100 Stunning Facts of English Literature
Thomas More‟s Utopia was published in – 1516 (Latin), 1551
1. Chaucer lived during the reigns of – Edward III, Richard II and
Henry IV
2. Chaucer‟s Canterbury Tales was written in – 1385 onwards
3. Chaucer‟s Canterbury Tales belongs to – 3rd Period of
Chaucer‟s literary career
4. Norman Conquest took place in – 1066 (11th Century)
5. Wyclif‟s Bible was published in – 1380
6. William Langland‟s The Vision of William concerning Piers
the Plowman was written in – 1362-90
7. The Travels of Sir John Maundeville was published in - 1400
8. The Hundred Years‟ War was begun in – 1338 (14th Century)
9. The Hundred Years‟ War was fought between – England and
France
10. Wat Tyler‟s Rebellion took place in - 1381
11. The War of Roses was fought between – The House of York
and the House of Lancaster
12. The War of Roses was fought during the period – 1455-86
13. Thomas Malory‟s Morte De Arthur was written in – 1470
(published in 1485)
14. Caxton‟s Printing Press was set up in – 1476
15.
(English)
16. The First English Comedy, Roister Doister was written in –
1550
17. Roister Doister was written by – Nicholas Udall
18. The First English Tragedy, Gorboduc was written in – 1561
19. Gorboduc was written by – Thomas Sackville, Lord of
Buckhurst & Thomas Norton
20. Tottel‟s Miscellancy was published in - 1557
21. Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne of England in – 1558
22. Globe Theatre was built in – 1599
23. The Elizabethan Age covers the period – 1558-1602
24. The leader of University Wits was – Christopher Marlowe
25. Marlowe‟s first tragedy was – Tamburlaine the Great (1587)
26. Shakespeare wrote – 37 plays
27. Dryden‟s All for Love is based on Shakespeare‟s – Antony
and Cleopatra
28. Shakespeare‟s Sonnets were published in – 1609
29. The hero of Spenser‟s Faerie Queene is - King Arthur
30. Spenser‟s Faerie Queene is dedicated to – Queen Elizabeth
31. Spenser dedicated his Shephearde‟s Calendar to – Philip
Sydney
32. John Lyly‟s Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit was published in
1579 and was contemporary with – Shepheardes Calender.
33. White Devil and Duchess of Malfi were written by – John
Webester
34. Ben Jonson‟s first play Every Man in his Humour was
published in – 1598
35. Ben Jonson is known for his – Comedy of Humours
36. Ben Jonson‟s play written wholly in prose – Bartholomew Fair
37. Bacon‟s essays are written in – Aphoristic style
38. Bacon wrote essays in all – 106 essays (1st, 2nd, 3rd Edition –
10, 38, 58 essays)
39. Authorised version of the Bible - 1611
40. The leader of Metaphysical School of Poets was – Henery
Vaughan
41. The term „Augustan‟ was first applied to school of Poets by –
Dr. Johnson
42. The intellectual father of French Revolution – Rousseau
43. Lyrical Ballads was published in – 1798 44. The leader of the
Pre-Raphaelite in England was – D.G. Rossetti
45. The founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England –
William Holman Hunt
46. The originator of the Oxford Movement was – John Keble
47. The phrase „Stream of Consciousness‟ is associated with –
James Joyce
48. The Hero of Homer‟s Iliad is – Achilles
49. Pope‟s Rape of the Lock contains – Five Cantos
50. A Ballad stanza generally contains – Four lines
51. The greatest Epic in English is written by – Milton
52. The next in command after Satan in Paradise Lost is –
Beelzebub
53. The meaning of L‟Allegro is – A cheerful man
54. A Pastoral Elegy written by Shelley on the death of Keats –
Adonais
55. Everyman a famous play of 15th Century was a – Morality
Play
56. The villain in Duchess of Malfi is – Bosola
57. Dryden‟s plays in general are called – Heroic Plays
58. The last play written by Shakespeare is – The Tempest
59. Andrea Del Sarto in Browning‟s Dramatic Monologue was –
A renowned Painter
60. Rabbi Ben Ezra was a – real Jewish Scholar.
61. Occleve in The Governail of Princes wrote a famous poem
mourning the death of Chaucer.
62. Caxton was the first to set up a printing press in England in
1476.
63. William Tyndale‟s English New Testament is the earliest
version of the Bible.
64. Tottle's Miscellany is a famous anthology of 'Songs and
Sonnets' by Wyatt and Surrey.
65. Amoretti contained 88 sonnets of Spenser.
66. Thomas Mores' Utopia was first written in Latin in 1516. It
was rendered into English in 1551.
67. Roister Doister is believed to be the first regular comedy in
English by Nicholas Udall.
68. Gorboduc is believed to be the first regular tragedy in English
by Sackville and Norton in collaboration.
69. Chaucer's Physician in the Doctor of Physique was heavily
dependent upon Astrology.
70. Spenser described Chaucer as "The Well of English
undefiled‟.
71. Chaucer's pilgrims go on their pilgrimage in the month of
April.
72. Forest of Arden appears in the play As You Like It by William
Shakespeare.
73. Globe Theatre was built in 1599.
74. When Sidney died, Spenser wrote an elegy on his death called
“Astrophel”
75. Spenser‟s Epithalamion is a wedding hymn.
76. The first tragedy Gorboduc was later entitled as Ferrex and
Porrex.
77. Sidney's “Apologie for Poetrie” is a reply to Gosson's “School
of Abuse”.
78. In his Apologie for Poetrie, Sidney defends the Three
Dramatic Unities.
79. Christopher Marlowe wrote only tragedies. He first used
Blank Verse in his Jew of Malta.
80. "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships” . This line
occurs in Doctor Faustus by Marlowe.
81. Ben Jonson used the phrase 'Marlowe's mighty line' for
Marlowe's Blank Verse.
82. Ruskin said, "Shakespeare has only heroines and no heroes".
83. The phrase 'The Mousetrap' used by Shakespeare in Hamlet. It
is the play within the play.
84. Spenser dedicates the Preface to The Faerie Queene to Sir
Walter Raleigh.
85. The Faerie Queene is an allegory .In this Queen Elizabeth is
allegorized through the character of Gloriana.
86. Charles Lamb called Spenser the 'Poets' Poet'.
87. Spenser first used the Spenserian stanza in Faerie Queene.
88. In the original scheme or plan of the Faerie Queene as
designed by Spenser, it was to be completed in Twelve Books.
But he could not complete the whole plan. Only six books exist
now.

89. Twelve Cantos are there in Book I of the Faerie Queene.

90. In the Dedicatory Letter, Spenser Says that the real beginning
of the allegory in the Faerie Queene is to be found in Book XII.

91. The Faerie Queene is basically a moral allegory. Spenser

derived this concept of moral allegory from Aristotle.

92. Ben Jonson said 'Spenser writ no language.'

93. Spenser divided his „Shepheardes Calender‟ into twelve

Ecologues. They represent twelve months of a year.

94. Bacon's Essays are modelled on the Essais of Montaigne.

95. Bacon is the author of Novum Organum.

96. Spenser dedicated his Shepheards Calendar to Sir Philip

Sidney.

97. Ten Essays were published in Bacon's First Edition of Essays

in 1597.

98. 58 essays of Bacon were published in his third and last edition
of Essays in 1625.

99. "......... a mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and

silver, which may make the metal work the better , but it embaseth
it". These lines occur in Bacon‟s “Of Truth”.

100. Hamlet said "Frailty thy name is woman” in Hamlet by

Shakespeare”.