England

===Literature, poetry, and philosophy===
{{Main|English literature}}
[[File:Geoffrey Chaucer (17th century).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A man dressed in grey with a beard, holding a rosary, depicted next to a coat of arms.|[[Geoffrey Chaucer]] was an English author, poet and philosopher, best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]''.]]

Early authors such as [[Bede]] and [[Alcuin]] wrote in Latin.<ref name="warnancmod">{{harvnb|Warner|1902|p=35}}.</ref> The period of [[Old English literature]] provided the epic poem ''[[Beowulf]]'' and the secular prose of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'',<ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|2001|p=17}}.</ref> along with Christian writings such as ''[[Judith (poem)|Judith]]'', [[Cædmon]]'s ''[[Cædmon|Hymn]]'' and [[hagiography|hagiographies]].<ref name="warnancmod" /> Following the Norman conquest [[Latin literature|Latin]] continued among the educated classes, as well as an [[Anglo-Norman literature]].

[[Middle English literature]] emerged with [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], author of ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'', along with [[John Gower|Gower]], the [[Pearl Poet]] and [[William Langland|Langland]]. [[William of Ockham]] and [[Roger Bacon]], who were [[Franciscans]], were major philosophers of the Middle Ages. [[Julian of Norwich]], who wrote ''[[Revelations of Divine Love]]'', was a prominent Christian mystic. With the [[English Renaissance]] literature in the [[Early Modern English]] style appeared. [[William Shakespeare]], whose works include ''[[Hamlet]]'', ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[Macbeth]]'', and ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', remains one of the most championed authors in English literature.<ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|2001|p=135}}.</ref>

[[Christopher Marlowe]], [[Edmund Spenser]], [[Philip Sydney]], [[Thomas Kyd]], [[John Donne]], and [[Ben Jonson]] are other established authors of the [[Elizabethan literature|Elizabethan age]].<ref name="elizren">{{harvnb|Rowse|1971|p=48}}.</ref> [[Francis Bacon]] and [[Thomas Hobbes]] wrote on [[empiricism]] and [[materialism]], including [[scientific method]] and [[social contract]].<ref name="elizren" /> [[Robert Filmer|Filmer]] wrote on the [[Divine Right of Kings]]. [[Andrew Marvell|Marvell]] was the best-known poet of the [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]],<ref>{{harvnb|Norbrook|2000|p=6}}.</ref> while [[John Milton]] authored ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' during the [[Restoration literature|Restoration]].
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 | quote =This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, this earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this other Eden, demi-paradise; this fortress, built by nature for herself. This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
 | source = [[William Shakespeare]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Richard II |url=http://www.users.waitrose.com/~uk1/shakespeare/sceptred.htm |publisher=[[William Shakespeare]] |access-date=5 September 2009 |archive-date=28 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080628141802/http://www.users.waitrose.com/~uk1/shakespeare/sceptred.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
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Some of the most prominent philosophers of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] were [[John Locke]], [[Thomas Paine]], [[Samuel Johnson]] and [[Jeremy Bentham]]. More radical elements were later countered by [[Edmund Burke]] who is regarded as the founder of conservatism.<ref>{{harvnb|Heywood|2007|p=74}}.</ref> The poet [[Alexander Pope]] with his satirical verse became well regarded. The English played a significant role in [[romanticism]]: [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], [[Lord Byron]], [[John Keats]], [[Mary Shelley]], [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], [[William Blake]] and [[William Wordsworth]] were major figures.<ref>{{harvnb|Watson|1985|p=360}}.</ref>

In response to the [[Industrial Revolution]], agrarian writers sought a way between [[liberty]] and tradition; [[William Cobbett]], [[G. K. Chesterton]] and [[Hilaire Belloc]] were main exponents, while the founder of [[guild socialism]], [[Arthur Penty]], and [[cooperative movement]] advocate [[G. D. H. Cole]] are somewhat related.<ref>{{harvnb|Cole|1947|p=268}}.</ref> Empiricism continued through [[John Stuart Mill]] and [[Bertrand Russell]], while [[Bernard Williams]] was involved in [[analytics]]. Authors from around the [[Victorian era]] include [[Charles Dickens]], the [[Brontë sisters]], [[Jane Austen]], [[George Eliot]], [[Rudyard Kipling]], [[Thomas Hardy]], [[H. G. Wells]] and [[Lewis Carroll]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hawkins-Dady|1996|p=970}}.</ref> Since then England has continued to produce novelists such as [[George Orwell]], [[D. H. Lawrence]], [[Virginia Woolf]], [[C. S. Lewis]], [[Enid Blyton]], [[Aldous Huxley]], [[Agatha Christie]], [[Terry Pratchett]], [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], and [[J. K. Rowling]].<ref>{{harvnb|Eccleshare|2002|p=5}}.</ref>