Older Than Steam

From printing to the steam engine (1439-1698). The arrival of movable type printing in Europe made books plentiful, and helped standardize the languages that used it. Much more survives from this period than from earlier.

Please note, that when we say steam engine we mean useful steam engine. Not Heron's first century toy, and not the store.

Notable works and authors from this time period include:

William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and other authors of Elizabethan/Jacobean drama.
The works of Jonathan Swift.
Don Quixote by Cervantes.
The Italian Commedia Dell'Arte farces, establishing many comedy-related tropes we enjoy to this day.
Paradise Lost by John Milton.
Journey to the West, the great Chinese epic.
The Rape Of The Lock, Alexander Pope's great mock-heroic epic satire of the most infamous haircut of English literature.
The plays of Tāng Xiǎnzǔ (see The Peony Pavilion)

Tropes that originated in this time period:

Adaptation Displacement: Some of Shakespeare's plays, such as Romeo and Juliet, displaced older versions of the same stories.
All Part of the Show: 17th-century urban legend.
All That Glitters: Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, which implies that it was already an old aesop.
Anti-Hero: Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.
Aside Comment: Shakespeare and contemporaries.
Atlas Pose: The, um, Atlas.
A Wizard Did It: Don Quixote pokes fun at other works that use the trope in that the title character always ascribes things going sideways to "some cursed enchanter". The Tempest plays it straight, putting essentially the entire plot down to Prospero's magical machinations.
The Bluebeard: European literary folktale by Charles Perrault, 1697.
Bluffing the Murderer: The play within the play in Hamlet.
Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Polonius's list of genres in Hamlet.
Bromantic Foil: Mercutio of Romeo and Juliet.
Cargo Envy: In a famous line from Romeo and Juliet, Romeo sees Juliet resting her head on her hand, and wishes he was a glove on that hand.
The Chessmaster (using actual chess motifs): Iago in Othello.
Contrived Coincidence: The Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare.
Counter Zany: Commedia Dell'Arte, and William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
Cult Classic: Scots poet Robert Burns and his annual supper.
Deal with the Devil: Historia von D. Johan. Fausten dem weitbeschreyten Zauberer und Schwartzkünstler, 1587; may be older.
Detect Evil: Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Diamonds in the Buff: Popular in 16th Century French art.
Disorganized Outline Speech: Much Ado About Nothing.
Epistolary Novel: Existed in the 1600s but became popular with Pamela, 1740.
Et Tu, Brute?: Julius Caesar is the Trope Namer, obviously.
Eviler Than Thou: Edmund in King Lear.
Exact Eavesdropping: Appears to be at least this old; Shakespeare subverted it in Hamlet and Othello, and invoked it twice in Much Ado About Nothing.
Gender Flip: Shakespeare's King Lear was based loosely on the story of Clovis Merovingian who, in the early 6th century, divided up France among his three sons for them to rule equally.
The Ghost: Rosaline in Romeo and Juliet, Angelo and Marcus Luccios in Othello, and Dulcinea in Don Quixote.
Godiva Hair: Botticelli's 1486 painting The Birth of Venus, if not earlier with Lady Godiva herself.
Humble Pie: Called umble pie in the 15th and 16th century.
I Am Spartacus: Fuente Ovejuna by Lope de Vega
I Banged Your Mom: Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus

Chiron: Thou hast undone our mother.
Aaron: Villain, I have done thy mother.

Impeded Messenger: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
In Another Man's Shoes: Shakespeare's Henry V.
In My Language, That Sounds Like...: Shakespeare's Henry V, when Henry is trying to woo Princess Katharine of France. The English words "foot" and "gown" sound a lot like the French for "fuck" (foutre) and "cunt" (con). (Helped along by poor pronunciation in the second case.)
Joker Jury: In Vanity Fair in The Pilgrims Progress
Jossed: Cervantes disproved all the non-canonical novels written by other author(s) featuring his character Don Quixote, going as far as to have the characters in the canonical book read the others and prove them as inaccurate.
Last Villain Stand: Shakespeare's Macbeth, with the protagonist's last stand.
Liberty Over Prosperity: First found in Paradise Lost: Satan would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
Loan Shark: Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
Lord Error-Prone: Don Quixote
Loser Has Your Back: Happens to the protagonist in the morality play Everyman.
Love Dodecahedron: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream and Twelfth Night
Mad Alchemist: The precourser to the modern mad scientist.
Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter (The "mad scientist is good" variant): Shakespeare's The Tempest, 1611, even though Prospero is a sorcerer, not a scientist.
Magically-Binding Contract: Faust's contract with Mephistopheles has to be signed with blood, and can't be broken.
Magnificent Bastard: The eponymous character of Shakespeare's Richard III. Satan in Paradise Lost.
Malaproper: Several Shakespheare comedies.
Mistimed Revival: Romeo and Juliet
Moral Myopia: Shakespearean characters, such as Queen Margaret in Henry VI and Richard III, and Tamara in Titus Andronicus.
More Than Mind Control: The Faerie Queene, Pilgrim's Progress
MST3K Mantra: Puck's final speech in A Midsummer Nights Dream starts with "If we shadows have offended / Think but this and all is mended..." The speech can essentially be compressed into "It's just a play; cool it, willya?"
No Fourth Wall: Many of Shakespeare's plays, if not earlier.
Out, Damned Spot!: Macbeth is the Trope Namer.
Overly Long Gag: Gratiano's repeated ironic echoes of Shylock at the climax of the court scene in The Merchant of Venice.
The Peeping Tom: The folk legend of Lady Godiva, in a version from the 17th century.
Pineal Weirdness: Descartes' Treatise of Man, 1629
Poe's Law: Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, 1515-1517
Pose of Silence: Shakespearean stage production technique.
Potty Emergency: Don Quixote features this joke.
Puss in Boots: The literary folktale of the same name by Charles Perrault, 1695.
Rash Equilibrium: Shakespeare's Measure for Measure
Recursive Crossdressing: Shakespearean comedy, especially As You Like It.
Recursive Canon: Hamlet refers to Julius Caesar as a play.
Red Herring: Actual red herrings used in hunting.
Returning the Handkerchief: Shakespheare's Othello
Shoo Out the Clowns: Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and Henry V
Show Within a Show:
- Type 1: Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, and Hamlet (also Type 3).
- Type 2: "The Ill-Advised Curiosity" in Don Quixote.
Spontaneous Human Combustion: The oldest known report of such an incident allegedly occurring dates back to 1654, briefly detailing an incident believed to have occurred sometime between 1468 and 1503.
A Storm Is Coming: Macbeth
Surrogate Soliloquy: Hamlet
That Cloud Looks Like...: Hamlet
Those Two Guys: Braggadocchio and Trompart in The Faerie Queene; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet
Wedding Day: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, or earlier.
When the Clock Strikes Twelve: "Cinderella", amongst others.
Woolseyism: The King James translation of The Bible uses this method in many passages. More modern translations such as the New International Version have preserved the most famous ones in only slightly modernized form.
Wrong Genre Savvy: The eponymous character of Don Quixote.
Zany Scheme: Much Ado About Nothing—it's one long ping-pong match of schemery.
Zany Scheme Chicken: William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and The Merry Wives of Windsor