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100 Stunning Facts of English Literature
100 Stunning Facts of English Literature
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1. Chaucer lived during the reigns of – Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV
6. William Langland’s The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman was
written in – 1362-90
9. The Hundred Years’ War was fought between – England and France
11. The War of Roses was fought between – The House of York and the House of
Lancaster
12. The War of Roses was fought during the period – 1455-86
13. Thomas Malory’s Morte De Arthur was written in – 1470 (published in 1485)
15. Thomas More’s Utopia was published in – 1516 (Latin), 1551 (English)
16. The First English Comedy, Roister Doister was written in – 1550
19. Gorboduc was written by – Thomas Sackville, Lord of Buckhurst & Thomas Norton
27. Dryden’s All for Love is based on Shakespeare’s – Antony and Cleopatra
28. Shakespeare’s Sonnets were published in – 1609
32. John Lyly’s Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit was published in 1579 and was
contemporary with – Shepheardes Calender.
33. White Devil and Duchess of Malfi were written by – John Webester
34. Ben Jonson’s first play Every Man in his Humour was published in – 1598
38. Bacon wrote essays in all – 106 essays (1st, 2nd, 3rd Edition – 10, 38, 58
essays)
41. The term ‘Augustan’ was first applied to school of Poets by – Dr. Johnson
43. Lyrical Ballads was published in – 1798 44. The leader of the Pre-Raphaelite in
England was – D.G. Rossetti
45. The founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England – William Holman Hunt
59. Andrea Del Sarto in Browning’s Dramatic Monologue was – A renowned Painter
61. Occleve in The Governail of Princes wrote a famous poem mourning the death of
Chaucer.
62. Caxton was the first to set up a printing press in England in 1476.
64. Tottle's Miscellany is a famous anthology of 'Songs and Sonnets' by Wyatt and
Surrey.
66. Thomas Mores' Utopia was first written in Latin in 1516. It was rendered into
English in 1551.
69. Chaucer's Physician in the Doctor of Physique was heavily dependent upon
Astrology.
72. Forest of Arden appears in the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare.
74. When Sidney died, Spenser wrote an elegy on his death called “Astrophel”
76. The first tragedy Gorboduc was later entitled as Ferrex and Porrex.
78. In his Apologie for Poetrie, Sidney defends the Three Dramatic Unities.
79. Christopher Marlowe wrote only tragedies. He first used Blank Verse in his Jew
of Malta.
80. "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships” . This line occurs in Doctor
Faustus by Marlowe.
81. Ben Jonson used the phrase 'Marlowe's mighty line' for Marlowe's Blank Verse.
82. Ruskin said, "Shakespeare has only heroines and no heroes".
83. The phrase 'The Mousetrap' used by Shakespeare in Hamlet. It is the play within
the play.
84. Spenser dedicates the Preface to The Faerie Queene to Sir Walter Raleigh.
85. The Faerie Queene is an allegory .In this Queen Elizabeth is allegorized
through the character of Gloriana.
88. In the original scheme or plan of the Faerie Queene as designed by Spenser, it
was to be completed in Twelve Books. But he could not complete the whole plan. Only
six books exist now.
90. In the Dedicatory Letter, Spenser Says that the real beginning of the allegory
in the Faerie Queene is to be found in Book XII.
91. The Faerie Queene is basically a moral allegory. Spenser derived this concept
of moral allegory from Aristotle.
93. Spenser divided his ‘Shepheardes Calender’ into twelve Ecologues. They
represent twelve months of a year.
97. Ten Essays were published in Bacon's First Edition of Essays in 1597.
98. 58 essays of Bacon were published in his third and last edition of Essays in
1625.
99. "......... a mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver,
which may make the metal work the better , but it embaseth it". These lines occur
in Bacon’s “Of Truth”.