Early Modern English refers to the stage of the English language used from the end of the Middle English period (the latter half of the 1400s) to 1650. Thus, the works of William Shakespeare both belong to the late phase of Early Modem English. Current readers of English are gene rally able to understand Early Modem English, though occasionally with difficulties arising from grammar changes, changes in the meanings of some words, and spelling differences. The standardization of English spelling falls within the Early Modem English period, and is influenced by conventions predating the Great Vowel Shift, explaining much of the non-phonetic spelling of contemporary Modern English.
The change from Middle English to Early Modern English was not just a matter of vocabulary or pronunciation changing: it was the beginning of a new era in the history of English.
The introduction of printing meant that more books were produced, and more people would have had access to books. People who already read books would have read a greater number of different books, and the average literate person's vocabulary would have be en enlarged. Greater political stability and prosperity led to a flowering of literature, which would have helped to stabilise the language and broaden its vocabulary. Greater prosperity would also have led to more trade, with people from different parts of England coming into contact with each other. English was used in church services, making the general population more familiar with a standard version of the language, rather than the liturgy being in Latin, which was totally incomprehensible to most people.
An era of linguistic change in a language with large variations in dialect was replaced by a new era of a more standardised language with a richer lexicon and an established literature. Shakespeare's plays are familiar and comprehensible today, 400 years after they were written, but the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland, written only 200 years earlier, are considerably more difficult for the average reader.
