The History of English Literature

The literature of England is one of the highest achievements of a great nation. The language in which it is written has evolved over hundreds of years and is still changing. Several nations, including Canada, the United States, and Australia, are indebted to England for a literary heritage.

c. 658	An illiterate English shepherd named Caedmon composed (orally) his Hymn, which was commonly considered to be the earliest surviving Old English poem.
731 – 732	St. Bede the Venerable, theologian and chronologist,finished his historical work the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which contained the description of events from the raids of Julius Caesar to the development of Christianity in Britain.
	The only manuscript copy of the epic poem Beowulf, the oldest (c. 700 AD) of the great heroic epics written in English, was produced. Beowulf is an odd blend of Christianity and paganism. The story of Beowulf takes place in lands other than England, but the customs and manners described were those of the Anglo-Saxon people. This epic poem describes their heroic past.
	The medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was composed by an unknown English poet.
	The poem the Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman was written by a poet believed to be William Langland.
	The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer’s most enduring literary work and the project he devotedasbe sh himself to until his death, began in London.
	English writer Sir Thomas Melory finished in prison Le Morte d’Arthur, the first English prose account of King Arthur and Fellowship of the Round Table.
	Le Morte d’Arthur was edited and printed by William Caxton, the first English printer
	English Humanist poet Sir Thomas More published his masterpiece (written in Latin), Utopia
c. 1530	English poet Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the sonnet form into English poetry
	English poet Edmund Spenser published the Shepheardes Calender (Shepherd’s Calendar), which marked the beginning of the English Renaissance in literature.
1590 –1616	The “age” of the great English playwright William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, became an actor in London and then the creator of the world’s famous theatre “The Globe”. The poet wrote about the eternal things in life: love, death and high human aspirations. He reflected the spirit of the Renaissance. He taught to understand the essence of the human relations, passions and conflicts, and presented them with great dramatic vigour. “Richard III”, “Hamlet”, “Macbeth”, “Othello”, “King Lear”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Much Ado About Nothing” and other plays belong to the golden pages of world’s literature. William Shakespeare is also known as the author of poems and 154 sonnets.
	English playwright Christopher Marlow, whose Dr. Faustus and other plays introduced blank verse into English literature, was killed under mysterious circumstances.
	The 6 books of Edmund Spenser’s the Faerie (Fairy) Queen were published together in a single volume.
	British philosopher Sir Francis Bacon, one of the great masters of English prose, published the first edition of his Essays.
	Volpone and the Alchemist, English playwright Ben Johnson’s most successful satiric comedies, were written and performed between 1606 and 1610.
	British philosopher Thomas Hobbs published Leviathan, one of the great works of political philosophy.
	Samuel Pepys began his Diary, one of the most comprehensive and detailed portraits of English society during Restoration.
	John Milton published Paradise Lost, his masterpiece.
	The Way of the World, considered by many to be the wittiest and the most successful allegory in the English language, was completed by British playwright William Congreve.
	British writer and editor Sir Richard Steel founded the first famous London newspaper the Tatler.
	Another famous newspaper the Spectator was founded by Steel and his friend and partner Joseph Addison.
	English novelist Daniel Defoe published Robinson Crusoe, the first and the most famous of his series of adventure tales
	English novelist Jonathan Swift’s masterpiece, the satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels, was published and got critical success and controversy.
	English poet and playwright John Gay published his famous ballad-opera the Beggar’s Opera, considered to be the greatest theatrical success of the 18th century.
	English novelist Samuel Richardson published his epistolary novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded.
	“The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling” by Henry Fielding (a well-known English novelist and playwright) was published.
	Early Romantic British poet William Blake published his poetry collection Songs of Innocence and Experience.
	English Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published the most important collection of poems and essays in English literature, Lyrical Ballads.

 

Words:

heritage achievement raid enduring paganism medieval aspiration vigour playwright circumstance volume comprehensive epistolary controversy

наследие достижение набег длительный язычество средневековый стремление сила драматург обстоятельство том исчерпывающий эпистолярный спор