1. The Context

2. Culture (1485-1688)  Humanistic ideals retrieved from ancient Greek and Roman cultures  The court as a center of literary and artistic activity  Expansion of Oxford and Cambridge universities – initiators of the English Renaissance  Dominance of theater as prime form of entertainment  Development of church music  Modern English (from 1500)  Diffusion of printing, books in English  Scientific revolution :Newton, Royal Society  Birth of argumentative literature, journalism

3. Society  Anti-Catholic feelings  Highly cultivated opper and middle classes  Poverty among the lower classes  Predominance of Puritans and strict moral values  Loose morals among the aristocracy after the Restoration

4. DRAMA  Flourishing of Drama  Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights: Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson  Comedy of Manners POETRY  Courtly poetry: the sonnet and sonneteers  Spenser (allegorical poetry)  Drama and poetry: drama in blank verse  John Donne and the Metaphysical Poets  Milton (religious epic poetry)