The latter part of the period deserves the name of the "Golden Age of
English Literature." More, Sydney, Hooker, Jewell, and Bacon were the
leading prose writers; while Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe, and Jonson
represented the poets.
In 1574 a public theater was erected in London, in which Shakespeare
was a stockholder. Not very long after, a second was opened. At both
these, the Globe and the Blackfriars, the great dramatist appeared in
his own plays, and in such pieces as "King John," "Richard the Third,"
and the Henrys, he taught his countrymen more of the true spirit and
meaning of the nation's history than they had ever learned before.
His historical plays are chiefly based on Holinshed and Hall, two
noted chroniclers of the period.