The article is devoted to the analysis of Dante's “La Commedia Divina” reception in England, from the early quotations from the poem by Chaucer to thepublication of its first full translations produced by Boyd and Carey. Special attention is paid to such problems as the attitude of the English Protestants to the poem during the period of the Reformation, the influence of the poem upon E. Spenser's work, the special liking the English had for the Ugolino episode, as well as to advantages of Boyd's translation and faults of that of Carey, and the reason why the latter has outshined the former.