Between 1000 and 1100
Probable period of full development of Christmas and Easter cycles of plays in Western Europe
1000
Anglo-Saxon *Gospels* written
1000
*Beowulf* manuscript written
Between 1000 and 1025
The *Exeter Book*: Anglo-Saxon manuscript containing Cynewulf poems
Between 1000 and 1100
*Vercelli Book*: Anglo-Saxon manuscript containing *Andreas*, etc.
Between 1017 and 1042
Danish kings (Canute to Hardicanute)
Between 1042 and 1066
Saxon kings restored (Edward the Confessor to Harold II)
1086
*Domesday Book*: important English census
Between 1087 and 1100
Centralization of kingdom under William II
Between 1096 and 1099
The First Crusade
Between 1100 and 1350
Anglo Norman Period
Between 1100 and 1250
Icelandic sagas written: *Grettirsaga, Volsungsaga*, etc.
Between 1100 and 1250
Great period of French poetry begins
1124
*Life of Anselm* - Eadmer. Human element in biography
1125
Henry of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury: chronicles.
Between 1125 and 1300
Latin chronicles flourish
Between 1129 and 1165
*Chanson de Roland*: French epic
1135
History of the Kings of Britain - Geoffrey of Monmouth
1154
End of entries in *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* (Peterborough)
1190
Speculum stultorum (Lat.) - Nigel de Longchamps. "The Fools' Looking-glass."
1200
Walter Map, court satirist, flourishes
1200
*Prose Edda* - Snorri Sturluson
1200
Orm, *Ormulum*: scriptural poem
Between 1200 and 1250
The Vulgate Romances
1230
*Heimskringla* - Snorri Sturluson
1250
*The Owl and the Nightingale* - Nicholas of Guilford
Between 1250 and 1300
*Sir Tristem, Floris and Blanchefleur:* romances.
1250
The "Cuckoo Song" (Sumer is icumenin)
1258
Henry III makes proclaimation in English (as well as French)
1270
*Roman de la Rose* - Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun
Between 1300 and 1400
English displaces French in speech of upper classes...
1300
"Travels" - Marco Polo
Between 1300 and 1350
*Guy of Warwick, Havelok the Dane, Richard Lionheart, Amis and Amiloun:* romances.
Between 1307 and 1321
*Divina Commedia* - Dante
1311
Feast of Corpus Christi - popularization of cyclic plays, pageants.
1321
Divine Comedy - Dante
1328
Chester cycle of plays composed
Between 1337 and 1453
The Hundred Years War
1340
*The Pricke of Conscience* - anonymous
1340
*Water Margin* - Shi Naian (also attributed to Luo Guanzhong)
1342
"Ameto" - Boccacchio "first pastoral romance"
Between 1348 and 1350
The Black Death in England
Between 1350 and 1500
Middle English Period
1350
*Ecologues* - Petrarch
1350
*Decameron* - Boccacchio
Between 1350 and 1400
Middle English French romances: *Sir Eglamour; Morte Arthure; Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight; Athelston; William of Palerne; Sir Ferumbras; Sir Isumbras.*
1350
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms* - Luo Guanzhong
1356
*Voyage and Travels* - "Sir John Mandeville"
1370
*Book of the Duchess* - Chaucer
1375
*The Bruce* - Barbour
1375
"Pasternoster" and "Creed" plays acted: forerunners of morality plays.
1379
*House of Fame* - Chaucer
1380
Wycliffe English Bible translation
1383
*Troilus and Crisyde* - Chaucer
1385
*The Legend of Good Women* - Chaucer
1387
"Prologue" to *Canterbury Tales* - Chaucer
1388
*The Testament of Love* - Usk(?)
1390
*Confessio Amantis* - Gower
Between 1400 and 1450
Later romances in prose and verse
Between 1400 and 1425
Wakefield cycle of plays (manuscript circa 1450)
1400
*Chronicles* - Froissart
1400
*The Pride of Life* - earliest morality play
1405
*Castle of Perserverance* - earliest full morality play
1412
*The Regiment of Princes* written - Hoccleve
1415
*Troy Book* - Lydgate
Between 1422 and 1509
The *Paston Letters:* family correspondence reflecting social conditions
1425
Humanism active under patronage of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester: Lydgate, Pecock, etc.
1440
*Promptorium Parvulorum* - Galfridus Grammaticus; English-Latin word list, beginning of English lexicography
1450
Gutenburg press - modern print begins
1450
"Tiptoft" School of humanists active
1450
Beginning of Lowland Scots as northern literary dialect
Between 1450 and 1525
Scottish Chaucerians: Henryson, Dunbar, Douglas, and probably King James I of Scotland
1455
War of the Roses begins: depressing effect on literary activity.
1461
*Le grand testement* - Villon
1469
*Morte D'arthur* written - Sir Thomas Mallory
1474
Caxton prints fist English book (*Recuyell of the Histories of Troy*)
1477
Caxton press set up at Westminster: first printing press in England.
1485
War of the Roses ends
Between 1490 and 1520
"Oxford Reformers" (Linacre, Grocyn, Colet, Erasmus, More) active.
1491
Greek taught at Oxford
1497
*Fulgens and Lucres* acted - Medwall
Between 1500 and 1660
Renaissance
Between 1500 and 1550
Romances: *Valentine and Orson,* Lord Berners's *Arthur of Little Britain, Huon of Bordeaux,* etc.
Between 1500 and 1554
Early Tudor Age
1508
*Phillip Sparrow* - Skelton
1509
*Ship of Fools* - Barclay
1509
Erasmus, "The Praise of Folly" (Latin), social satire.
1509
*Pastime of Pleasure* - Hawes
1510
Acting of Terence's comedies becomes an established practice at Oxford and Cambridge
1516
*Orlando Furioso* - Ariosto
1516
*Utopia* (Lat.) - More
1516
*Magnificence* - Skelton
1517
Luther posts his theses in Wittenberg; leads to Protestant Revolution
1519
*The Four Elements:* first published interlude. Advocates adequacy of English for literary purposes
1520
Oxford Reformer activity declines
1520
Skelton's poetical satires (*Colin Clout, Why Come Ye Not to Court,* etc.)
Between 1520 and 1530
Latin plays acted in grammar schools
1523
Lord Berners's translation of Froissart's *Chronicles*
1525
*New Testament* Tyndale, printed at Worms; first printed English translation of any part of the Bible
1528
*The Courtier* - Castiglione
1529
*Supplication for the Beggars* - Simon Fish
1530
The "New Poetry" movement under way.
Between 1530 and 1540
Heywood's "Interludes": realistic farce.
1531
*The Boke Named the Governour* - Elyot
1532
*The Prince* - Machiavelli
1532
*Pantagruel* - Rabelais
1533
Separation of English church from Rome
1533
John Leland made "King's Antiquary."
1534
Act of Supremacy: Henry VIII head of Church of England
1534
*Gargantua* - Rabelais
1535
Sir Thomas Moore executed
1535
Coverdale's first complete English Bible
1536
*Institutes of Christian Religion* (Latin) - Calvin
1538
*Dictionarie* - Sir Thomas Elyot
1539
English Bible (the "Great Bible") published.
1540
*Satyre of the Three Estaits* - Lyndsay
1545
*Toxophilus* - Ascham
1546
*The Third Book* - Rabelais
1548
Plutarch's *Lives* translated into French by Amyot: basis of North's English version of Plutarch
Between 1549 and 1552
*Book of Common Prayer*
1550
*Journey to the West* - Wu Cheng'en
1552
Ralph Roister Doister (written) - Udall; first regular English comedy
1553
*Art of Rhetorique* - Wilson
Between 1554 and 1603
Elizabethan
1555
*Life of Sir Thomas More* (written) - Roper
1555
*Life of Cardinal Wolsey* (written) - Cavendish
1557
*Songs and Sonnets* ("Tottel's Miscellany"), containing Surrey's translation of two books of the Aeneid in blank verse
1557
North's translation of Guevara's *Dial of Princes*
1557
Stationer's Company incorporated
Between 1558 and 1575
Translations numerous; classics often translated into English through French versions. Much interest in lyrics.
1558
*First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women* - John Knox
1559
*De Poeta* - Minturno. Italian critical work.
1559
*The Mirror for Magistrates*
1559
Elizabethan prayer book
1560
*Gammer Gurton's Needle* (written)
1561
Hoby's translation of Castiglione's *The Courtier*
1562
Gorboduc - Sackville and Norton
1563
*Book of Martyrs* - Foxe (Lat. original, 1559)
1563
Sackville's "Introduction" (to portion of *Mirror for Magistrates*)
1563
*Queen Elizabeth's Academy* - Sir Humphrey Gilbert
1564
*Cambises* acted - Preston
Between 1565 and 1567
Golding's translation of Ovid's *Metamorphoses*
1566
Gasciogne's *Supposes* and *Jocasta* acted
1567
*Palace of Pleasure* - Painter
1567
*Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songes, and Sonets* - Turberville
1570
*Schoolmaster* - Ascham
1575
Mystery plays still being acted at Chester
1575
*The Posies* - Gascoigne; poems with first English treatise on versification appended.
1576
*Paradise of Dainty Devices*
1576
The Theatre (first London playhouse) built.
1576
*The Steel Glass* - Gascoigne
1576
*A Petite Palace of Pettie and his Pleasure* - George Pettie
Between 1577 and 1580
Spenser's early poetry written
1577
*Chronicles* - Holinshed
1577
*A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions* poetical miscellany
1579
*Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit* - Lyly
1579
*The Shepheardes Calendar* - Spenser (published anonymously)
1579
*School of Abuse* - Gosson. Attack on poetry and the stage
1579
North's translation of Plutarch's *Lives*
1580
*Essays* - Montaigne. Beginning of modern "personal" essay.
1580
*Jerusalem Delivered* - Tasso
Between 1580 and 1600
Elizabethan "novels" popular: Lyly, Greene, Lodge, Sidney, Nash, Deloney. Pastoral poetry popular.
1581
*Arraignment of Paris* acted - Peele
1581
*Defense of Poesie* (written) - Sidney (published 1595)
1582
Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil's Aeneid (i-iv) in quantitative verse.
Between 1582 and 1600
Hakluyt publishes various collections of "voyages" -- Renaissance and mediveal, notably *Principal Navigations*
1583
*Anatomie of Abuses* - P. Stubbs
1583
*Alexander and Campaspe* acted - Lyly
1584
*Discovery of Witchcraft* - Scot
1584
*Handful of Pleasant Delights*: ballad miscellany.
1586
*The Spanish Tragedy* (acted) - Kyd
1586
*Albion's England* - Warner
1586
*Britannia* (Lat.) - Camden
1586
Shakespeare comes to London
1587
*Tamburlaine* acted - Marlowe
1588
Defeat of Spanish Armada
1588
*Doctor Faustus* acted - Marlowe
Between 1588 and 1589
"Martin Marprelate" papers.
1589
*The Arte of English Poesie* - Puttenham (?)
1590
*Arcadia* - Sidney (written c. 1581)
1590
*James IV* acted - Greene (?)
1590
Shakespeare begins career as playwright with *The Comedy of Errors*
1590
*Faerie Queene* - Spenser (Books I-III)
1591
*Complaints* - Spenser. Includes *Mother Hubberd's Tale*.
1591
Harrington's translation of Ariosto's *Orlando Furioso*
1591
*Astrophil and Stella* - Sidney
Between 1591 and 1596
Sonnet cycles: Sidney, Daniel, Drayton, Lodge, Spenser, and others.
Between 1592 and 1593
*Richard III* acted - Shakespeare
1593
*Phoenix Nest*: Poetical miscellany
1593
*Venus and Adonis* - Shakespeare
1594
*Ecclesiastical Polity* Books I-IV - Hooker
1594
*The Unfortunate Traveler* - Nash. Picaresque romance.
1594
*Rape of Lucrece* - Shakespeare
1595
*Amoretti; Epithalamion* - Spenser
1595
*Civil Wars* - Daniel
1595
*A Fig for Momus* - Lodge
1595
*A Midsummer Night's Dream* acted - Shakespeare
1595
Donne's poetry circulating in manuscript
1596
*Discovery of Guiana* written - Ralegh
1596
*Romeo and Juliet* acted - Shakespeare
1596
*Faerie Queen* Books IV-VI - Spenser
1597
*Merchant of Venice* acted - Shakespeare
1597
*Heroical Epistles* - Drayton
1597
*Virgidemiarum* Vol. 1 - Hall
1597
Demonology - King James of Scotland. Answers Scot and defends reality of witchcraft.
Between 1597 and 1600
Shakespeare's Falstaff plays acted - Henry IV, parts I and II; Henry V; Merry Wives of Windsor.
1598
Julius Caesar acted - Shakespeare
1598
Palladis Tamia, "Wit's Treasury" - Meres
1598
Everyman in His Humor acted - Ben Jonson. Begins career as playwright.
1598
The Gentle Craft - Deloney
Between 1598 and 1600
Shakespeare's "joyous comedies": Much Ado about Nothing; As You Like It; Twelfth Night.
1598
Chapman's translation of the Illiad (seven books in fourteeners).
1599
The Passionate Pilgrim - miscellany containing some of Shakespeare's poems.
1599
Globe theater built: used by Shakespeare's company.
1600
England's Helicon - poetical miscellany.
1601
Hamlet acted - Shakespeare
1602
Observations in the Art of English Poesie - Campion
1602
Founding of Bodleian Library (Oxford)
1602
Defence of Ryme - Daniel
Between 1602 and 1604
Shakespeare's "bitter comedies": Troilus and Cressida, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure acted
Between 1603 and 1625
Jacobean
1603
A Woman Killed with Kindness acted - Thomas Heywood
1603
Sejanus acted - Jonson
1603
Florio's translation of Montaigne
1604
Othello acted - Shakespeare
1605
Advancement of Learning - Bacon
1605
Macbeth and King Lear acted - Shakespeare
1606
Volpone acted - Jonson
1606
Don Quixote, Part 1 - Cervantes
1607
Antony and Cleopatara acted - Shakespeare
1607
The Knight of the Burning Pestle acted - Beaumont and Fletcher
1608
True Relation - Capt. John Smith
1609
Sonnets (written earlier) - Shakespeare
1609
Philaster acted - Beaumont and Fletcher
1609
Gull's Hornbook - Dekker
Between 1609 and 1611
Shakespeare's tragicomedies: Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest acted
1610
Alchemist acted - Jonson
1610
True Repertory - Strachey
1611
King James translation of the Bible
1611
Shakespeare returns to Stratford
1612
A Map of Virginia - Capt. John Smith
1612
First and Second Anniversaries - Donne
1613
Purchas His Pigrimage: travel literature.
1613
Abuses Stript and Whipt - Wither
1614
Characters - Overbury
1614
History of the World - Ralegh
1614
Duchess of Malfi acted - Webster
Between 1614 and 1616
Chapman translates the Odessey
1615
Epigrams - Harrington
1616
A Description of New England - Capt. John Smith
1619
First American legislative assembly, at Jamestown
1619
Slavery introduced to Virginia
1619
Collected Poems - Drayton
1620
Novum Organum (Lat.) - Bacon
1620
Mayflower Compact written