adapted from Thrall, Hibbard, & Holman, A Handbook to Literature

55-54 B.C., Julius Caesar invades Britain

82, Roman power established

313, *Christianity established in Rome by Constantine

410, *Rome sacked by Alaric; Roman legions leave Britain

449, traditional date (from Gildas and Bede) for Germanic invasion by Hengist and Horsa

ca. 450-ca. 700, composition of Old English poems: Beowulf (epic), Waldhere (Fragmentary epic), Finnsburg (fragmentary, related to Beowulf), Widsith (lyric, account of poet), Deor's Lament (lyric, account of poet), The Wanderer (reflective poem on fate), The Seafarer (reflective, descriptive lyric on sailor's life), The Wife's Complaint, The Husband's Message (love poems), Charms

ca. 500-ca. 700, *Christian culture flourishes in Ireland, activity of Irish missionaries in Scotland, Iceland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy

509, *closing of Athenian philosophical schools

ca. 524, *influential medieval Latin work by Boethius, "Consolation of Philosophy"--would be translated into English by King Alfred, Chaucer, Queen Elizabeth

570-632, *Mohammed

590-604, *Pope Gregory the Great (Gregorian Calendar, Gregorian music)

597, the missionary Saint Augustine establishes Christianity in southern England

600-700, establishment of powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

ca. 633, *The Koran

ca. 670, Caedmon, Hymns (first English poet known by name)

ca. 700, "School of Caedmon"; Beowulf composed in present form

731, "Ecclesiastical History" (Latin) by The Venerable Bede

ca. 750-ca. 800, flourishing Christian poetry in Northumbria (preserved in West Saxon); Cynewulf and his school: Crist (narrative), Elene (saint's legend), Juliana (Saint's legend in dialogue form), Fates of the Apostles (saints' legends), Andreus (saint's legend--voyage tale), The Phoenix (myth interpreted as Christian allegory)

787, first Danish invasion

ca. 800, Latin "History of the Britons" by Nennius (Welsh)--first mention of Arthur

800-814, *Charlemagne's reign in France

ca. 850, Danish conquest

871-901, Alfred the Great; translations of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, Boethius, Orosius, Bede; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle revised and continued to 892; West Saxon Martyrology; sermons; saints' lives

ca. 875-900, *probable beginnings of medieval dram in dramatatization of liturgy

893, Life of Alfred the Great by Asser

901-1066, Chronicle continued; poetry, sermons, Biblical translations and paraphrases, saints' lives, lyrics

ca. 937, Battle of Brunanburh (heroic poem)

950-1000, monastic revival under Dunstan, Aethelwold, and Aelfric

ca. 950, Junius MS written, containing Caedmon poems

971, Blickling Homilies

ca. 975, St. Ethelwold's Concordia Regularis, directions for acting a trope at Winchester--earliest evidence of dramatic activity in England

979-1016, second period of Danish invasions

ca. 991, Battle of Maldon (heroic poem)

1000-1200, transition from English to Norman French. Decline of Anglo-Saxon heroic verse and reduced literary activity in English, with some development of medieval English lyrics, germs of English romances

ca. 1000, Anglo-Saxon Gospels; Aelfric's Sermons; Beowulf MS written

1000-1025, The Exeter Book (MS containing Cynewulf poems)

ca. 1000-1100, Vercelli Book (Anglo-Saxon MS); probable period of full development of Christmas and Easter cycles of plays in Western Europe

1017-1042, Danish kings

1042-1066, Saxon kings restored

1066, Battle of Hastings, Norman conquest

1066-1154, Norman kings

1079-1142, *Abelard (French), ecclesiastical philosopher, lover of Heloise

1086, Domesday Book (English census)

1087-1100, William II--centralization of kingdom

1098-1099, First Crusade

1100-1200, *French literature dominates Western Europe

ca. 1100-1250, *Icelandic sagas written: Grettirsaga Volsungsaga, etc.

ca. 1100, "Play of St. Catherine" acted at Dunstable--first recorded miracle, or saint's, play in England; *earlier tales in Welsh Mabinogion; *"The Book of the Dun Cow" (earliest existent MS containing early Irish romantic literature); *French poetry--lyric in Provence--"the first modern poet," Count William of Poitiers; narrative in North, Chanson de Roland (epic)

ca. 1125, Henry of Huntingdon and William of Malmesbury (chronicles)

ca. 1136, Latin "History of the Kings of Britain" by Geoffrey of Monmouth: Arthur as national hero, first romantic account of Arthurian court

1150-1200, *influential French poets: Wace, Chretien de Troyes, Marie de France, Benoit de Ste. More, etc.

ca. 1150, *The Nibelungenlied (German epic poem)

1154-1399, Plantagenet kings (Henry II to Richard II)

1154, end of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Peterborough)

ca. 1185-1190, *Giraldus Cambrensis, "Itinerary" (description of Wales)

1187, *Saracens capture Jerusalem

1199-1216, reign of John

ca. 1200-1250, King Horn (English metrical romance)

ca. 1200-1225, *Arthurian romance material in French prose and poetry

ca. 1205, Layamon, Brut

1215, Magna Charta

ca. 1225-1274, *St. Thomas Aquinas, scholastic teacher and writer influential throughout Europe

ca. 1230, ca. 1270, *Roman de la Rose (French) by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun

ca. 1250, Nicholas of Guilford, The Owl and the Nightingale, the "Cuckoo Song" ("Sumer is Icumen in")

1258, Henry III uses English as well as French in proclamation

1265-1321, *Dante: Vita Nuova (ca. 1294); Il Convito (begun ca. 1300), De Vulgari Eloquentia (ca. 1305, criticism), Divina Commedia (ca. 1307-21)

ca. 1300-1350, Guy of Warwick, Havelok the Dane, Richard Lionheart, Amis and Amiloun (romances)

ca. 1300, *Marco Polo, Travels

1304-1374, *Petrarch--influence on English poetry, esp. sonnet sequences: eclogues (Latin, ca. 1350), Sonnets to Laura (ca. 1350)

1311, Fest of Corpus Christi est., leading to cyclic plays and possibly use of movable stages or "pageants"

1313-1375, *Boccaccio--influence on Chaucer and Renaissance authors: Ameto (1342, "first pastoral romance"). Decameron (ca. 1350)

1328?, Chester cycle of plays composed

1337-1453, The Hundred Years' War

ca. 1340-1400, Chaucer: The Book of the Duches (ca. 1379), House of Fame (ca. 1379), Troilus and Criseyde (ca. 1383), Legend of Good Women (ca. 1385), "General Prologue" to Canterbury Tales (ca. 1387--some tales written earlier, some later)

1346, Battle of Crecy

1348-1350, Black Death

1350-1400, Sir Eglamour, Morte Arthure, Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, Athelstan, William of Palerne, Sir Ferumbras, Sir Isumbras, etc. (romances)

ca. 1360, The Pearl

1362, English language used in court and in opening Parliament

ca. 1362 and after, Piers Plowman

ca. 1375, Paternoster and Creed plays (forerunners of morality plays)

ca. 1380, Wycliffe et al., English Bible

1381, Wat Tyler's rebellion

ca. 1385, English used in schools

1390-92, Glower, Confessio Amantis

1399-1461, House of Lancaster (Henry IV to Henry VI)

1400-1450, Lancelot of the Lake, Four Sons of Aymon, Squire of Low Degree, Huon of Bordeaux, Sir Triamour, Godfrey of Boulogne, etc. (romances in prose and verse)

1400-25, Wakefield cycle of plays; The Pride of Life (fragmentary--earliest extant morality play)

1400, *Froissart, Chronicles (French)

ca. 1412, Hoccleve, The Regiment of Princes

1413-22, reign of Henry V

1415, Battle of Agincourt

ca. 1415, Lydgate, Troy Book

1422-1461, reign of Henry VI

ca. 1425, humanist active: Lydgate, Pecock, etc.; English students attend Italian universities; Castle of Perseverance (first complete morality play)

1440, Galfridus Grammaticus, Promptorium Parvalorum (English-Latin word list, beginning English lexicography)

1450, Jack Cade's rebellion

ca. 1450, *Gutenberg press

ca. 1450-1525, Scottish poets of Chaucerian school: Henryson, Dunbar, Douglas, probably King James I of Scotland; *Italian Renaissance at its height

ca. 1450-1490, *Platonic Academy at Florence flourishes under Lorenzo the Magnificent: Ficino, Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, etc.

1453, *Fall of Constantinople

1455-1485, Wars of the Roses

1456, *The Gutenberg Bible

ca. 1460-1529, John Skelton

1461-1485, House of York (Edward IV to Richard III)

1469, Sir Thomas Malory completes writing of Le Morte Darthur (pub. 1485)

1474-1532, *Ariosto

ca. 1474, Caxton prints (at Bruges) the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy--first book printed in English

1475-1500, renewal of French influence and continuation of Italian influence, transition to Renaissance, printing of books in England, humanistic activities; *Romantic epics written in Italy

ca. 1477, Caxton's press set up at Westminster

1478-1535, Sir Thomas More

1485-1603, House of Tudor (Henry VII to Elizabeth I)

1485-1509, reign of Henry VII

1485, Caxton publishes Malory's Morte Darthur

ca. 1490-1553, *Rabelais

1490-1520, "Oxford Reformers" (Linacre, Grocyn, Colet, Erasmus, More) active: classical scholarship, humanistic education

ca. 1500, Everyman

1503?-1542, Sir Thomas Wyatt

ca. 1508, Skelton, Philip Sparrow

1509-1547, reign of Henry VIII

ca. 1511, *Erasmus, The Praise of Folly (Latin--social satire)

1515-1568, Roger Ascham

1516, More, Utopia

1516, *Ariosto, Orlando Furioso; Skelton, Magnificence

1516-1547, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

1517, *Luther posts theses in Wittenberg

1519, *Cortez conquers Mexico

ca. 1520, Skelton's poetical satires (Colin Clout, Why Come Ye Not to Court, etc.)

1525, Tyndale, New Testament printed at Worms (first printed English translation of any part of Bible)

1528, *Castiglione, The Courtier

ca. 1530-1540, Heywood's Interludes (realistic farce)

ca. 1530, "New Poetry" (Italian influence) under way

1531, Elyot, The Book of the Governour

1532, *Machiavelli, The Prince (written 1513)

1533, separation of English church from Rome; *Rabelais, Pantagruel

1534, Act of Supremacy: Henry VIII head of Church of England; *Loyola founds Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

1535, suppression of monasteries, execution of More; Coverdale's first complete English Bible; *Rabelais, Gargantua

1536, execution of Tyndale; *Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion (Latin)

1538, Sir Thomas Elyot, Dictionarie

1540, English Bible ("Great Bible") set up in churches

1543, *death of Copernicus

1547-1553, reign of Edward VI

1547, execution of Surrey

1548-1552, Book of Common Prayer

1550-1575, *the Pleiade group of French poets (Du Bellay, Ronsard, etcc.)

ca. 1552-1599, Edmund Spenser: early poetry (1576-80), The Shepheardes Calender (pub. anonymously, 1579), Faerie Queene (1590-96), Amoretti and Epithalamion (1595)

ca. 1552-1618, Sir Walter Raleigh: failed effort to colonize Virginia (1585)

ca. 1552, Udall, Ralph Roister Doister (first "regular" English comedy)

1553-1558, reign of Mary

1554-1586, Sir Philip Sidney: Defence of Poesie (written ca. 1581, pub. 1595), Arcadia (written ca. 1581, published 1590), Astrophel and Stella (1591)

ca. 1555, Roper, Life of Sir Thomas More; Cavendish, Life of Cardinal Wolsey

1557, Songs and Sonnets (Tottel's Miscellany); Surrey's trans. of two books of the Aeneid in blank verse

1558-1575, period of experiment and preparation: translations numerous, classics often translated into English through French versions, interest in lyrics

1559, Elizabethan Prayer-book; The Mirror for Magistrates

1561-1626, Francis Bacon

1562, Sackville and Norton, Gorboduc acted (first English tragedy)

1562-1618, Samuel Daniel

1536, Foxe, Book of Martyrs (Latin original, 1559)

1563-1631, Michael Drayton: Heroical Epistles (1597)

1564-1593, Christopher Marlowe: Tamburlaine (1587), Doctor Faustus (ca. 1588)

1564-1616, William Shakespeare

1564-1642, *Galileo

1570, Ascham, Schoolmaster

1572, *Massacre of St. Bartholomew

1573-1631, John Donne

1573-1637, Ben Jonson: Everyman in His Humour (1598)

1575-1590, activity of Shakespeare's predecessors and early contemporaries: Kyd, Lyly, Marlowe, Peele, Greene, Nash; court comedies, melodramatic tragedies, chronicle history plays popular; interest in literary criticism; Puritan attack on poetry; patriotic poems; translations; Spenser's early work; early pastoral and euphuistic romances

1575, mystery plays still being acted at Chester

1576, The Theatre (first London playhouse) built)

1578, Holinshed, Chronicles

1579, Lyly, Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit; North, trans. of Plutarch's Lives

1579-1625, John Fletcher

1580-1600, Elizabethan "novels" popular: Lyly, Greene, Lodge, Sidney, Nash, Deloney; pastoral poetry popular

1580, *Montaigne, Essays

1581, *Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (Italian romantic epic)

1582-1600, Hakluyt publishes collections of "voyages," Renaissance and medieval

1586, Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

1587, execution of Mary Queen of Scots

1588, defeat of Spanish Armada

1590-1600, richest decade of Elizabethan literature: activity in poetry (lyrics, pastorals, sonnets, dramatic poetry, historical verse, didactic verse, patriotic verse, classical verse-satire

1591-1596, flourishing period of sonnet cycles: Sidney, Daniel, Drayton, Lodge, Spenser, etc.

1591-1674, Robert Herrick

1593-1683, Izaak Walton

1593-1633, George Herbert

1597, King James (of Scotland), Demonology; Chapman, trans. of Iliad; Globe theatre built

1600, England's Helicon (poetical miscellany)

1602, Campion, Observations in the Art of English Poesie

ca. 1602, Daniel, Defence of Ryme

1603-1649, the Stuarts

1603-1625, reign of James I--union of English and Scottish crowns

1603, T. Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness

1604, Shakespeare, Othello

1605, Bacon, Advancement of Learning; *Cervantes, Don Quixote, Part I

1606, Shakespeare, Macbeth, King Lear; Jonson, Volpone

1607, Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra; Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle

1609, Shakespeare, Sonnets (written earlier); Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster; Dekker, Gull's Hornbook

1610, Jonson, Alchemist

1610-1611, Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, Tempest

1611, King James (Authorized) trans. of Bible

1612, Bacon, Essays; Donne, First and Second Anniversaries

1614, Raleigh, History of the World; Webster, Duchess of Malfi

1616, deaths of Shakespeare and *Cervantes; Chapman translates Odyssey in heroic couplets

1618-1648, *The Thirty Years' War, Protestants against Catholics

1618, Raleigh executed; Bacon becomes Lord Chancellor; Harvey discovers circulation of the blood

1619, Drayton, Collected Poems

1620, Bacon, Novum Organum (Latin)

1621, Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy

1622, Donne, Sermon on Judges xx.15 (other sermons published in succeeding years)

1623, First Folio ed. of Shakespeare's Plays

1625-1649, reign of Charles I

1625, Bacon, Essays (final ed.)

1627, Bacon, New Atlantis (Latin)--fragmentary utopia; Drayton, Balland of Agincourt

1629, Ford, The Broken Heart; Milton, Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity

1631, deaths of Drayton and Donne; birth of Dryden (d. 1700)

1632, Second Folio ed. of Shakespeare

1633, Herbert, The Temple; Donne, Poems (first collected ed.); Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso written; Samuel Pepys born (d. 1703)

1634, Milton, Comus

1636, *Corneille, El Cid

1637, death of Jonson; *Descartes, Discours sur la Methode

1638, Milton, Lycidas

1639, *Racine (French dramatist) born (d. 1699)

1640, Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter; Izaak Walton, Life of Donne

1642, Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici; Sir Isaac Newton born (d. 1727); theatres closed; Civil War

1643-1715, *Louis XIV King of France

1644, Milton, Areopagitica and Tractate on Education, divorce pamphlets

1645, Waller, Poems

1646, Vaughan, Poems

1648, Herrick, Hesperides

1649, execution of Charles I; epidemic of "witch-finding"; Lovelace, "Lucasta"

1650, Davenant, Gondibert

ca. 1650, many French romances and novels translated into English

1651, Milton, Defence of the English People (Latin); Hobbes, Leviathan

1652, Quaker Movement culminating

1653, Walton, The Compleat Angler

1656, Cowley, Poems, Davideis, Pindaric Odes; Davenant, Siege of Rhodes

1658, Dryden, "Stanzas on the Death of Cromwell"

1660-1714, Stuarts restored (Charles II to Anne)

1660-1685, reign of Charles II

1660-1688, many books on both sides of witchcraft controversy

1660-1669, Pepys's Diary (pub. 1825)

1660, Dryden, Astraea Redux: welcomes Charles II

ca. 1660 Daniel Defoe born (d. 1731)

1663, Butler, Hudibras, Part I; Drury Lane Theatre built

1664, Dryden and Howard, The Indian Queen

1665, Dryden, The Indian Emperor

1666, *Moliere, Le Misanthrope

1667, Jonathan Swift born (d. 1745); Milton, Paradise Lost; *Moliere, Tartuffe; Racine, Andromaque (classical tragedy)

1668, *La Fontaine, Fables; Dryden, Essay of Dramatic Poesy

1670, *Pascal, Thoughts; Dryden made Poet Laureate

1671, Milton, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes; Villiers (Buckingham) and others, The Rehearsal (burlesque satire on Dryden and heroic plays)

1672, Joseph Addison born (d. 1719); Sir Richard Steele born (d. 1729)

1673, *death of Moliere

1674, Wycherley, The Plain-Dealer; death of Milton

1678, Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, Part I; Dryden, All for Love

1679, rise of Whig and Tory parties

1681, Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel

1682, Dryden, MacFlecknoe

1685-1688, reign of James II

1687, Sir Isaac Newton, Principia (Latin); Dryden, The Hind and the Panther

1688, the "Bloodless Revolution"; death of Bunyan; Alexander Pope born (d. 1744); Aphra Behn, Oronoko

1689-1702, reign of William and Mary

1689, the Toleration Act establishes freedom of worship; Samuel Richardson born (d. 1761)

1690-1699, "Ancient and Modern" controversy ("Battle of the Books")

1690, Locke, Essay Concerning the Human Understanding

1694, *Voltaire born (d. 1778)

1697, Dryden, Alexander's Feast

1698, Congreve, Love for Love

1700, death of Dryden

1702, The Daily Courant (first daily newspaper); Defoe, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters

1702-1714, reign of Anne

1703, John Wesley born (d. 1791)

1704, Swift, Battle of the Books (written ca. 1697), Tale of a Tub; Marlborough's victory at Blenheim (War of Spanish Succession)

1707, Henry Fielding born (d. 1754)

1709-1711, Steele (and Addison), The Tatler

1709, Pope, Pastorals; Rowe's ed. of Shakespeare (Shakespeare "edited" for the first time); Samuel Johnson born (d. 1784)

1710-1713, Swift, Journal to Stella

1710, Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge; first complete performance of Italian opera in England; Handel comes to England

1711-1712, Addison, Steele, etc., The Spectator

1711, Pope, Essay on Criticism

1712, 1714, Pope, Rape of the Lock

1712, *Rousseau born (d. 1778)

1713, Addison, Cato

1714-1901, House of Hanover (George I to Victoria)

1714-1727, reign of George I

1714, Spectator revived

1715, Pope, trans. Iliad, I-IV

1716, Thomas Gray born (d. 1771)

1717, last witchcraft trial in England; Horace Walpole born (d. 1797); David Garrick born (d. 1779)

1719, Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; death of Addison

1722, Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year, Moll Flanders; Parnell, Night-Piece on Death

1724, *Kant born (d. 1804)

1725, Pope's ed. of Shakespeare

1726, Thomson, Winter; Swift, Gulliver's Travels

1727-1760, reign of George II

1728, Pope, Dunciad; Gay, Beggar's Opera; Oliver Goldsmith born (d. 1774)

1729, Swift, A Modest Proposal

1731, death of Defoe; William Cowper born (d. 1800)

1733, Pope, Essay on Man

1737, Edward Gibbon born (d. 1794)

1740-1786, *reign of Frederick the Great of Prussia

1740, Richardson, Pamela

1741, Fielding, Joseph Andrews

1742, Young, Night Thoughts

1743, Blair, The Grave

1744, death of Pope

1745, death of Swift

1748, Thomson, Castle of Indolence; Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe; Smollett, Roderick Random; Hume, Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding

1749, Fielding, Tom Jones; Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes; *Goethe born (d. 1832)

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