TIMELINE OF THE

HISTORY OF
ENGLISH LITERATURE
➢ 440 AD - 1660 AD
➔ 44OAD -1066AD

Anglo Saxon Period

Poetry
➢ Beowulf - Anonymous
➢ Dream of the Rood - Cynewulf.
Prose
● The Anglo-Saxon Chronical - King Alfred.
● Historia Ecclesiastica Poetry Prose - Bede (translated by King Alfred or his
men)
➔ Anglo Saxon Features

➢ Oral tradition.
➢ Moralistic Epics.
➢ Translation of religious books and scriptures into English.
➔ 1066 AD - 1485 AD

Period Medieval

Poetry

➢ Canterbury tales - Geoffrey Chaucer

➢ Confessio Amantis - John Gower

Prose

● The Boethius & Astrolabe - Geoffrey Chaucer

● Translation of Bible to English - Roger Bacon
➔ Medieval Features

➢ Religious literature.
➢ Didactic literature.
➢ Oral Quality.
➢ Ballads and Allegorical Poetry
➢ Prominent Genres:
➢ Chivalry
➢ Courtly Love.
➢ Romance.
➔ 1485 AD - 1603 AD
Tudor Era
Poetry

➢ Tottel's Miscellany - Compilation of Wyatt & Howard's sonnets.

➢ Translation of Virgil’s Aeneid - Henry Howard

Prose

➢ The legend of shore’s Wife - Thomas Churchyard

➔ Tudor Features

➢ Petrarchan Sonnets.
➢ Secular Literature.
➢ Concept of Humanism
➔ 1500 AD - 1660 AD
Renaissance Era
Poetry
➢ Mediocrity In Love Rejected - Thomas Carew.
➢ To Penshurst - Robert Herrick.
Prose
➢ Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit - John Lyly.
➢ The Unfortunate Traveller - Thomas Nash.
➔ Renaissance Features

➢ Rebirth of Naturalism.
➢ Realistic & Humanistic Literature.
➢ Witty & Truthful Poetry.

Development of Drama by University Wits.