History of 16th Century English Literature: From Skelton to Shakespeare

The 16th century (1500–1600) witnessed the transformation of English literature from medieval forms to the Renaissance golden age, driven by humanism, the Reformation, printing, and the rise of the vernacular.

Early Century: Transition (1500–1550)

• John Skelton: Satirical, colloquial verse (Phyllyp Sparowe, Speke Parrot) — bridge from medieval.
• Sir Thomas Wyatt & Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey: Introduced the **sonnet** and **blank verse** from Italian models (Petrarch). Surrey's Æneid translation = first English blank verse.
• Thomas More: Utopia (1516, Latin; 1551 English) — humanist political fiction.
• William Tyndale: New Testament translation (1526) — linguistic foundation for KJV.

Mid-Century: Protestant Verse & Prose (1550–1580)

• Edmund Spenser: The Shepheardes Calender (1579), The Faerie Queene (1590/96) — epic allegory, Spenserian stanza, Elizabethan nationalism.
• John Foxe: Actes and Monuments (1563) — "Book of Martyrs," Protestant identity.
• Arthur Golding: Ovid's Metamorphoses (1567) — Shakespeare's key source.

Late Century: The Elizabethan/Jacobean Explosion (1580–1600)

Drama

• Christopher Marlowe: Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta — mighty line, overreachers, blank verse mastery. Died 1593.
• Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy (c.1587) — revenge tragedy template.
• William Shakespeare: Debut ~1590. By 1600: Romeo & Juliet, Richard II/III, Henry IV/V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Hamlet (1600). Unrivaled character, language, genre-blending.
• Ben Jonson: Every Man in His Humour (1598) — classical comedy, humours theory.

Poetry

• Sir Philip Sidney: Astrophil and Stella (1591) — sonnet sequence, Defence of Poesy (1595).
• Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609, written 1590s).
• John Donne (early): Metaphysical wit, erotic/religious fusion.