In the 15th – 16th c. the feudal system started to decay and bourgeois relationships and capitalism started to develop. England became a centralised state.
Introduction of Printing The first printer of English books was William Caxton (1422-1491). He was born in Kent. In 1441 he moved to Flanders (a region in Belgium) and later, in 1473, he opened up his own printing press in Bruges.
1475 – the first English book was printed in Bruges by William Caxton. It was a translation of the story of Troy.
A few years later William Caxton brought his printing press to England and set it up in Winchester. Here he published the work of the famous authors of that time – Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Lydgate – and translated books from French.
Contribution of Printing:
The works of the authors of that time were edited and brought into conformity with the London Dialect and as far as all the book were written in this dialect, it spread quickly and became the true standard of the English language;
As far as printing allowed to multiply books in great number, they were sold and thus the literacy of the population grew;
Before the introduction of printing different scribes could spell the same words differently; with the introduction of printing the spelling became fixed and it hasn’t changed since that time though the pronunciation has changed greatly (this fact explains the difficulties of the English spelling).
Age of Shakespeare See lectures in the English Literature on Shakespeare and his works.
The sources of information about the language:
private letters (as far as books became available, more people became literate and started to write letters, wills, diaries, etc.);
books for pupils and didactic works (e.g. “An Orthographie” by John Hart; “Grammatica Lingæ Anglicanæ” by John Wallis, etc.);
lists of difficult words and dictionaries (e.g. “English-English Dictionary” (dialectal words explained with the help of the bookish English) by Henry Cockeram, etc.).
