Elizabethan England Literature

Poetry Elizabethan England was a great period of literature. There were such popular writers as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Edmund Spenser, Thomas Kyd and some others. Shakespeare made the English sonnet very popular. It was a poem of 14 lines with a special rhyme and structure. Shakespeare wrote more than one hundred sonnets and 25 plays in this period. Poets also wrote poems to Elizabeth I. For example, Edmund Spenser wrote a sonnet “The Faery queen”. Elizabethan England was a great period of literature. There were such popular writers as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Edmund Spenser, Thomas Kyd and some others. Shakespeare made the English sonnet very popular. It was a poem of 14 lines with a special rhyme and structure. Shakespeare wrote more than one hundred sonnets and 25 plays in this period. Poets also wrote poems to Elizabeth I. For example, Edmund Spenser wrote a sonnet “The Faery queen”.

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) William Shakespeare was born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a great poet and playwright. Shakespeare wrote 150 sonnets and 37 plays.

William Shakespeare’s birthplace

Around 1611 Shakespeare left London and returned to Stratford. He died in Stratford at the age of fifty-two on April 23, 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church. A monument to the memory of the great playwrighter is in the Poet’s corner in West minster Abbey.

Ben Jonson

Elizabethan Theatre

The Elizabethan period was also known as the Renaissance of English Theatre. In Shakespeare’s times rich people employed companies of actors. There were no actresses, young women’s parts were played by the boy and older women’s parts were played by the company’s clowns.

All the actors were at the same time musicians and dancers. Actors first began performing to the public in inn yards or houses of the rich.

In the Globe theatre.

The fist permanent theatre was built by James Burbage in It was simply called the Theatre. There were two popular theatres in London, namely the Rose and Globe where Shakespeare worked.

The Elizabeth theatre usually was a round building with the stage in the centre open to the sky. Several thousand people stood in the open air. The rich people bought seats in the galleries round the sides.

The English Renaissance Theatre declined after the death of Shakespeare. Elizabethan theatre was the work of owners, actors, playwrights and workmen.

Some of the brilliant actors were the Burbages, Philip Henstoe and Edward Alleyn. There were such talented playwrights as Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson. Some of the brilliant actors were the Burbages, Philip Henstoe and Edward Alleyn. There were such talented playwrights as Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson.

They wrote tragedies, comedies and histories. For example, W. Shakespeare was famous for his “Romeo and Juliet”, “Richard III”, Much Ado about Nothing” and other works.