2. The Faerie Queene – poem 1580
- allegory of how to attain Christian virtue, an imaginative reworking
of aspects of British history, folklore and mythology, and a poem in
praise of Elizabeth I
1600
Shakespeare - Hamlet produced play, very controversial
- Othello
- Letter about Guy Fawkes, letter stating want to e government, kill
King James I, and make James's daughter a Catholic head of state.
1607
Newsbook - Newsbooks were the ancestors of newspapers, printed at
this time in editions of up to 250 copies, official statements about
public events
1608
Shakespeare, King Lear
1609
English arrives in North America
1609
Shakespeare's Sonnets collection of 154 sonnets, first printed in 1609
3. 1611
King James Bible - King James or Authorised Version of
the Bible. its language achieved greater prestige than
previous translations
1613
Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall - first single-language
English dictionary ever published. Was attempt to explain
‘hard’ words – about 3000 in it
1616
The Globe Theatre – Shakespeare showed plays
1623
This is the first collected edition of the Shakespeare's
plays, published in 1623
1640
Ben Jonson, The English Grammar considers syntax and
spelling, and is one of the first writers to leave us a clear
indication of the pronunciation of English.
4. 1644
Import of illege texts coming into the country ie Areopagitica
by John Milton
(not until 1695 that the laws on printing were relaxed,
allowing for a blossoming of newspapers and provincial
presses.)
1653
Map of London made - Early A - Z of London
1665-1666 – the great plague
1666- the great fire of london
1667- John Milton's Paradise Lost – poem on satan and adam
and eve
1667
Criminal slang: The Canting Academy - records the customs,
phrases and songs of urban villains and scoundrels. The book
contains one of England's first dictionaries of criminal slang
(1600s onwards, Britain saw a huge expansion in trade.
Shipping traffic in the English Channel)
5. 1700
1712 - Jonathan Swift, A Proposal Improving and
Ascertaining the English Language, - English
language, according to satirist Jonathan Swift, was
in chaos. But came to nothing.
1724 - Trade and the English language - Dutch,
French and English companies established rival
trading posts in India – portegees had good
economic success
1730 – trading with east india – allow for tea, china
ect – infuluences our language ‘borrowing’
1731 - English influence on West Indies
(5 million people in 1700 to nearly 9 million by
1801)
1755 – Johnsons dictionary – contains 40,000
words
6. 1762 - Lowth’s grammar - fulfilled the demand
among a growing middle class for guidance on
how to use ‘polite’ or ‘correct’ English.
1764 – first gothic novel
1775 - Captain Cook's journal - voyages to
explore and survey Newfoundland, Australia,
New Zealand and the Pacific
1775 - A Journey to the Western Islands of
Scotland - is both an early example of travel
writing and a remarkably detailed piece of
cultural anthropology.
1776 – US declaration of independence
7. • 1780 - English-language newspaper published
in the Indian sub-continent
• 1789 – slave bought way out of slavery –
wrote book = book formed an important part
of the campaign to abolish slavery
• 1791 - Walker’s correct pronunciation -
guidance on how to speak correctly – he
didn’t like accents/dialect (prescriptivism?)
• 1792 - Wollstonecraft's Rights of Woman –
first great feminist writing
8. 1800’s
• 1811 - Guide to ladies’ fashion and etiquette
• 1815 - Alphabet books – more colourfull and for
fun (appeared in English lang 2 contraries before
however)
• 1815 – battle waterloo - French Emperor
Napoleon was defeated in battle for the last time.
• In the early 19th century, coloured illustrations
and rhyming poetry became popular for children
• 19th century authors wrote dialect poetry,
• punctuation rules we use today were still
developing in the early 19th century, and there
was much confusion
9. (1837 – Victoria becomes queen)
- 1835 - Modern Flash Dictionary – compiled of many
earlier sources, aimed at young working men
interested in sport, gambling and drinking. – had terms
for criminal activity/sporting terms
- 1837 – dickens used London slang in writing, establish
it???
- 1848 - The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels –formed the basis for the modern
communist movement as we know it, arguing that
capitalism would inevitably self-destruct, to be
replaced by socialism and ultimately communism.
- - end 18th c Received Pronunciation (RP) began to
establish itself as the accent of the educated and
aristocratic classes
- (end 19thc elocution lessons and learning correct
pronunciation was popular among the middle classes)
10. - Humorous and satirical periodicals flourished in
Britain and the United States during the 19th
century eg punch magazine
- 1857 - Mary Seacole's autobiography, women
becoming more prominent figures in society
- Middle 19th c, folk or nursery rhymes were a
routine part of a child’s education. Books being
published
- 1800-1900 – coal mining booming now, growth in
technology/fuel resources
- -1860
- The Woman in White was the first example of the
Victorian ‘sensation novel, had dramma,
suspence, passion, shows these things became
less politically incorrect to read/write about
11. • 1864 – the queens English - earliest and most
influential style manuals, addressing things
people find difficult
• 1866 - Letter from Charles Darwin – his works
published on the beginning of humanity
• 19th centurat text message poetry - Linguistic and
literary games were popular before radio,
television or the internet came along.
• 1860-70 changes: the sewing machine arrived
bringing costs down, and synthetic dyes enabled
intense colours
12. • 1800’s – freak show posters (circus)
• 1876 -Alexander Graham Bell had invented the
telephone.
• Illusionists and conjurers – popular
entertainment in victorian times
• 1879 an agreement was reached with Oxford
University Press to begin work on a revolutionary
New English Dictionary.
• New English dictionary (oed)
-1884-1928 published in fascicles
13. • 1885 – the adventures of huckleberry, mark
twain - early representation of African-
American dialects
• 1886 - Hobson-Jobson, Anglo-Indian
dictionary
• 1888 – jack the ripper
• -Babu, or Baboo, English of India
• 1898 - Aboriginal and Maori words soon
entered the language of the earliest English-
speaking colonists in Australia and New
Zealand
14. • 1902 – Rudyard Kipling children's writer popular
• 1904 – Conan Doyle, Sherlock
• 1907 – Pankhurst, leaders of the women's
suffrage movement in Britain
• 1917 - Wilfred Owen is among the most famous
poets of the First World War
• 1925 – art in poetry, Typography and text layout
became the playthings of poets during the 20th
century, cummings, writing poetry so it goes in
shapes
• 1925, Virginia wolf, mrs dalloway, new stylre
writing,'stream of consciousness'
15. • 1928 – different dialects appearing in books, eg
Nottinghamshire
• Bbc - In 1926 its Director General, Sir John Reith, set up
an Advisory Committee on Spoken English to
recommend to broadcasters a standard pronunciation
for uncommon words or words with alternative
pronunciations
• 1939 - World War II ultimatum letter
• 1929 – immigration from india, A 1948 Act gave
Commonwealth citizens free entry to Britain,
• 1950s and 60s Britain saw an increase in its Chinese
community due to the influx of Hong Kong Chinese.
Many of these newcomers went into the restaurant
business, setting up takeaways across the UK,
16. • 1960’s – beetles, music, hippies
• 1969 – man on the moon
• UK Women's Liberation was a feminist
movement which emerged with force in the
late 1960s and early 1970s – feminism
movements
• 70’s – punk zines, sex pistols
