History of English Literature. The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people

By mir0378
  • 1587 BCE

    Blan Verse

    1587
    Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine the Great, introduces the swaggering blank verse of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama
  • 1582 BCE

    William Shakespeare

    1582
    The 18-year-old William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon
  • 1567 BCE

    Bible Welsh

    1567
    The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, to be followed by the complete Bible in 1588
  • 1564 BCE

    Marlowe and Shakespeare

    1564
    Marlowe and Shakespeare are born in the same year, with Marlowe the older by two months
  • 1549 BCE

    Thomas Cranmer

    1549
    The first version of the English prayer book, or Book of Common Prayer, is published with text by Thomas Cranmer
  • 1524 BCE

    William Tyndale

    1524
    William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English
  • 1510 BCE

    Erasmus and Thomas

    1510
    Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism
  • 1469 BCE

    Thomas Malory

    1469
    Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur
  • 1387 BCE

    Canterbury Tales

    C. 1387
    Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death
  • 1385 BCE

    Troilus and Criseyde

    1385
    Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy
  • 1375 BCE

    Sir Gawain

    C. 1375
    The courtly poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells of a mysterious visitor to the round table of King Arthur
  • 1367 BCE

    Piers Plowman

    C. 1367
    A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman
  • 1367 BCE

    Edward

    C. 1367 - One of four new yeomen of the chamber in Edward III's household is Geoffrey Chaucer
  • 1340 BCE

    William

    C. 1340
    William of Ockham advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor
  • 1300 BCE

    Duns Scotus

    C. 1300
    Duns Scotus, known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times, later provides humanists with the name Dunsman or dunce
  • 950 BCE

    Eddas

    C. 950
    The material of the Eddas, taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy
  • 800 BCE

    Beowulf

    C.800 - Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons
  • 731 BCE

    The Venereble Bede

    C. 731