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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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • December 28 – London's The Theatre is dismantled.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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
  • Merkelis Petkevičius – '
  • John Stow – Survey of London
  • Zhao Shizhen – Shenqipu (3rd century, possible first publication)
  • 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
  • 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

Poetry

  • Richard Barnfield
  • The Encomium of Lady Pecunia
  • Poems in Divers Humours
  • George Chapman – translation of Homer's Iliad into English
  • 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

  • March 12 – Guillaume Colletet, French writer (died 1659)
  • March 13 – Johannes Loccenius, German historian (died 1677)
  • 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 2 - Morris Kyffin, Welsh soldier and author (born c.1555)
  • January 9 – Jasper Heywood, English translator (born 1535)
  • February 27 – Friedrich Dedekind, German theologian (born 1524)
  • April 10 – Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher (born 1548)
  • August – Alexander Montgomerie, outlawed Scottish poet (born c. 1545/1550)
  • 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 who popularised continuing legends such as that of Prince Madoc (born c. 1549)

References