The Elizabethan Age (1558 – 1603) refers to the period of Elizabeth 1’s reign and is characterized by vigorous intellectual thinking, an age of adventure and discovery, a time in which new ideas and new experiences were sought after.

The effects of the Renaissance on English literature were an increased emphasis on humanism and individuality, as well as an increased willingness of writers to satirize existing institutions such as the church and state and to write secular rather than religious works. During the Renaissance, drama became secularized.

His Contribution to the renaissance was that he created a new style of play writing because he mixed both tragedy and comedy into one “which in his times was a big deal because way back then comedies were comedies and tragedies were tragedies,they were never collaborated.” He was also known for his theater, The Globe.

He has contributed most remarkable tragedies and comedies of all time such as As You Like It, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, All well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and many more.

The most famous and important plays Shakespeare wrote during the renaissance are Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. Before his retirement, he had made a lot of innovations in the genres, comedy, drama, romance, and other forms of performing arts, which we still use up to the present moment.

Medieval culture pervaded Shakespeare’s life and work. Professor Helen Cooper examines its influence on the work of the world’s greatest playwright. Although we think of Shakespeare as quintessentially belonging to the English Renaissance, his world was still largely a medieval one.