Early Modern English

==History==
===English Renaissance===
{{See also|English Renaissance}}
====Transition from Middle English====
{{further|Late Middle English}}
The change from [[Middle English]] to Early Modern English was not just a matter of changes of vocabulary or pronunciation; a new era in the history of English was beginning.<ref name=":0" />

An era of linguistic change in a language with large variations in dialect was replaced by a new era of a more standardised language, with a richer lexicon and an established (and lasting) literature.
*1476 – [[William Caxton]] started printing in [[Westminster]]; however, the language that he used reflected the variety of styles and dialects used by the authors who originally wrote the material.

=====Tudor period (1485–1603)=====
*1485 – Caxton published [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', the first print bestseller in English. Malory's language, while archaic in some respects, was clearly Early Modern and was possibly a Yorkshire or Midlands dialect.
*1491 or 1492 – [[Richard Pynson]] started printing in London; his style tended to prefer [[Middle English#Chancery Standard|Chancery Standard]], the form of English used by the government.

====Henry VIII====
*{{c.}} 1509 – Pynson became the king's official printer.
*From 1525 – Publication of [[William Tyndale]]'s [[Tyndale Bible|Bible translation]], [[Censorship of the Bible|which was initially banned]].
*1539 – Publication of the ''[[Great Bible]]'', the first officially authorised Bible in English. Edited by [[Myles Coverdale]], it was largely from the work of Tyndale. It was read to congregations regularly in churches, which familiarised much of the population of England with a standard form of the language.
*1549 – Publication of the [[Book of Common Prayer (1549)|first edition]] of the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' in English, under the supervision of [[Thomas Cranmer]] (revised in [[Book of Common Prayer (1552)|1552]], [[Book of Common Prayer (1559)|1559]], [[Book of Common Prayer (1604)|1604]], and [[Book of Common Prayer (1662)|1662]]), which standardised much of the wording of church services. Some have argued that since attendance at prayer book services was required by law for many years, the repetitive use of its language helped to standardise Modern English even more than the ''[[King James Bible]]'' (1611) did.<ref>Stephen L. White, "The Book of Common Prayer and the Standardization of the English Language" The Anglican, 32:2(4-11), April 2003</ref>
*1557 – Publication of ''[[Tottel's Miscellany]]''.

====Elizabethan English====
[[File:Gorboduc TP 1565.jpg|thumb|Title page of ''[[Gorboduc (play)|Gorboduc]]'' (printed 1565). ''The Tragedie of Gorbodvc, whereof three Actes were wrytten by Thomas Nortone, and the two laste by Thomas Sackuyle. Sett forthe as the same was shewed before the Qvenes most excellent Maiestie, in her highnes Court of Whitehall, the .xviii. day of January, Anno Domini .1561. By the Gentlemen of Thynner Temple in London.'']]
;[[Elizabethan era]] (1558–1603)
*1560 – The [[Geneva Bible]] was published. The New Testament was completed in 1557 by English Reformed exiles on the continent during the reign of Mary, and the complete Bible three years later, after Elizabeth succeeded the throne.  This version was favoured by the [[Puritans]] and [[Pilgrims]] due to its more vigorous and forceful language. Its popularity and proliferation (due in large part to its copious notes) over the following decades sparked the production of the [[King James Bible]] to counter it.
*1582 – The [[Douay–Rheims Bible|Rheims and Douai Bible]] was completed, and the New Testament was released in [[Rheims]], France, in 1582. It was the first complete English translation of the Bible that was officially sponsored and carried out by the [[Catholic Church]] (earlier translations into English, especially of the Psalms and Gospels existed as far back as the 9th century, but it was the first Catholic English translation of the full Bible). Though the Old Testament was already complete, it was not published until 1609–1610, when it was released in two volumes. While it did not make a large impact on the English language at large, it certainly played a role in the development of English, especially in heavily Catholic English-speaking areas.
*[[Christopher Marlowe]], {{floruit|1586–1593}}
*1592 – ''[[The Spanish Tragedy]]'' by [[Thomas Kyd]]
*{{Circa|1590|1612}} – [[Shakespeare's plays]] written {{see also|Chronology of Shakespeare's plays|Shakespeare's influence}}
{{further|Elizabethan literature|English Renaissance theatre}}

===17th century===
====Jacobean and Caroline eras====
=====Jacobean era (1603–1625)=====
{{further|Jacobean era}}
*1609 – [[Shakespeare's sonnets]] published
*Other playwrights:
**[[Ben Jonson]]
**[[Thomas Dekker (writer)|Thomas Dekker]]
**[[Beaumont and Fletcher]] ([[Francis Beaumont]] and [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]])
**[[John Webster]]
*1607 – The first successful permanent English colony in the New World, [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], is established in Virginia. Early vocabulary specific to [[American English]] comes from indigenous languages (such as [[:wikt:moose|moose]], [[:wikt:racoon|racoon]]).
*1611 – The ''[[King James Version]]'' was published, largely based on Tyndale's translation. It remained the standard Bible in the [[Church of England]] into the latter half of the twentieth century.
*1623 – Shakespeare's ''[[First Folio]]'' published

=====Caroline era and English Civil War (1625–1649)=====
{{further|Caroline era|English Civil War}}
*1630–1651 – William Bradford, Governor of [[Plymouth Colony]], wrote his journal. It will become ''[[Of Plymouth Plantation]]'', one of the earliest texts written in the [[Thirteen Colonies|American Colonies]].
*1647 – Publication of the first [[Beaumont and Fletcher folio]]

====Interregnum and Restoration====
The [[English Civil War]] and the [[Interregnum (England)|Interregnum]] were times of social and political upheaval and instability.
The dates for [[Restoration literature]] are a matter of convention and differ markedly from genre to genre. In drama, the "Restoration" may last until 1700, but in poetry, it may last only until 1666, the ''[[annus mirabilis#1666 — The year of wonders|annus mirabilis]]'' (year of wonders), and in prose lasts until 1688. With the increasing tensions over succession and the corresponding rise in journalism and periodicals, or until possibly 1700, when those periodicals grew more stabilised.
*1651 – Publication of ''[[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|Leviathan]]'' by [[Thomas Hobbes]].
*1660–1669 – [[Samuel Pepys]] wrote his diary, which will become an important eyewitness account of the Restoration Era.
*1662 – New edition of the ''Book of Common Prayer'', largely based on the 1549 and subsequent editions. It long remained a standard work in English.
*1667 – Publication of ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' by [[John Milton]] and of ''[[Annus Mirabilis (poem)|Annus Mirabilis]]'' by [[John Dryden]]

===Development to Modern English===
{{main|Modern English}}
The 17th-century [[port town]]s and their forms of speech gained influence over the old [[county town]]s. From around the 1690s onwards, England experienced a new period of internal peace and relative stability, which encouraged the arts including literature.

Modern English can be taken to have emerged fully by the beginning of the [[Georgian era]] in 1714, but [[English orthography]] remained somewhat fluid until the publication of Johnson's ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]'', in 1755.

The towering importance of [[William Shakespeare]] over the other Elizabethan authors was the result of his [[William Shakespeare's influence|reception]] during the 17th and the 18th centuries, which directly contributes to the development of [[Standard English]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}} [[Shakespeare's plays]] are therefore still familiar and comprehensible 400 years after they were written,<ref>[[Fausto Cercignani|Cercignani, Fausto]], ''Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation'', Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1981.</ref> but the works of [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] and [[William Langland]], which had been written only 200 years earlier, are considerably more difficult for the average modern reader.