1. Toso Martina – Russo Ludovica – 4A

2. The world began to change:  The wars of Roses (war for the throne between the Hause of York and the House of Lancaster);  In 1471 William Caxton printed his first text;  Modern English, as a new language was born;  In 1492 America was discovered;  The globe was circumnavigated, and Copernicus had put the Earth in the centre of the universe;  Developments in art, philosophy and way of learning based on the rediscovery of the classical world of Greece and Rome;  In 1533 Henry VIII brought a Reformation that had changed England’s religious life: so England became protestant and indipendent.

3. ELIZABETH I  Her reign was connected with the consolidation of the Tudor dynasty;  Her nation was divided into Catholics, Protestants and Puritans who could live together;  She had to face the economic problems caused by the increase in population and price inflation;  her long reign saw also prosperity, in the birth of scientific learning and fluorishing literary culture; It was one of the most interesting and important periods. MARY I  Henry’s daughter;  She brought Catholicism back to England: hundreds of people were burned as heretics she was called Bloody Mary  She decided that Church of England had to remain protestant Protestant England was separated from Europe.

4.  Literature was inspired by italian poets;  Literature didn’t have a religious perspective on life anymore but favoured individual expression and gave to the world a new meaning;  The central theme of Elizabethan literature, which found its best expression in drama in drama, was the conflict between individual and social order;  It reflected the wide range of interests of the age and the new vitality of the language;  Focus on the man and his weaknesses, flaws and qualities.  Reflects the wide range of interests and the new vitality of language.

5.  The most important exponents of drama were: Christopher Marlowe;  Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe;  Brought new life to classical models;  The golden age of drama was represented by Shakespeare: he drew from all kinds of sources, showed a deep knowledge of the human heart and portrayed life without imposing his personal idea.

6.  More personal and private than drama, unprecedented peaks of lyricism and beauty;  John Donne and George Herbert were the most significant between Metaphysical poets innovative poets who talked of religion and love in a violent, direct and intellectually complex language;  To say their concepts, they used metaphors and paradoxes, and so they represented relationship between the individual, God and the universe;  This was also the age of questions: people wanted to understand the real nature of man and love;  Changes brought uncertainty and restlessness: the idea of the world changed and people used to find the meaning of their life only to religion.  The medieval world offered people an image of the divine order in the universe the world seemed to be well ordered.