History of English Prose l Development of Prose l The Origins of Modern Prose l Evolution of Prose l Elizabethan Age Prose l Jacobean Age Prose l Romantic Age Prose l Victorian Age Prose

In the history of all literary poetry, poetry also came into being initially long before the first prose was recorded into the history of Old English literature. England's Anglo-Saxon invaders brought their own poetry, but there is no proof that they have had any literary prosaic legacy. The evolution of old English prose, therefore, does not, as poetry does, travel back to earlier Germans. Prose takes place entirely in England and insignificant part as a result of England's Christianization. Three names are mainly remembered after the rise of the English Prose: King Alfred of Wessex, his buddy, and his contemporaries Aelfric and Wolfstein.

King Alfred 
King Alfred is a well-known name in Anglo-Saxon political history. Gleichzeitig ist er mit der Entwicklung der englischen Proseliteratur verbunden. No other name from that era has had such an impact on the formation of old English literature. English prose owes its genesis and progress to him. His literary effort made the period's loose, disconnected style strong and full literature.

Alfred's contribution 

Alfred's contribution to Anglo-Saxon prose development is threefold. First Alfred created the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and filled it with relevant historical data. Second, King Alfred translated a lot of old English writing. Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English"; Gregory's "Cura Pastoralis"; and Orosius' The History of the World. Finally, Alfred's translation of Saint Augustine's "Soliloquy" strengthened the old English dialects. Alfred's literacy success is significant for his unique contribution to the creation of ancient English literature. He is the father of English prose.

Aelfric

Aelfric is the second most famous Anglo-Saxon prose creator after Alfred. Alfred established a solid base for old english prose and added perfection and drive to it. Tolkien's Aelfric had expanded the volume of old english prose literature. His contribution to Old English prose is twofold. First, he sought to teach Latin to his people in English prose. His publications include Colloquium and Catholic Homilies. As well as a Latin-English dictionary. Second, Aelfric greatly improved the Anglo-Saxon prose style.

Wolfstein  

The great English King Alfred laid the foundation for Anglo-Saxon literature. Aelfric expanded it further, and lastly, Wolfstein completed the circle of ancient english literary development. We can thank Wolfstein for the growth of the English prose style. His famous war 'Letters' delivered to the English are still considered as a magnificent exemplar of Anglo Saxon literature. This shows his patriotic zeal and impetuous writing style. 'Homilies' is another notable piece by Wolfsaint.

Anglo-Saxon literature was dominated by poetry. Regular prose came afterward. So old English prose writings were scarce. Early writing, like poetry, has a spirit and a form. The style was formless, abrupt, non-continuous, and alliterative like poetry. Poetic prose lasted until the ninth century. Then, under the priest's Latin influence, regular prose with important qualities began to evolve. This early prose literature was meant to inform and instruct, not to pleasure and please. So it traveled through history, chronicle, sermon, and homily. Aelfric and Wulfstan were among the clerks who contributed to the second kind.

Alfred lived in the late ninth and early 10 centuries. To civilize his people, he personally and others translated Latin works. His works include Winchester Chronicles and Orosius' Universal History. His works include Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England, Gregory's Cura Pastoralis, and Boethius' Consolation. Alfred's influence made old English prose plain, polished, and regular.

Alfred's writing career was halted for a century. Poor priests kept up the prose with strong secular tendencies. Aelfric and Wulfstan changed prose style. Aelfric wrote in the 11th century. His works include (1) Colloquium for teaching Latin by conversation and (2) Homilies. Compiled and translated by church fathers. Unlike Alfred's text, Aeifric's has a rhythm. It has alliterative sections. It was clearer and more polished than Alfred's prose, aiming for beauty, measure, and harmony.

Wulfstan wrote during the early eleventh-century Danish invasion. In his homilies, he laments the people's immortality, which he blames for the country's misfortunes. Wulfstan's prose is less polished than Aelfric's, yet it has great tones and color.

Elizabethan Age Prose

The Golden Age of English poetry and theatre should also be viewed as a wonderful age of English prose. Bacon, Richard Hokker, Sir Phillip Sidney, sir Walter Raleigh, John Fox, Camden, Knox, and Thomas North, with Sir Philip Sidney, were the great prose writers in the path of glory. The closeness of their prose to poetry is practically all Elizabethan prose. It is brilliant, bright, rhythmic, indirect, prolix, and bitter. In the Elizabethan age, the Renaissance spirit of humanism, freedom, and romance played a significant part in the creation and development of English prose.

Jacobean Age Prose

The Jacobean era produced superb prose. This period's prose is ornate, rich, and complicated. That is, it is pithy and epigrammatic. But it's gradually being used for everything prose can do. The trend towards clarity and simplicity is clear. It is gaining flexibility and realism. The essayists of the 17th century clearly understood the fundamentals of prose and the development of English prose. In the hands of the dramatists, the prose becomes close to everyday speech. The pamphleteers were also instrumental in the development of modern prose. Their writing can be eloquent. It stimulates the mind and emotions. But it can also be intellectual. It was impoverished before 1600. A noteworthy development in the early 17th century.  Francis Bacon created a genre that has virtually no descendants. Characteristics in the early 17th century were influenced by Theophrastus, a Greek writer. They owe a lot to Ben Jonson's humor philosophy. However, Bacon provides them with elegance, diction, and precision. Thus the art of character-writing, which remained popular for most of the century, is a weird fusion of elements. The genre's best writers include John Earle, Thomas Overbury, and George Herbert. Another notable writer of this type is Thomas Fuller.

Romantic Age Prose 

Though the Romantic era was dominated by poets, notable prose authors like Lamb, Hazlitt, and De Quincey emerged. The prose authors did not stage a similar rebellion against the 18th century as the poets, but their style had changed.

Whereas many eighteenth-century prose authors relied on assumptions about the appropriateness of different writing styles for varied purposes, Romantic writers were more concerned with the subject matter and emotional expression than form. They wrote for an ever-widening readership that was less similar in interest and education. There was also a growing mistrust of the 18th century's clear separation between content and style, and a Romantic preference for spontaneity over formality and artifice. The ‘grand' style and most kinds of artificial architectural writing produced for public or didactic reasons declined. While certain Romantic poets—Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron—wrote great prose in their critical works, letters, and journals, and some novelists—Scott and Jane Austen—were masters of prose style, it was Lamb, Hazlitt, and De Quincey who excelled in the art of prose writing.

Victorian Age Prose

The early Victorian prose reflects the time's vivacity. Time seems to be characterized by expansive energy that manifests itself in literature, science, geographical discovery, and rapid economic transformation. This vivacious atmosphere explains the prose authors' ingenuity and fertility, as well as the liveliness of many of their works. Not modest and light-hearted, these works exhibit the visual equivalent of self-assertion and an ardent ‘will to survive' that characterized the early Victorians. Their prose isn't always faultless in diction or rhythm or polished to a consistently high finish, but it is lively, intricate, and plentiful and concerned with vocabulary and imagery rather than balance and rhythm. The overriding impression is of lively prose.

Overall, Victorian prose is Romantic prose. In the 1830s, when all the prominent Romantic poets were either dead or moribund, Romanticism's full influence on prose was felt. So early Victorian literature is Romantic prose, and Carlyle is the best Romantic prose-artist. The romantic elements—unevenness, the seriousness of tone, concreteness, and particularity—are what bind the early Victorian prose together. Carlyle, Ruskin, Macaulay, and Matthew Arnold were all renowned prose writers of their time.