Page 22 - FEN1(2)C01 LITERATURES IN ENGLISH PAPER I: From Chaucer to the Present

Highlights of the Jacobean Era

• Formal unification of England and Scotland
under one ruler
• Foundation of the first British colonies on the
North American continent, at Jamestown,
Virginia in 1607 - laid the foundation for future
British settlement and the eventual formation of
both Canada and the United States of America.
• Notorious event, November 5, 1605. A group of
English Catholics (prominent among them, Guy
Fawkes) attempted to blow up the King and
Parliament in the Palace of Westminster.
However, the Gunpowder Plot was exposed and
prevented, and the convicted plotters were
hanged, drawn, and quartered.
• The Jacobean era ended with a severe economic
depression in 1620–1626, complicated by a
serious outbreak of bubonic plague in London in
1625.
• Literature – Three of Shakespeare's most
powerful plays were written in that period - The
Tempest (1610), King Lear (1603), and Macbeth
(1603)).
• Other literary figures - John Webster, Thomas
Middleton, John Ford and Ben Jonson. together
with the Cavalier poets and John Donne. In
prose, the most representative works are found in
those of Francis Bacon and the King James
Bible.
• Science - Francis Bacon had a strong influence in
the evolution of modern science, which was