1598 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1598.

Events

• Before September – A second edition of Love's Labour's Lost is published in London; it is the first known printing of a Shakespeare play to have his name ("W. Shakespere") on the title-page.
• February 23 – Thomas Bodley refounds the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
• March 28 – Philip Henslowe contracts Edward Alleyn and Thomas Heywood to act for the Admiral's Men in London for 2 years.
• 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, probably by the Admiral's Men at The Rose theatre in London.
• 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 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.
• Lancelot Andrewes turns down the bishoprics of both Ely and Salisbury.
• 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 has 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

Prose

• 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
• Merkelis Petkevičius – Polski z litewskim katechism
• John Stow – Survey of London
• Zhao Shizhen – Shenqipu (3rd century, 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 probable date of performance
• 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 (published)
  • Love's Labor's Lost (published)

Poetry

• Richard Barnfield
  • The Encomium of Lady Pecunia
  • Poems in Divers Humours
• George Chapman – translation of Homer's Iliad into English
• 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)
• August – Alexander Montgomerie, outlawed Scottish poet (born c. 1545/50)
• 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)