The 17 Century was characterized by golden age of literature. Collections of sonnets, lyric and epic poems, adventure novels were published. The famous writers were: F. Sydney, T. W. Campion, Raleigh, Milton etc. One of the most outstanding person were W. Shakespeare. He was the author of the five great tragedies (among others): “Romeo and Juliet” (1594-1595), “Hamlet” (1600), “King Lear”, “Macbeth” (1605-1606) and “Othello” (1604-1605). He also wrote comedies such as “The Taming of the Shrew” (1594), “The Merchant of Venice” (1597), and others. New directions in architecture had appeared - baroque and classicism.