Firsts

of 

English Literary History

 

·  ca. 670 Caedmon: first English Poet known by name

·  ca. 690 Adawman's Life of St. Columba – first biography in Britain

·  ca. 700 Beowulf : first Anglo-Saxon epic.

·  731 Bede's Eccles. Hist. – first history of English people (in Latin).

·  ca. 800 Nennius's History of the Britons – first mention of Arthur.

·  875-900 Quem Quaeritis: first known trope

·  887 Alfred's handbook of Pastoral Care tr. – first English prose work.

·  893 Asser's Life of Alfred  The Great – first biography of a layman.

·  ca. 975 Concordia Regularis – first evidence of dramatic activity in England.

·  ca. 1100 Play of St. Catherine – first recorded miracle play in English.

·  ca. 1136 Geofferey of Monmouth's History of Kings of Britain:  first romantic account of Arthur

·  ca. 1225 First English metrical romance – King Horn

·  ca. 1300+ York cycle

·  1340-1400 Chaucer, first major English poet

·  ca. 1375 Paternoster & Creed plays

·  1382 first edition of Wyclif's translation of Bible into English

·  1400-25 The Pride of Life – first extant morality play

·  ca. 1425 The Castle of Perseverance – first complete morality play

·  1440 First step toward a dictionary: Galfridus Grammatious, Promptorius Parvulorum, English-Latin word-list.

·  ca. 1474 Caxton's Recuyell of the Histories of Troy – first book printed in English

·  ca. 1477 Caxton's first printing press in England

·  1477 First dated book printed in England: Dictes And Sayings of the Philosophers

·  ca. 1497 Medwall's Fudgens and Cucres – first extant interlude

·  1519 Rastell's The Four Elements – first published interlude

·  ca. 1525 Tyndale's New Testament – first printed English translation of Bible

·  1535 Coverdale's Bible – first complete printed English Bible

·  1538 First use of term "dictionary": Sir Thomas Elyot's Dictionarie

·  ca. 1540 First English sonnets: Wyatt & Surrey, Printed in Tottel's Miscellany, called Songs And Sonnets, 1557

·  ca. 1552 Udall Ralph R. D. – first regular English comedy

·  1557 Surrey – first blank verse

·  1562 Gorgoduc – first English tragedy

·  1575 Gascoigne – first English treatise on verification

·  1576 The Theatre – first London playhouse (also Blackfriars, the Curtain)

·  1579 First English eclogues: Spenser's Shepheardes Calendar

·  ca. 1581 Sidney's Defense of Poesie – first great English critical essay

·  1597 First English "Essay" – by Bacon

·  1609 First prose autobiography in English: Life of Sir Thomas Bodley

·  1640 Bay Psalm Book – first book printed in America

·   1704 First periodical essay: Defoe's column in Weekly Review