During the renaissance there was a shift away from an essencially religious world wiev to an essentially secular world wiev. This process was accelererated by the discoveries of science and exploration as the discovered of america.

In England during the renaissance reigned elisabrth, who provided  political stabilty. Her reign was a divided of Catholics, Protestants and Puritans.

The religion was a pressing issue, indeed the reformation of henry VIII changed England's religious life: he became the leader both the church and the state and also Elisabeth wanted that the church remaneid onder her control. She also had to face the economic problem of price inflaction, however during her reign there had been a period of prosperity with the increase of trades and culture. Literature and arts was ispired by Italian poets and flourished under thepatronage of the court. Literature did not have a religious prospective on life anymore. During this period we found that the main main theme was the between the individual and social order and the way of writing reflected the vitality of the period.

The most important playwriter was Shakespeare, who was able to drow all kinds of sources, he was a Metaphysical writer, because he talked of love and religion with a very violent and direct language. The theater was the most public form of literature and on the other side poetry was the most personal form.