1598 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1598.

Events

• Before September – A second edition of Love's Labour's Lost appears in London as the first known printing of a Shakespeare play to have his name on the title page ("Newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakespere").
• February 23 – Thomas Bodley refounds the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.^[1]
• March 28 – Philip Henslowe contracts Edward Alleyn and Thomas Heywood to act for the Admiral's Men in London for two years.^[2]
• April 30 – A comedy, by an anonymous playwright about an expedition of soldiers, is the very first theatrical performance in North America, staged near El Paso for Spanish colonists.^[3]
• May 3 – The Spanish playwright Lope de Vega marries for the second time, to Juana de Guardo.
• c. May – The premiėre of William Haughton's Englishmen for My Money, or, A Woman Will Have Her Will introduces what is seen as the first city comedy, probably by the Admiral's Men at London's Rose Theatre.^[4]
• c. July/September – Ben Jonson's comedy of humours Every Man in His Humour is probably first performed, by the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the Curtain Theatre, London, perhaps with Shakespeare playing Kno'well.^[1]
• September 7 – Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury is registered for publication, including the first list and critical discussion of Shakespeare's works; he also mentions that Shakespeare's "sugar'd sonnets" are circulating privately.^[5]
• 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.^[6]
• October – Edmund Spenser's castle, Kilcolman Castle near Doneraile in Ireland, is burned down by native forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Spenser leaves for London shortly after.
• November 25 – Henry Chettle is paid for "mending" a play about Robin Hood to make it suitable for performance at court.^[7]
• December 28 – London's The Theatre is dismantled.^[8]
• unknown dates
  • Lancelot Andrewes turns down the bishoprics of Ely and Salisbury.
  • The English poet Barnabe Barnes is prosecuted in the Star Chamber for attempted murder of one John Browne, first by offering him a poisoned lemon and then by sweetening his wine with sugar laced with mercury sublimate; Browne survives both attempts.^[9]
  • John Marston's The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image and Certaine Satyres begins a trend in English satirical writing that leads to official suppression in the following year.^[10]

New books

Prose

• John Florio – A World of Words, Italian/English dictionary, the first dictionary published in England to use quotations ("illustrations") for meaning to the words
• Emanuel Ford – Parismus, the Renowned Prince of Bohemia (first part)
• King James VI of Scotland – The True Law of Free Monarchies
• Francis Meres – Palladis Tamia^[5]
• Merkelis Petkevičius – Polski z litewskim katechism
• John Stow – Survey of London^[11]
• Zhao Shizhen – Shenqipu (3rd century, possible first publication)^{[citation needed]}
• Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer – Enchuyser zeecaertboeck (Enkhuizen book of sea charts)

Drama

• Anonymous
  • The Famous Victories of Henry V earliest known publication
  • Mucedorus published
  • The Pilgrimage to Parnassus (earliest possible date of composition)
• 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^[12]
• Robert Greene – The Scottish History of James IV published
• William Haughton – Englishmen for My Money
• Ben Jonson – Every Man in His Humour^[13]
• Anthony Munday – The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon^[7]
• Anthony Munday (and Henry Chettle?) – The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon^[7]
• Henry Porter – Love Prevented
• William Shakespeare
  • Henry IV, Part 1 (published)
  • Love's Labour's Lost (published)^[14]

Poetry

• Richard Barnfield
  • The Encomium of Lady Pecunia
  • Poems in Divers Humours
• George Chapman – translation of Homer's Iliad into English^[1]
• Lope de Vega – La Arcadia and La Dragontea^[15]
• Christopher Marlowe – Hero and Leander (completed by Chapman following Marlowe's death)^[16]
• John Marston – The Metamorphosis of Pigmalian's Image and The Scourge of Villanie

Births

• March 12 – Guillaume Colletet, French writer (died 1659)^[17]
• March 13 – Johannes Loccenius, German historian (died 1677)
• July 29 – Henricus Regius, Dutch philosopher and correspondent of René Descartes (died 1679)^[18]
• August 7 – Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (died 1672)^[19]
• unknown date – Johann George Moeresius, German poet (died 1657)

Deaths

• January 2 - Morris Kyffin, Welsh soldier and author (born c.1555)^[20]
• January 9 – Jasper Heywood, English translator (born 1535)
• February 27 – Friedrich Dedekind, German theologian (born 1524)^[21]
• April 10 – Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher (born 1548)^{[citation needed]}
• August – Alexander Montgomerie, outlawed Scottish poet (born c. 1545/1550)
• December 6 – Paolo Paruta, Venetian historian (born 1540)^[22]
• December 15 – Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, Dutch statesman and author (born 1540)^[23]
• December 31 – Heinrich Rantzau, German humanist writer (born 1526)
• unknown date – David Powel, Welsh historian who popularised continuing legends such as that of Prince Madoc (born c. 1549)^[24]