The Elizabethan era from 1550 to 1620 was considered England's Golden Age, most renowned for its literature. During this time, the Renaissance spirit flourished with developments in drama, poetry, and prose. William Shakespeare's works exemplified the intellectual improvement and flourishing of the English language during this period. Some of the most prominent authors that emerged included Edmund Spenser, Philip Sydney, Thomas Nashe, John Lyly, Christopher Marlowe, and Francis Bacon. The era also saw developments in theater and the first publications of regular newspapers in England.

1. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH
1550-1620

2. THE GOLDEN
AGE
THE GREATEST IN THE
HISTORY OF LITERATURE
RENAISSANCE
REFORMATION

3. Renaissance
period
Characteristics:
Renaissance spirit individualistic, realistic,
free, enthusiastic, was extremely strong
in England act, having by patriotism,
daring to as signified strong persistence
religious toleration, social secularized
harmony,
in inventing new things & very quickly
Drama mostly developed & high spirit.
intellectual improvement,
(Shakespeare) the works during that
All reflected in
Synthetic grammar (using form of words
period (golden age)
to show the relation between sentences
<old English>  Analytical grammar
Language became simpler
(using word order & functional words)
Early Modern English

4. HIGHLIGH
TS Edmund Spenser (1552 – 1599)  influenced by
Chaucer
The Faery Queen
 written in new stanza pattern called
Shepherd’s Calendar
 consists Stanza”
“Spenserianof 12 stanza, each represents one
month  pastoral century Italian artist)
Petrarch (The 14th lives
 allegorical purposes
Other poets
Thomas Sackville, Philip Sydney, George
Chapman, Michael Drayton

5. HIGHLIGH
TS Pastoral (1554 –  Arcadia by Philip Sydney
John Lilyromance1606)
 now Euphues the“pastoral nature” (1578)
Picaresque Chronicle derived from Spanish “picaro” meaning
identical with Anatomy of Wit

“criminal” feeling, moral contemplation
 commonof “gangster” novels
pioneer characters
Apologia later known withrougher language
 for Poetrie (1595)“euphuism” : consisting of long sentences
 realistic story & by Philip Sydney
 the first
& full of metaphors literary criticism in English
 Thomas Nash (1567 – 1601)
 based on Aristoteles’ The Life of
 The Unfortunate Traveller, principles Jack Wilton

Non-fictionlanguage used was very (1561 – 1626): a
(1594) prose by Francis Bacon complicated
philosopher, politician, judge, & artist
 The Advancement of Learning and Essays
 From “euphuism” to close-to-modern scientific prose
style: short & condensed

6. HIGHLIGH
TS Drama developed very rapidly during Elizabethan Age
Always  reaching its artistic level, no longer used to
started with “exposition”, followed with
Complication”or moral but to show human’s life with
teach religion and then “Climax” or ‘Crisis’, closed
“Denoument”
Classic Romantic Drama
John Lily& solution (in comedy) and disaster (in tragedy)
 developing euphuism comedies:
Ralph Roister Doister: the first comedy which
 Endymion, the Man
applied classical principles in the Moon, Alexander
and Campaspe
 classic Mythology and history the first British
playwright using “high comedy” the life & gentle
feeling of cultured people or top people

7. HIGHLIGH
TS Thomas Kid
 The Spanish Tragedy (1585)
Ben Jonson (1573-1637)
 passion as the Man in His Humour based on
 realism: Every theme
ancient inspired Marlowe & Shakespeare
Greek medical science about humour
 there are four substances in human body:
“blood”, “phlegm”, “choler”, & “black bile”. Volpone,
Other playwrights
 sensationalism:
The Alchemist.
 Beaumont, Fletcher, John Webster, Thomas Dekker
& Philip Massinger.

8. HIGHLIGH
TSCHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564-1593)
Marlowe is one of translatedsuggestive figuresthethe English
George Chapman the most Iliad (1611) and of Odyssey
Renaissance, and the greatest of Shakespeare's predecessors. The
(1614).
glory of the Elizabethan drama dates from his Tamburlaine (1587)
The first Tragedy
-"Gorboduc," was written by Thomas Sackville and
Thomas Norton, and was acted in 1562
The first Drama
-“- Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (c. 1585) first
gives us the drama, or rather the melodrama
The first Comedy
- "Ralph Royster Doyster.“ of Nicholas Udall
The first Theater
-The Theater, owned by James Burbage 1576

9. HIGHLIGH
TS The Authorized Version (AV), commonly known as the King
James Version (KJV) or King James Bible (KJB), is an English
translation of the Christian Bible by the Church of England
begun in 1604 and completed in 1611
1622, the first regular Newspaper was published, The
Weekly News.