http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Boschpainting1.jpg
From printing to the steam engine (c. 1700). The arrival of printing made books plentiful, and helped standardise the language. Much more survives from this period than from earlier.

Notable works and authors from this time period include:

* William {{Shakespeare}} and other figures of Elizabethan/Jacobean drama
* Jonathan Swift
* ''DonQuixote'' by Cervantes
* The Italian CommediaDellArte farces, establishing many (if not most) comedy-related tropes we enjoy to this day
* ''ParadiseLost'' by John Milton
* ''JourneyToTheWest'', the great Chinese epic

Tropes that originated in this time period:

* AdaptationDisplacement (Shakespeare, frequently)
* AlasPoorYorick (''{{Hamlet}}'')
* AllDevouringBlackHoleLoanSharks (Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice'')
* AllPartOfTheShow (17th-century urban legend)
* AllThatGlitters (Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice'')
* AntagonistInMourning (16th-century Japanese history)
* AntiHero (Christopher Marlowe's ''Doctor Faustus'')
* ArrangedMarriage (''Romeo and Juliet'')
* AscendedFanboy (''Don Quixote'')
* AtlasPose (The, um, Atlas)
* AttractiveBentGender (many Shakespeare comedies, especially ''TwelfthNight'' and ''As You Like It'')
* BerserkButton (Dogberry in ''MuchAdoAboutNothing'' is one of several Shakespearean examples)
* BewareOfHitchHikingGhosts
* TheBluebeard
* BluffingTheMurderer (the play within the play in ''Hamlet'')
* BreakingTheFourthWall (like NoFourthWall, was used by Shakespeare and possibly earlier)
* TheChessmaster (Iago in ''{{Othello}}'')
* CouldSayItBut (Polonius in ''{{Hamlet}}'')
* TheDeadCanDance (''Danse Macabre'' and various morality plays)
* {{Deconstruction}} (''DonQuixote'' and chivalric tales)
* DetectEvil (Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'')
* DisorganizedOutlineSpeech (''MuchAdoAboutNothing'')
* TheDulcineaEffect (TropeNamer is ''DonQuixote'', but happens in a lot of chivalric tales)
* EtTuBrute (''Julius Caesar'', obviously)
* EvilerThanThou (''King Lear'')
* ExactEavesDropping (At least this old, subverted by Shakespeare in both ''Hamlet'' and ''Othello'')
* FakingTheDead (at least as far back as Shakespeare)
** DeathFakedForYou (several fairy tales)
* GenreSavvy(Prospero in The Tempest)
* TheGhost (''Othello'')
* GroinAttack (''Tristram Shandy'': Uncle Toby)
* IAmSpartacus ("¿Quién mató al Comendador?" "¡FUENTEOVEJUNA, SEÑOR!")
* IdiotPlot (at least as far back as Shakespeare)
* ImpededMessenger (Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet'', or earlier)
* IrrevocableMessage (Shakespeare's ''Richard III'')
* InAnotherMansShoes (Shakespeare's ''Henry V'', or earlier)
* JokerJury (In Vanity Fair in ''ThePilgrimsProgress'')
* KangarooCourt (Shakespeare's ''The Winter's Tale'')
* LampshadeHanging (Shakespeare's ''TwelfthNight'')
* LikeAWeasel (''Hamlet'')
* LordErrorProne (''Don Quixote'')
* LoveDodecahedron (Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and ''TwelfthNight'')
* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter (at least for the "mad scientist is good" variant; Shakespeare's ''The Tempest'', 1611, even though Prospero is a sorcerer, not a scientist)
* MagnificentBastard (the titular character of Shakespeare's ''Richard III'')
* {{Malaproper}}
* MistimedRevival (''Romeo and Juliet'')
* MoreThanMindControl (''The Faerie Queene,'' ''Pilgrim's Progress'')
* MustHaveCaffeine (Bach's ''Coffee Cantata'')
* NoFourthWall (Shakespeare if not much earlier)
* ObfuscatingInsanity (''Hamlet''. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Probably]])
* OutDamnedSpot (''Macbeth'')
* ParentalMarriageVeto (''A Midsummer's Night Dream'')
* PinealWeirdness (Descartes' ''Treatise of Man'', 1629)
* PlanetOfHats (''Gulliver's Travels'', 1726)
* PoseOfSilence (Shakespearian stage production technique)
* PoundOfFlesh (Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice'', ca. 1598)
* PussInBoots (The fairy tale of the same name)
* RageAgainstTheReflection (Shakespeare's ''Richard II'')
* RashEquilibrium (Shakespeare's ''Measure for Measure'')
* RecursiveCrossdressing (Shakespearean comedy, especially ''As You Like It'')
* RecursiveCanon (''{{Hamlet}}'' refers to ''JuliusCaesar'' as a play)
* RedHerring (actual red herrings used in hunting)
* RousingSpeech (Shakespeare, the "St. Crispin's Day" speech in ''Henry V'')
* ShooOutTheClowns
* ShowWithinAShow (Shakespeare's ''Midsummer Night's Dream'', or earlier)
* SpeakOfTheDevil
* AStormIsComing (''Macbeth'')
* StringyHairedGhostGirl ("[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Oyuki The Ghost of Oyuki]]")
* StylisticSuck (Anytime Shakespeare did a [[ShowWithinAShow Play Within A Play]])
* SurrogateSoliloquy (''Hamlet'', arguably ''Macbeth'')
* TagTeamSuicide (Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet'', among others)
* ThoseTwoGuys (''Hamlet'', Rosencrantz and Guildenstern)
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters (The {{Golem}} myth)
* TwinThreesomeFantasy (''Twelfth Night'', maybe)
* UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking (''RichardIII'' and several other Shakespeare plays)
* VillainousBreakdown (''Macbeth'')
* WeddingDay (Shakespeare's ''MuchAdoAboutNothing'', or earlier)
* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve (''{{Cinderella}}'' amongst others)
* WrongGenreSavvy (the titular character of DonQuixote)
* XanatosGambit (Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet'', more exactly their escape)
* ZanyScheme and CounterZany (Also ''Much Ado About Nothing'' -- [[ZanySchemeChicken it's one long ping-pong match of schemery]])
----
<<|TheOldestOnesInTheBook|>>