Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

Bibliography : 
1. The Norton Anthology of English Literature/ New York , 1973 
2. Leviţchi Leon / Istoria Literaturii Engleze şi Americane / volumul II 2000 
3. Morlez, Henry / An attempt towards a history of English Literature/ New York, 976 
4. E. Spenser “Faerie Queene” (Norton Anthology) 
5. Th. More “Utopia” (Northon Anthology) 
6. Ch. Marlowe “Doctor Faustus” (Norton Anthology)
7. McGrow-Hill, English Literature A Chronological approach, McGrow-Hill, Inc. 1985 
 

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1. Economic, social and cultural changes of the 16
th
 century in England 
The 16
th
century in England was the age of the Tudor sovereigns. Three generations of Tudors 
ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Henry VII was the first representative of the Tudors – the 
monarch under whose reign great changes took place in the economic, social and cultural life of 
England. As England became a prosperous sheep-raising country and a famous manufacturing 
power, Henry VII made commercial treaties with the European countries. Many lands were 
enclosed to permit sheep grazing on a large scale. This brought to people being driven away from 
their own land to the cities. This circumstance contributed to the growth of many cities and London 
was first among them to become a new metropolitan market. The old Feudal order could not persist 
any more and it continued declining. New economic relationships were developing and it put the 
beginning of the economic prosperity of England which later became a strong power in the world. 
It was the age when important events happened in the world. The most significant of them 
was the discovery of America by Columbus, after which followed Vasco da Gama‟s voyage to 
India. Though English were not pioneers in the discovery and exploration of the Western 
hemisphere, these discoveries profoundly affected the place of the English nation in the world, 
turning it into a great coloniser and merchant adventurer during the following century. 
During the 15
th
century a few English Clerics and government officials had journeyed to Italy 
and had seen something of the extraordinary cultural and intellectual movement flourishing in the 
city-states. That movement, generally known as Renaissance, was a reflection of the classical 
antiquity and development of new aesthetic norms, based on classical models. It also unleashed new 
ideas and new social political and economic forces that displaced the old values of Middle Ages.
These Renaissance ideals were reflected in the poetry of Petrarch, the philosophy of Pico della 
Mirandola, the art of Leonardo da Vinci and the statecraft of Lorenzo di Medici. But it was not until 
Henry VII ‟s reign which brought some measures of political stability to England, that Renaissance 
could take root there. Italian Renaissance had a great impact on English literature in the 16
th
century, which can be divided into three periods.