c
 

  
Most novels set in the sixth through eleventh centuries are set either in medieval Anglo-Saxon
England or in Celtic parts of the British Isles. A few which are set in Continental Europe about a
variety of subjects are listed at the end of this page.

The roots of Anglo-Saxon England lie in the fifth century. No longer under Roman protection,
the Britons invited groups of Saxons to settle on the eastern coast and defend the land from
invaders. The migration continued, and the Saxons multiplied and came to occupy most of the
east and central part of Britain south of Scotland. One of the earliest Saxon kings in Britain
whose name we know was Cerdic, who founded the Kingdom of Wessex in the sixth century.

In 597, St. Augustine landed in Kent to convert the Saxons to

Christianity. His rapid success did not hold and required fortifying
over the following decades, but a monastery founded on the Isle of
Lindisfarne in 635 helped establish Anglo-Saxon England as a
Christian country. In 793, Vikings attacked Lindisfarne, beginning
a wave of terrifying raids culminating in 866 with the capture of
what is now York by Danish Vikings who settled there and began
expanding their territory.

King Alfred the Great, one of Cerdic's successors, defended

Wessex from the Danes, establishing a boundary between the
Danish north and the Saxon south. Several nineteenth century authors wrote romanticized
adventure novels set during the time of Alfred the Great; modern authors from Alfred Duggan on |

'
  (c. 1343 ± 25 October 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher,
bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his
unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English
literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic
legitimacy of the vernacular Middle English, rather than French or Latin.

m


 





m m 


 
 is a deistic
pamphlet, written by eighteenth-century British radical and American revolutionary Thomas
Paine, that criticizes institutionalized religion and challenges the legitimacy of the Bible.
Published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807, it was a bestseller in America, where it caused
a short-lived deistic revival. British audiences, however, fearing increased political radicalism as
a result of the French Revolution, received it with more hostility. The Age of Reason presents
common deistic arguments; for example, it highlights what Paine saw as corruption of the
Christian Church and criticizes its efforts to acquire political power. Paine advocates reason in
the place of revelation, leading him to reject miracles and to view the Bible as an ordinary piece
of literature rather than as a divinely inspired text. It promotes natural religion and argues for a
creator-God.

Most of Paine's arguments had long been available to the educated elite, but by presenting them
in an engaging and irreverent style, he made deism appealing and accessible to a mass audience.
The book was also inexpensive, putting it within the reach of a large number of buyers. Fearing
the spread of what they viewed as potentially revolutionary ideas, the British government
prosecuted printers and booksellers who tried to publish and distribute it. Paine nevertheless
inspired and guided many British freethinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and his
influence and spirit endures in the works of contemporary writers like Christopher Hitchens.


 
X1] (baptised 26 February 1564±30 May 1593) was an English
dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedianX÷ tat on
needed]
, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching
protagonists, and his mysterious death.

A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May 1593. No reason for it was given, though it
was thought to be connected to allegations of blasphemy²a manuscript believed to have been
written by Marlowe was said to contain "vile heretical conceipts." He was brought before the
Privy Council for questioning on 20 May, after which he had to report to them daily. Ten days
later, he was stabbed to death by Ingram Frizer. Whether the stabbing was connected to his arrest
has never been resolved.X2]

Marlowe was born to a shoemaker in Canterbury named John Marlowe and his wife Catherine.X3]
His date of birth is not known, but he was baptised on 26 February 1564, and likely to have been
born a few days before. Thus he was just two months older than his great contemporary
Shakespeare, who was baptised on 26 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Marlowe attended The King's School, Canterbury (where a house is now named after him) and
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on a scholarship and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in
1584.X4] In 1587 the university hesitated to award him his master's degree because of a rumour
that he had converted to Roman Catholicism and intended to go to the English college at Rheims
to prepare for the priesthood. However, his degree was awarded on schedule when the Privy
Council intervened on his behalf, commending him for his "faithful dealing" and "good service"
to the Queen.X5] The nature of Marlowe's service was not specified by the Council, but its letter to
the Cambridge authorities has provoked much speculation, notably the theory that Marlowe was
operating as a secret agent working for Sir Francis Walsingham's intelligence service.X6] No
direct evidence supports this theory, although the Council's letter is evidence that Marlowe had
served the government in some capacity.

_  
|

 do, Queen of Carthage was Marlowe's first drama. Marlowe's first play performed on stage in
London was Tamburla ne (1587) about the conqueror Timur, who rises from shepherd to
warrior. It is among the first English plays in blank verse,X7] and, with Thomas Kyd's The Span sh
Tragedy, generally is considered the beginning of the mature phase of the Elizabethan theatre.
Tamburla ne was a success, and was followed with Tamburla ne Part II. The sequence of his
plays is unknown; all deal with controversial themes.

The Jew of Malta, about a Maltese Jew's barbarous revenge against the city authorities, has a
prologue delivered by a character representing Machiavelli.

Edward the Se÷ond is an English history play about the deposition of King Edward II by his
barons and the Queen, who resent the undue influence the king's favourites have in court and
state affairs.

The Massa÷re at Par s is a short and luridly written work, probably a reconstruction from
memory of the original performance text,X8] portraying the events of the Saint Bartholomew's
Day Massacre in 1572, which English Protestants invoked as the blackest example of Catholic
treachery. It features the silent "English Agent", whom subsequent tradition has identified with
Marlowe himself and his connections to the secret service.X9] Along with The Trag ÷al H story of
o÷tor Faustus, The Massa÷re at Par s is considered his most dangerous play, as agitators in
London seized on its theme to advocate the murders of refugees from the low countries and,
indeed, it warns Elizabeth I of this possibility in its last scene.X10]X11]

The Trag ÷al H story of o÷tor Faustus, based on the German Faustbuch, was the first
dramatised version of the Faust legend of a scholar's dealing with the devil. While versions of
"The Devil's Pact" can be traced back to the 4th century, Marlowe deviates significantly by
having his hero unable to "burn his books" or repent to a merciful God in order to have his
contract annulled at the end of the play. Marlowe's protagonist is instead torn apart by demons
and dragged off screaming to hell. Dr Faustus is a textual problem for scholars as it was highly
edited (and possibly censored) and rewritten after Marlowe's death. Two versions of the play
exist: the 1604 quarto, also known as the A text, and the 1616 quarto or B text. Many scholars
believe that the A text is more representative of Marlowe's original because it contains irregular
character names and idiosyncratic spelling: the hallmarks of a text that used the author's
handwritten manuscript, or "foul papers", as a major source.

Marlowe's plays were enormously successful, thanks in part, no doubt, to the imposing stage
presence of Edward Alleyn. He was unusually tall for the time, and the haughty roles of
Tamburlaine, Faustus, and Barabas were probably written especially for him. Marlowe's plays
were the foundation of the repertoire of Alleyn's company, the Admiral's Men, throughout the
1590s.

Marlowe also wrote Hero and Leander (published with a continuation by George Chapman in
1598), the popular lyric The Pass onate Shepherd to H s Love, and translations of Ovid's Amores
and the first book of Lucan's Pharsal a.

The two parts of Tamburla ne were published in 1590; all Marlowe's other works were published
posthumously. In 1599, his translation of Ovid was banned and copies publicly burned as part of
Archbishop Whitgift's crackdown on offensive material.

þ
 (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616)Xa] was an English
poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the
world's pre-eminent dramatist.X1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of
Avon".X2]Xb] His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,Xc] 154
sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into
every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.X3]

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne
Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between
1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a
playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears
to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of
Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such
matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed
to him were written by others.X4]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.X5]Xd] His early plays were
mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the
end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet,
K ng Lear, and Ma÷beth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last
phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other
playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime.
In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of
his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise
to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed
Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George
Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".X6] In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and
rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly
popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and
political contexts throughout the world.

i


William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, a successful glover and alderman
originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer.X7]
He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised on 26 April 1564. His actual birthdate is
unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George's Day.X8] This date, which can be
traced back to an 18th-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing because Shakespeare died
on 23 April 1616.X9] He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son.X10]

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare
may have been educated at the King's New School in Stratford,X11] a free school chartered in
1553,X12] about a quarter of a mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the
Elizabethan era, but the curriculum was dictated by law throughout England,X13] and the school
would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and the classics

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of
the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. Two of Hathaway's
neighbours posted bonds the next day as surety that there were no impediments to the
marriage.X14] The couple may have arranged the ceremony in some haste, since the Worcester
chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times.X15] Anne's
pregnancy could have been the reason for this. Six months after the marriage, she gave birth to a
daughter, Susanna, who was baptised on 26 May 1583.X16] Twins, son Hamnet and daughter
Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised on 2 February 1585.X17] Hamnet died of
unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried on 11 August 1596.X18]

After the birth of the twins, there are few historical traces of Shakespeare until he is mentioned
as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. Because of this gap, scholars refer to the years
between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years".X19] Biographers attempting to account for
this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare¶s first
biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape
prosecution for deer poaching.X20] Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his
theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London.X21] John Aubrey reported that
Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster.X22] Some 20th-century scholars have suggested
that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of
Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will.X23] No
evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death and the name
Shakeshafte was common in the Lancashire area.X24]



   was the century which lasted from 1601 to 1700 in the Gregorian
calendar.
The 17th century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and in that continent was
characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the French 'rand S
÷le dominated by Louis
XIV, the Scientific Revolution, and The General Crisis. This last is characterised in Europe most
notably by the Thirty Years' War,X1] the Great Turkish War, the end of the Dutch Revolt, the
disintegration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the English Civil War.

Some historians extend the scope of the General Crisis to encompass the globe, as with the
demographic collapse of the Ming Dynasty, China lost approximately 30% of its population. It
was during this period also that European colonization of the Americas began in earnest,
including the exploitation of the fabulously wealthy silver deposits of Potosí and Mexico which
resulted in great bouts of inflation as wealth was drawn into Europe from the rest of the world.

In the midst of this global General Crisis, there were victory and triumph: In the Near East, the
Ottoman, Safavid Persian and Mughal empires grew in strength. Farther east in Japan, Tokugawa
Ieyasu established the Edo period at the beginning of the century, starting the isolationist Sakoku
policy that was to last until the 19th Century. In China, the collapsing Ming Dynasty was
challenged by a series of conquests led by the Manchu warlord Nurhaci which were consolidated
by his son Hong Taiji and finally consummated by his grandson, the Shunzi Emperor, founder of
the Qing Dynasty.

European politics during the Crisis were dominated by the France of Louis XIV, where royal
power was solidified domestically in the civil war of the Fronde, in which the semi-feudal
territorial French nobility was weakened and subjugated to the power of an absolute monarchy
through the reinvention of the Palace of Versailles from a hunting lodge to a gilded prison in
which a greatly expanded royal court could be more easily kept under surveillance. With
domestic peace assured, Louis XIV caused the borders of France to be expanded to include,
among other regions, Rousillon, Artois, Dunkirk, Franche-Comté, Strasbourg, Alsace and
Lorraine.

By the end of the century, Europeans were also aware of logarithms, electricity, the telescope
and microscope, calculus, universal gravitation, Newton's Laws of Motion, air pressure and
calculating machines due to the work of the first scientists of the Scientific Revolution, including
Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Pierre Fermat, Robert Hooke,
Robert Boyle Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and William Gilbert among other luminaries.

List of 17th century inventions

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°     is the English literature written during the historical period
commonly referred to as the English Restoration (1660±1689), which corresponds to the last
years of the direct Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is
used to denote roughly homogeneous styles of literature that centre on a celebration of or
reaction to the restored court of Charles II. It is a literature that includes extremes, for it
encompasses both Parad se Lost and the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high-spirited sexual
comedy of The Country W fe and the moral wisdom of The P lgr m's Progress. It saw Locke's
Treat ses of 'overnment, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments and holy
meditations of Robert Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier, and the
pioneering of literary criticism from John Dryden and John Dennis. The period witnessed news
become a commodity, the essay develop into a periodical art form, and the beginnings of textual
criticism.

The dates for Restoration literature are a matter of convention, and they differ markedly from
genre to genre. Thus, the "Restoration" in drama may last until 1700, while in poetry it may last
only until 1666 (see 1666 in poetry) and the annus m rab l s; and in prose it might end in 1688,
with the increasing tensions over succession and the corresponding rise in journalism and
periodicals, or not until 1700, when those periodicals grew more stabilised. In general, scholars
use the term "Restoration" to denote the literature that began and flourished under Charles II,
whether that literature was the laudatory ode that gained a new life with restored aristocracy, the
eschatological literature that showed an increasing despair among Puritans, or the literature of
rapid communication and trade that followed in the wake of England's mercantile empire.

c
° þ
 
c
° 
The Age of Reason was an eighteenth-century movement which followed hard after the mysticism, religion, and
superstition of the Middle Ages. The Age of Reason represented a genesis in the way man viewed himself, the
pursuit of knowledge, and the universe. In this time period, man¶s previously held concepts of conduct and thought
could now be challenged verbally and in written form; fears of being labeled a heretic or being burned at the stake
were done away with. This was the beginning of an open society where individuals were free to pursue individual
happiness and liberty. Politically and socially, the imperial concepts of the medieval world were abandoned. The
Age of Reason included the shorter time period described as the Age of Enlightenment; during this time great
changes occurred in scientific thought and exploration. New ideas filled the horizon and man was eager to explore
these ideas, freely.

German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, defined enlightenment this way: ³Enlightenment is the liberation of man from
his self-caused state of minority. Minority is the incapacity of using one¶s understanding without the direction of
another. This state of minority is self-caused when its source lies not in a lack of understanding but in a lack of
determination to use it without the assistance of another.´

The Age of Reason need not necessarily be viewed as a high point in the history of man. Man began to embrace an
exaggerated belief in the perfection of humanity based on reason and clear thinking; they happily abandoned
reliance on biblical truth and lost their fear of God. Leaving the medieval extremes of mysticism and superstition
they swung to the other extremes of reason and rationality, overlooking the subtle shades of grey in between.

c
° ° °    ! 

 
The Age of Reason brought about a great change in the tale of man¶s sojourn on earth. Reason, rationality and
enlightenment became the new µgods.¶ For the previous seventeen hundred years the perfection of man was only to
be obtained through grace after death. The Protestant revolt to the Catholic Church and subsequent µholy wars¶ had
done nothing to change the accepted underlying beliefs of society: revelation was the source of ultimate truth and
could only be received as a communication from God. This was the basis of Christianity. Now, in this new age, man
felt obligated to follow his own intellect, not µrevealed¶ truth. Earth and emphasis on nature became the new dogma;
miracles, prophecy, and religious rites were mere superstitions. Reason, philosophically, is defined as the ability to
form and operate upon concepts in abstraction, narrowing information to its bare content, without emotion.
Rationality carries the dual implication of ordered inference and comprehension along with understanding and
explanation. Enlightenment is more or less the application of reason and rationality to previously held beliefs
resulting in broader, clearer thinking.

The Age of Reason saw the introduction of the Scientific Revolution and various progressions of new schools of
thought. Dualism advocated by Descartes taught that God (mind) and man (nature) were distinct. Baruch Spinoza
introduced the idea of pantheism, namely, God and the universe are one and further that, ³God was a substance
consisting of infinite attributes.´ Believers in Deism, described as the religion of reason rejected Christianity as a
body of revelation, mysterious and incomprehensible. God¶s revelation, believed Deists, was simple, logical and
clear-cut, a natural religion which always existed.


"  !
The Victorian era is generally agreed to stretch through the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901).
It was a tremendously exciting period when many artistic styles, literary schools, as well as,
social, political and religious movements flourished. It was a time of prosperity, broad imperial
expansion, and great political reform. It was also a time, which today we associate with
"prudishness" and "repression". Without a doubt, it was an extraordinarily complex age, that has
sometimes been called the Second English Renaissance. It is, however, also the beginning of
Modern Times.

The social classes of England were newly reforming, and fomenting. There was a churning
upheaval of the old hierarchical order, and the middle classes were steadily growing. Added to
that, the upper classes' composition was changing from simply hereditary aristocracy to a
combination of nobility and an emerging wealthy commercial class. The definition of what made
someone a gentleman or a lady was, therefore, changing at what some thought was an alarming
rate. By the end of the century, it was silently agreed that a gentleman was someone who had a
liberal public (private) school education (preferably at Eton, Rugby, or Harrow), no matter what
his antecedents might be. There continued to be a large and generally disgruntled working class,
wanting and slowly getting reform and change.

Conditions of the working class were still bad, though, through the century, three reform bills
gradually gave the vote to most males over the age of twenty-one. Contrasting to that was the
horrible reality of child labor which persisted throughout the period. When a bill was passed
stipulating that children under nine could not work in the textile industry, this in no way applied
to other industries, nor did it in any way curb rampant teenaged prostitution.

The Victorian Era was also a time of tremendous scientific progress and ideas. Darwin took his
Voyage of the Beagle, and posited the Theory of Evolution. The Great Exhibition of 1851 took
place in London, lauding the technical and industrial advances of the age, and strides in medicine
and the physical sciences continued throughout the century. The radical thought associated with
modern psychiatry began with men like Sigmund Feud toward the end of the era, and radical
economic theory, developed by Karl Marx and his associates, began a second age of revolution
in mid-century. The ideas of Marxism, socialism, feminism churned and bubbled along with all
else that happened.
The dress of the early Victorian era was similar to the the Georgian age. Women wore corsets,
balloonish sleeves and crinolines in the middle 1840's. The crinoline thrived, and expanded
during the 50's and 60's, and into the 70's, until, at last, it gave way to the bustle. The bustle held
its own until the 1890's, and became much smaller, going out altogether by the dawning of the
twentieth century. For men, following Beau Brummell's example, stove-pipe pants were the
fashion at the beginning of the century. Their ties, known then as cravats, and the various ways
they might be tied could change, the styles of shirts, jackets, and hats also, but trousers have
remained. Throughout the century, it was stylish for men to wear facial hair of all sizes and
descriptions. The clean shaven look of the Regency was out, and mustaches, mutton-chop
sideburns, Piccadilly Weepers, full beards, and Van Dykes (worn by Napoleon III) were the
order of the day.

The "prudishness" and "repressiveness" that we associate with this era is, I believe, a somewhat
erroneous association. Though, people referred to arms and legs as limbs and extremities, and
many other things that make us titter, it is, in my opinion, because they had a degree of modesty
and a sense of propriety that we hardly understand today. The latest biographies of Queen
Victoria describe her and her husband, Albert, of enjoying erotic art, and certainly we know
enough about the Queen from the segment on her issue, to know that she did not in anyway shy
away from the marriage bed. The name sake of this period was hardly a prude, but having said
that, it is necessary to understand that the strictures and laws for 19th Century Society were so
much more narrow and defined that they are today, that we must see this era as very codified and
strict. Naturally, to an era that takes more liberties, this would seem harsh and unnatural.

Culturally, the novel continued to thrive through this time. Its importance to the era could easily
be compared to the importance of the plays of Shakespeare for the Elizabethans. Some of the
great novelists of the time were: Sir Walter Scott, Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Bronte, Anthony
Trollope, George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, and, of course, Charles Dickens. That is not to say that
poetry did not thrive - it did with the works of the Brownings, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the verse
of Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling.

An art movement indicative of this period was the Pre-Raphaelites, which included William
Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and John Everett Millais. Also during
this period were the Impressionists, the Realists, and the Fauves, though the Pre-Raphaelites
were distinctive for being a completely English movement.

As stated in the beginning, the Victorian Age was an extremely diverse and complex period. It
was, indeed, the precursor of the modern era. If one wishes to understand the world today in
terms of society, culture, science, and ideas, it is imperative to study this era.