1st class.  Before  The Canterbury Tales,   24 stories to entertain a long journey, English was not a valued, recognized language.  The educated people used Latin especially if they were from the clerical class, in French if they were of the higher classes, or in different dialects for the common people… We are talking of the XIV century here, so the man who gave English its position as a true language was Geoffrey Chaucer…

2nd. class, after the Barren Age (1400-1550) we have moved  to the XVI century,  the time of Christopher Marlowe, Elizabeth the first and Shakespeare (there are still doubts about the writer of Shakespeare’s plays, could it have been Marlowe?)                                           Marlowe, who said: “I live to dye, I dye to live”. Even the film «Shakespeare in Love» hints at this possibility.