Elizabethan/Shakespearean Era By Natalie Tozakian Professor Yegoryan English 102

The Elizabethan/Shakespearean era is marked by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from Historians consider this era to be the golden age in English history. The golden age is the highest point in the development of English Renaissance which included the explosion of poetry, drama, music, and literature.

Queen Elizabeth I Queen Elizabeth I, was one of the most famous monarchs in European history that presided over a vigorous culture that saw accomplishments in the arts, voyages of discovery, the Elizabethan Settlement that created the Church of England or Anglian, and the defeat of military threats from Spain such as the Spanish Armada. In her time as queen, she helped her country overcome occasional famine, widespread poverty, plague, religious and political divisions. Queen Elizabeth was a writer, in which she made translations and composing poetry and speeches.

English Writers In England, the Elizabethan era marked the beginning of the English Renaissance that affected the works of writers such as…  Sir Philip Sidney  Edmund Spenser  Roger Ascham  Richard Hooker  Christopher Marlowe  William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare This era is most famous for the very first theater, and the major literacy style the lyric poetry. William Shakespeare ( ) was an English poet and playwright that brought a new style to theater. He was regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and dramatist. His surviving works consist of 154 sonnets, 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, and several different short poems.

The Elizabethan/Shakespearean age was a brief period of peace between the English Reformation and the religious disputes between Protestants and Catholics and then the political disputes between the monarchy that swept through the rest of the seventeenth century. The Protestant and Catholic divide was settled for a time in the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. In the Elizabethan era, England’s life was made up of entertainment, clothes, food, drink, sports, music, education, language, medicine, and marriage. London became a cultural and commercial center where learning and literature thrived. Queen Elizabeth I recognized the importance of the arts, and was fond of the theater. With her request, professional theaters were built for the first time, attracting 15,000 people per week. Prose were inspired such as historical chronicles, versions of Holy Scriptures, pamphlets, literary criticism, and the first English novels.

Education between the sexes Boys were educated to be literate at the start of six or seven. Teaching techniques relied on memorization and recitation. England’s language of literacy was Latin. In higher education they learned poetry and prose. Education of literacy increased, at least one-third of the male population could read. For girls formal schooling was not encouraged, unless they were children of nobility. For those who were educated, schooling focused on chastity and the skills of housewifery. Girls from wealthy families were often placed in the household of acquaintances where they would learn to read, write, keep accounts, trained in music and dancing, and manage a household and estate.

The end of the Elizabethan/Shakespearean Era From about the beginning of the 17 th century a dark tone arose in most forms of literacy expression, especially in drama due to the fact of Queen Elizabeth’s death. The English Literary Renaissances consisted of: The Elizabethan/Shakespearean Age, the Jacobean Age, the Caroline Age and the Commonwealth Period. English literature from after the queens death is called the Jacobean or Jacobethan, after the new monarch James I. 16 th century themes and ideas were carried over to the 17 th century and the golden age was never forgotten.