Early authors wrote in Latin such as Bede and Alcuin.[170] While the period of Old English literature provided the epic poem Beowulf, along with Christian writings such as Judith, Cædmon's Hymn and saintly hagiographies.[170] The best known secular prose is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Following the Norman conquest Latin continued amongst the educated classes, as well as an Anglo-Norman literature. Middle English literature emerged with Geoffrey Chaucer author of The Canterbury Tales, along with Gower, the Pearl Poet and Langland. Franciscans, William of Ockham and Roger Bacon were major philosophers of the Middle Ages. Julian of Norwich with her 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. Marlowe, Spenser, Sydney, Kyd, Donne, Jonson are other giants of the Elizabethan age.[171] Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes wrote on empiricism and materialism, including scientific method and social contract.[171] Filmer wrote on the Divine Right of Kings. Marvell was the best known poet of the Commonwealth, while John Milton authored Paradise Lost during the Restoration.
| 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. —William Shakespeare.[172] |
