16th to 20th Century English Literature Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key literary terms, works, periods, and figures from 16th to 19th century English literature based on the lecture notes.

Elizabethan Age

The literary era named after Queen Elizabeth I, spanning from 1558 to 1603.

Blank Verse

A poetic meter introduced in English by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and adapted into a powerful dramatic medium ('mighty line') by Christopher Marlowe.

The Spanish Tragedy

A famous play by Thomas Kyd, recognized as the first revenge tragedy in English literature.

Epic

A long narrative poem written in a grand style, exemplified by works like Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene.

Ralph Roister Doister

A work written by Nicholas Udall, considered the first comedy in English literature.

Homo Fuge

The Latin phrase meaning 'man, fly' that appears written in blood on Doctor Faustus's arm after he signs his contract with Lucifer.

Areopagitica

A 1644 prose treatise by John Milton defending freedom of the press and critiquing state control over expression.

Metaphysical Poets

A group of 17th-century poets, led by John Donne and George Herbert, named retrospectively by Dr. Samuel Johnson.

Lycidas

A pastoral elegy written by John Milton in memory of his friend Edward King.

Paradise Lost

John Milton's major blank-verse epic, first published in 10 books in 1667 and later expanded into 12 books in 1674.

Annus Mirabilis

A poem written by John Dryden whose title translates to 'The Year of Miracles'.

Mac Flecknoe

A satirical work by John Dryden targeting his contemporary rival poet Thomas Shadwell.

Aphra Behn

The author of Oroonoko, cited in the lecture as the first professional woman writer in English literature.

Age of Johnson

The literary period running from 1745 to 1784, also referred to as the Transition Age or Age of Enlightenment.

Gothic Novel

A literary genre defined by dark, atmospheric, and horror-filled settings, pioneered by Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto.

Four Wheels of the Novel

A collective term for the four dominant 18th-century English novelists: Tobias Smollett, Laurence Sterne, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding.

Lyrical Ballads

A seminal 1798 collection of 23 poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that inaugurated the Romantic Age.

Negative Capability

John Keats's concept describing a writer's capacity to exist in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without irritable reaching after fact and reason.

Lake Poets

The group of Romantic poets comprising William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey, named for their residence in the Lake District.

Epistolary Novel

A novel written entirely in the form of letters, exemplified by Samuel Richardson's Pamela.

Pathetic Fallacy

A term introduced by John Ruskin in Modern Painters (1843) to describe the attribution of human emotions and feelings to inanimate objects of nature.

Sprung Rhythm

A poetic rhythm based on the count of accented syllables designed to mimic natural speech, created by Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.