Between 1000 and 1100
Probable period of full development of Christmas and Easter cycles of plays in Western Europe
Between 1000 and 1200
English to Norman French transition period
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
1225
St. Thomas Aquinas born
1230
*Heimskringla* - Snorri Sturluson
1241
Snorri Stuluson death
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
1274
St. Thomas Aquinas death
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
1394
James I of Scotland born
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.
1437
James I of Scotland death
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
House of Lancaster dethroned
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*)
1474
Ludovico Ariosto born
1477
Caxton press set up at Westminster: first printing press in England.
1478
Sir Thomas Moore born
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
1506
Robert Henryson death
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
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey born
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
Ludovico Ariosto death
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
1547
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey death
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
1554
Sir Philip Sidney born
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
Sir Philip Sidney death
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*