1598 in literature

Events

• March 28 - Philip Henslowe contracts Edward Alleyn and Thomas Heywood to act for the Admiral's Men in London for 2 years.^[1]
• May 3 - Lope de Vega marries for the second time, to Juana de Guardo.
• c. May? - Premiėre of William Haughton's Englishmen for My Money, or, A Woman Will Have Her Will, considered the first city comedy,^[2] probably by the Admiral's Men at The Rose theatre in London.
• c. July? - Ben Jonson's comedy of humours Every Man in His Humour is probably first performed^[3] by the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the Curtain Theatre in London, perhaps with Shakespeare playing Kno'well.
• September 22 - Ben Jonson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel in London and is briefly held in Newgate Prison but escapes capital punishment by pleading benefit of clergy.
• October - Edmund Spenser's castle at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork, is burned down by the native Irish forces of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Spenser leaves for London shortly afterwards.
• December 28 - In London, The Theatre is dismantled.^[4]
• Lancelot Andrewes turns down the bishoprics of both Ely and Salisbury.
• Thomas Bodley refounds the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.^[3]
• English poet Barnabe Barnes is prosecuted in Star Chamber for attempting to murder one John Browne, first by offering him a poisoned lemon and then by sweetening his wine with sugar laced with mercury sublimate; Browne survived the attempt.
• The year sees a burst of satirical writing in England, especially from John Marston; the excesses will lead to an official suppression in the following year.

New books

• John Bodenham - Politeuphuia (Wits' Commonwealth)
• John Florio - A World of Words, an Italian/English dictionary, the first dictionary published in England to use quotations ("illustrations") to give meaning to the words
• Emanuel Ford - Parismus, the Renowned Prince of Bohemia (first part)
• King James VI of Scotland - The Trew Law of Free Monarchies
• Francis Meres - Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury, including the first critical discussion of Shakespeare's works
• John Stow - Survey of London^[5]
• Zhao Shizhen - Shenqipu

New drama

• Anonymous
  • The Famous Victories of Henry V earliest known publication
  • Mucedorus published
• Jakob Ayrer
  • Von der Erbauung Roms ("The Building of Rome")
  • Von der schönen Melusina ("Fair Melusina")
• Samuel Brandon - Virtuous Octavia
• Henry Chettle, Henry Porter and Ben Jonson - Hot Anger Soon Cold
• Robert Greene - The Scottish History of James IV published
• William Haughton - Englishmen for My Money
• Ben Jonson - Every Man in His Humour
• Anthony Munday - The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon
• Anthony Munday (and Henry Chettle?) - The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon
• Henry Porter - Love Prevented
• William Shakespeare - Henry IV, Part 1 and Love's Labor's Lost published

Poetry

• Richard Barnfield - The Encomium of Lady Pecunia
• George Chapman - translation of Homer's Iliad into English^[3]
• Lope de Vega - La Arcadia and La Dragontea
• Christopher Marlowe - Hero and Leander (completed by Chapman following Marlowe's death)
• John Marston - The Metamorphosis of Pigmalian's Image and The Scourge of Villanie

Births

• July 29 – Henricus Regius, Dutch philosopher and correspondent of René Descartes (died 1679)
• August 7 – Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (died 1672)
• Unknown date – Johann George Moeresius, German poet (died 1657)

Deaths

• January 9 – Jasper Heywood, English translator (born 1535)
• February 27 – Friedrich Dedekind, German theologian (born 1524)
• April 10 – Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher (born 1548)
• December 6 – Paolo Paruta, Venetian historian (born 1540)
• December 15 – Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, Dutch statesman and author (born 1540)
• December 31 – Heinrich Rantzau, German humanist writer (born 1526)
• Unknown date – David Powel, Welsh historian (born c. 1549)

References