20 2.1 Learning Outcomes

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

• Describe the economic, monarchic, and religious characteristics of Tudor rule

• Describe the reasons for the Reformation in England

• Characterize the Golden Age in England under the rule of Elizabeth I

• Analyze the causes for the growth of literature in vernacular, or native, English

• Compare Chaucer’s influence with that of Edmund Spenser’s on the development of literature in vernacular, or native, English

• Analyze the influence of classical and Italian literature on the English sonnet

• Analyze the influence of classical literature on English drama