Elizabethan Age

INTRODUCTION
1. Elizabethan literature refers to bodies of work produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth|
(1558-1603), and is one of the most splendid ages of English literature.
2. Elizabethan age is also called as renaissance age which means rebirth of learning and culture’.
Renaissance is a movement that began in Italy around 16th century and attained its peak in
Britain in this age.
3. Elizabethan age is also called the greatest age of history of English Literature because it has
drama and the theatre, it saw a flowering of poetry, with new forms like the sonnet, the
Spenserian stanza, And dramatic blank verse.
4. As well as prose, including historical chronicles, pamphlets

CHARACTERISTICS
1. It was an age of growth in both intellectual and imaginative domains.
2. In 1578 the opening of London’s first theatre ‘the theatre’ was opened by Charles Burbage.
3. In 1600 the East India company was also founded in this Elizabethan age.
4. It is an age of dreams, of adventure, of unbounded enthusiasm springing from the new lands of
fabulous riches revealed by English explorers. Drake sails around the world in 1577-80.

6. In this age Miracle and Mystery plays also flourished.

7. The earliest miracle play which we have record in England is the Lusus de sancta Katharina, which was
performed in Dunstable about the year 1110.

8. The first comedy play of this age was ‘Ralph Royster Doyster. It was written by Nicholas Udhall,
master of Eton, and was first acted by schoolboys sometime before 1556.

9. The first tragedy play was ‘Gorboduc’ which was written by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, and
was acted in 1562.

IMPORTANT WRITERS AND WORKS

I have divided the writers and works into three categories

1. Poetry writers

2. Prose writers

3. Drama writers.

POETRY WRITERS:
1. EDMUND SPENSER:

His masterpiece work was the Faerie queen’ (1589-1595) which was written in allegory style. The faerie
queen is queen Elizabeth.
In faerie Queen Spenser used a nine- line stanza which is now called the Spenserian stanza.

He also wrote ‘Amoretti” (1595) which are sonnets of love and Epithalamion’ which is an ode.

Spenser also wrote ‘Hymnes in honour of love and Beautie’ in which he set forth his philosophy.

He also wrote Shepheardes calendar (1579) which is an allegory poetry.

2. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY:

He was a scholar, knight and a courtier.

In 1580, he wrote ‘Arcadia’ which has a blend of pastoral and heroic elements, it is a romance poem.

He also wrote ‘Apologie for Poetrie’ in 1595 written in an unaffected prose.

3. JOHN LYLY (1554-1606)

JOHN LYLY has invented an artistic, flowery style called ‘Euphism’Through his famous romance,
‘Eupheus, the anatomy of wit’(1579).

4. BEN JOHNSON:

Ben Johnson was the greatest humanist of this age. Ben Johnson’s famous poetry is collection like
“Epigrams and the Forest’ (1616) and The Underwoods (1640).

PROSE WRITERS AND THEIR WORK:

1. ROBERT GREENE wrote ‘Mamilia and Menaphon’.

2. THOMAS LODGE wrote Rosalynde: Eupheus golden Legacie (1590)

3. THOMAS NASHE wrote pamphlets like the Anatomie of absurdities and the terrors of the night.

4. RICHARD HOOKER famous work was the pamphlet on the Marlin Marplelate controversy. Of the law
of ecclesiastical polity (1594) is a masterpiece of English prose by Richard hooker

5. FRANCIS BACON:

He usually writes on religious literature, secular or philosophical literature.

His most popular work was his Essays written on diverse topics in a terse, epigrammatic style.

DRAMA WRITERS AND THEIR WORKS:

Drama was written in this age as pure tragedy, tragicomedy, Historical drama, romantic comedy,
comedy of errors, farse, pastoral etc.

1. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

Shakespeare was the most popular and the most important writer of this Elizabethan age.

He wrote around 37 plays and 154 sonnets.

“Shakespeare was not of an age but for all times” and “poets are born not made” wrote ben johnson
about Shakespeare. Shakespeare in his plays uses prose and blank verse form.

Shakespeare’s historical plays:

1. RICHARD II (1596)

2. KING JOHN (1595)

Shakespeare’s comedies are:

1. AS YOU LIKE IT (1600)

2. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1596)

3. TWELFTH NIGHT(1596)

Shakespeare’s ‘Mignight summer dream’ was a fairy play.Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was a
tragicomedy.Hamlet’ by Shakespeare was the most famous and popular tragedies.‘The tempest’ by
Shakespeare was his last play.

2. CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE:

Marlowe wrote Tamburlaine, the great (1587) and Doctor Faustus (1592). Doctor Faustus is an allegory
on the renaissance love of power Marlow also wrote the Jew of Malta’ and the historical play “Edward l.
Marlowe also uses blank verse form in his writings.

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