Early Modern English (EME) is the first stage of English easily-recognizable to the contemporary reader. Though there is no clear event marking the start of EME, a line can be drawn in 1476, the year William Caxton brought the printing press to England. Caxton chose the dialect of London as the language of printing, raising its already high status and beginning a long process of slowing of growth and solidification that has continued to this day. The EME period coincided with the English Renaissance which also saw the
The Renaissance Language and Literature
Henry the 8th shocked Europe by defecting from the Catholic Church and becoming Fides Defensor of the Church of England in 1558.
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English saw its greatest flowering in the EME period. Shakespeare and his contemporaries produced plays and poems of great beauty and staggering genius. Below are links to relevant authors. |