1700, and he joined the Bibliographical Society the same year. He was President of the Society from 1930 to 1932 and received its Gold Medal in 1935.

After school, Greg settled into a life of steady productivity, while living on the proceeds of his shares of The Economist. Working in close association with A. H. Bullen, he produced Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama, the first edited version of the account books of Philip Henslowe and the papers of Edward Alleyn. The latter two works provided him with a knowledge of Renaissance theatrical conditions perhaps rivaled only by E. K. Chambers, and this knowledge he applied to the publications of the Malone Society, which he served as general editor between 1906 and 1939. He served as Librarian of Trinity College, 1907-13, resigning after his marriage to his cousin Elizabeth Gaskell. As an independent scholar, Greg produced editions of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Robert Greene's Orlando Furioso and George Peele's The Battle of Alcazar, and Sir Thomas More. He returned to specific editing with work on Doctor Faustus. Greg also wrote on the material conditions of Renaissance theater and publishing; his work in this regard includes Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses and English Literary Autographs, 1550-1650. The Variants in the First Quarto of King Lear offered a careful examination of this printing. He also wrote hundreds of reviews, including a notably caustic rejection of J. Churton Collins's 1906 edition of Robert Greene.