1592 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1592.

Events

• February 5–7 – Ulysses Redux, a Latin play by William Gager, is staged by members of Christ Church, Oxford. Two days later, they revive Gager's 1583 Latin play Rivales (now lost).
• February 26 – First definitely recorded performance of Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, by Lord Strange's Men in London.
• June 23 – The London theatres are closed, remaining so for about 16 months due to an epidemic of bubonic plague (apart from a brief spell around January 1593).
• September 3 – English writer Robert Greene dies in London of a "banquet of Rhenish wine and pickled herring", having apparently completed Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit (published soon after) including a reference to "an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers", taken to be the first published (critical) reference to Shakespeare as a playwright.
• September 26 – Rivales is performed again by members of Christ Church, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in the audience, during her second visit to the University of Oxford.
• October–December – Pembroke's Men, an English playing company, is known to be in existence, acting in Leicester and at Court in London.
• Isaac Casaubon publishes his edition of Theophrastus's Characteres, setting him on a career as an editor.
• Antonio Agustin's Dialoghi intorno alle medaglie inscrittioni et attre antichità is published in Rome with woodcuts by Geronima Parasole, making it the first known printed book with illustrations by a woman.
• Approximate date of first printing of Journey to the West (attributed to Wu Cheng'en).

New books

Prose

• Blaise de Montluc (posthumously) – Commentaires de Messire Blaise de Montluc
• Robert Greene
  • The Black Books Messenger
  • A Disputation Between a Hee Conny-Catcher and a Shee Conny-Catcher
  • The Third and Last Part of Conycatching
  • Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, Bought with a Million of Repentance
  • Greene's Vision, Written at the Instant of his Death
  • Philomela
  • A Quip for an Upstart Courtier
• Richard Johnson – Nine Worthies of London
• Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer – Thresoor der Zeevaert (Treasure of navigation)

Drama

• Anonymous (variously attributed to Thomas Kyd, William Shakespeare and/or Christopher Marlowe) – Arden of Faversham (published)
• Anonymous – A Knack to Know a Knave
• William Gager – Ulysses Redux (Latin)
• Thomas Kyd – The Spanish Tragedy (undated first printing, almost certainly between October and December in this year; first performed around 1587; first recorded performance November in this year)
• John Lyly – Gallathea and Midas published
• Christopher Marlowe – Edward II
• Thomas Nashe – Summer's Last Will and Testament

Poetry

• Henry Constable – Diana
• Michael Drayton – The Shepherd's Garland
• Gabriel Harvey – Foure Letters and certaine Sonnets

Births

• January 16 (baptised) – Henry King, English poet and bishop (died 1669)
• January 22 – Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher and scientist (died 1655)
• March 28 – John Amos Comenius (Jan Amos Komenský), Czech teacher and writer (died 1670)
• April 4 – Abraham Elzevir, Dutch printer (died 1652)
• May 8 – Francis Quarles, English poet (died 1644)
• July 10 – Pierre d'Hozier, French historian (died 1660)
• August 1 – François le Métel de Boisrobert, French poet (died 1662)

Deaths

• July 22 – Ludwig Rabus, German Lutheran theologian (born 1523)
• September 3 – Robert Greene, English writer (born 1558)
• September 13 – Michel de Montaigne, French essayist (born 1533)
• September 26 (bur.) – Thomas Watson, English lyric poet writing in English and Latin (born 1555)
• Unknown date – Amadis Jamyn, French poet (born 1538)