This lecture will survey the most important authors, works, and literary and cultural developments during the English Renaissance (roughly from c. 1480 to 1660). While most famous for Shakespeare, obviously, this period harbours many other fascinating writers and texts, from John Skelton to John Milton, in a wide range of genres from poetry to drama and early modern narrative prose. Systematically, the lecture will address the gradual transition from a manuscript and performance-based culture towards the predominance of print, and the ways in which literature reacted to and shaped key historical events and developments such as the Reformation and the beginnings of British imperial expansion. Above all, though, it will serve as an introduction to the pleasures and riches of English Renaissance writing.