A history of English literature

by Edward Albert

Date	Plain	Middle	Ornate	Poetic
	Mandeville (d. 1372)
	Malory
1500
		More
			Fisher
	Ascham
	Nash
		Hooker	Lyly
1600		Bacon
	Overbury			The Bible
		Burton	Milton
			Browne
	Walton	Hobbes	Jeremy Taylor
	Bunyan	Dryden
	Locke	Temple
1700
		Addison
	Swift
	Fielding	Goldsmith	Johnson
			Burke	Macpherson
		Cowper	Gibbon
1800
	Cobbett	Southey		De Quincey
			Lamb	Wilson
		Macaulay	Ruskin	Carlyle
		Thackeray	Meredith	W. Morris
1900	G. B. Shaw

V. THE DRAMA

N.B.—Some cross-classification is unavoidable in this table.

Date	Tragedy	Comedy	Historical and Pastoral
1500
		Ralph Roister Doister
	Gorboduc
	Kyd		The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth
	Marlowe	J. Heywood
	Greene	Lyly
1600	Nash	Shakespeare	Shakespeare
	Shakespeare	Jonson	Jonson
	Jonson	Massinger	Fletcher
	Webster
	Ford
	Milton	Dryden
	Dryden
1700	Lee	Congreve
	Addison	Steele
	Johnson
		Goldsmith	Home
		Sheridan
1800			Baillie
	Byron		Byron
	Shelley
	Browning
	Swinburne
	Tennyson	Wilde	Tennyson
	1900	G. B. Shaw	Swinburne

VI. POETICAL FORMS

Date	Epic	Lyric and Ode	Narrative-Descriptive	Didactic
		The Nut-brown Maid	Chaucer (d. 1400)
			James I of Scotland	Lydgate
1500			Hawes	Hawes
		Wyat	Sackville
		Surrey
1600		Shakespeare	Spenser	Drayton
		Donne	P. and G. Fletcher
	Cowley	Herbert
	Davenant	Carew
	Milton
		Dryden	Dryden	Dryden
1700			Butler
	Blackmore	Prior	Pope
				Pope
		Collins
		Gray		Johnson
			Cowper
		Burns	Crabbe
1800		Wordsworth	Coleridge
		Keats	Scott	Shelley
		Shelley	Byron	Byron
		Tennyson	Tennyson
		Browning		Tennyson
	Tennyson		Browning
		Arnold	Arnold
		D. G. Rossetti	Swinburne
1900

VII. MISCELLANEOUS FORMS (PROSE AND POETRY)

Date	Allegory[241][242]	Satire[241][242]	Elegy[241]	Letters and Diary[242]
	Lydgate[241]
1500		Skelton[241]
	Douglas[241]	Barclay[241]	Dunbar[241]
	Dunbar[241]
		Lyndsay[241]
	Spenser[241]
1600		Donne[241]
	P. Fletcher[241]
				Howell[242]
			Milton[241]
	Bunyan[242]	Dryden[241]		Pepys[242]
1700				Evelyn[242]
	Addison[242]	Swift[242]
		Pope[241]		Lady M. W. Montagu[242]
		Johnson[241]	Gray[241]	Gray[242]
				Cowper[242]
	Goldsmith[242]	Burns[241]
1800
				Lamb[242]
		Byron[241]	Shelley[241]	Scott[242]
			Tennyson[241]
	Tennyson[241]		Arnold[241]
		Butler[242]
1900

VIII. CHIEF METRICAL FORMS: PART I

Date	Heroic Couplet[243][244]	Octosyllabic Couplet	Ballad Meter	Blank Verse
	Chaucer (d. 1400)[243][244]	Chaucer	Numerous ballads
			Sir Patrick Spens
1500			Chevy Chace
				Surrey
	Spenser[244]	Spenser		Marlowe
1600				Shakespeare
	Wither[243]	P. Fletcher		Jonson
	Cowley[243]	Milton
	Cooper’s Hill[243]
				Milton
	Dryden[243]	Butler
				Dryden
1700
	Pope[243]	Swift
				Thomson
			Percy
	Johnson[243]
			Chatterton
	Goldsmith[243]		Goldsmith	Cowper
1800		Coleridge	Coleridge	Wordsworth
	Keats[244]	Scott	Scott	Keats
	Byron[243]	Byron		Shelley
			Tennyson
	Arnold[244]			Tennyson
	W. Morris[244]	W. Morris	D. G. Rossetti	Browning
				Arnold
1900	Swinburne[244]			Swinburne