The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Renaissance Period (in English literature)

Renaissance Period (in English literature): A period in English literary history spanning the years 1500 to 1660. The Renaissance Period, conceived broadly, is usually divided into five literary eras: the Early Tudor Age (1550—58); the Elizabethan Age (1558—1603); the Jacobean Age (1603—25); the Caroline Age (1625—49); and the Commonwealth Age, or Puritan Interregnum (1649—60).

Major poets of the period include John Donne, John Milton, Sir Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser. Notable prose writers include Sir Thomas More and Francis Bacon. William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist, has probably had the greatest impact on Western literature, profoundly influencing its course up to the present day.

The term early modern period has been used since the latter half of the twentieth century to refer to the Renaissance, but this usage is misleading.