pre-Elizabethan

American  

[pree-i-liz-uh-bee-thuhn, -beth-uhn] / ˌpri ɪˌlɪz əˈbi θən, -ˈbɛθ ən /

adjective

1. (of English culture, history, traditions, etc.) before the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; before the second half of the 16th century.

---

Example Sentences

The play springs from the earliest roots of pre-Elizabethan drama.

From Time Magazine Archive

When British Garage Owner Arthur Lindley surveyed the creaking, pre-Elizabethan cottage he owns next door to his gasoline station at Piccott's End near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, he saw a depressing sight.

From Time Magazine Archive

For he will regard our desire to transfer some of his own credit to the man in the pre-Elizabethan street as a sure sign that we are steadily approaching the golden gates of his Utopia.

From The Joyful Heart by Schauffler, Robert Haven

The first three—the excerpt from Wilson's Art of Rhetoric, Sir Philip Sidney's Letter to his brother Robert, and the dissertation from Meres's Palladis Tamia—are, if minor, certainly characteristic examples of pre-Elizabethan and Elizabethan literary criticism.

From An English Garner Critical Essays & Literary Fragments by Arber, Thomas Seccombe, Professor

Judging from the pre-Elizabethan literature, who would have expected the brilliancy of the Elizabethan period?

From Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic by Gulick, Sidney Lewis