Elizabethan

Elizabethan means "relating to or characteristic of the life and times of Elizabeth I, queen of England and Ireland, who reigned from 1558 to 1603" (Encarta Dictionary). Three common types of sonnets are the Elizabethan, Shakesperean, and Petrarchan. As stated by Brown and Yarbrough, "they generally have fourteen lines of iambic pentameter and follow one of several ryme schemes" (84).