The revival of ancient Greco-Roman culture had a profound impact on the ideals of life. The ascetic ideal of the middle Ages was replaced by the new ideal of the enjoyment of life.

Man had again grown conscious of the Flory and wonder of the Creation and the beauty of human life and human body. This new ideal found reflection every where in Renaissance literature. The zest for life instinctively and naturally found its expression in song. Men craved for entertainment and in response to this demand; there came the drama and the novella-stories of love, bloodshed and violence, often licentious. Consequently, the lyric, the drama and the short story are the characteristic modes of expression in the Elizabethan era.