1597 in literature
Encyclopedia
Events
- February - Pembroke's MenPembroke's MenThe Earl of Pembroke's Men was an Elizabethan era playing company, or troupe of actors, in English Renaissance theatre. They functioned under the patronage of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Early and equivocal mentions of a Pembroke's company reach as far back as 1575; but the company is...
contract with Francis LangleyFrancis LangleyFrancis Langley was a theatre builder and theatrical producer in Elizabethan era London. After James Burbage and Philip Henslowe, Langley was the third significant entrepreneurial figure active at the height of the development of English Renaissance theatre.-Background:Langley was a goldsmith by...
to play the next year at his new Swan TheatreSwan TheatreSwan Theatre may refer to:* The Swan , an Elizabethan playhouse* Swan Theatre , a theatre belonging to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, England...
. Their season goes disastrously wrong in July, when they stage the scandalous play The Isle of DogsThe Isle of Dogs (play)The Isle of Dogs is a play by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson which was performed in 1597. It was immediately suppressed, and no copy of it is known to exist.-The Play:...
, which provokes the authorities to close all of the London theatres for the remainder of the summer. - March - Following the death of William Brooke, 10th Baron CobhamWilliam Brooke, 10th Baron CobhamWilliam Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and a Member of Parliament for Hythe. Although he was viewed by some as a religious radical during the Somerset protectorate, he entertained Elizabeth at Cobham Hall in 1559, signalling his acceptance of the moderate regime.His...
on March 5, his place as Lord ChamberlainLord ChamberlainThe Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
is taken by George Carey, 2nd Baron HunsdonGeorge Carey, 2nd Baron HunsdonGeorge Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon KG was the eldest son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and Anne Morgan. His father was first cousin to Elizabeth I of England....
, the son of a previous Lord Chamberlain. Lord Hunsdon reverses Cobham's policy of hostility toward the actors of English Renaissance theatreEnglish Renaissance theatreEnglish Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, refers to the theatre of England, largely based in London, which occurred between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642...
, and returns to his father's policy of general tolerance and patronage.
New books
- Francis BaconFrancis BaconFrancis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
- EssaysEssays (Francis Bacon)Essayes: Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed was the first published book by the philosopher, statesman and jurist Francis Bacon. The Essays are written in a wide range of styles, from the plain and unadorned to the epigrammatic... - Johannes Vodnianus CampanusJohannes Vodnianus CampanusJan Campanus Vodňanský was a Czech humanist, composer, pedagogue, poet, and dramatist. He was born in Vodňany , in southern Bohemia...
- Turcicorum tyrannorum qui inde usque ab Otomanno rebus Turcicis praefuerunt, descriptio - Gabriel HarveyGabriel HarveyGabriel Harvey was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, though his reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe...
- The Trimming of Thomas Nashe Gentleman - Thomas MorleyThomas MorleyThomas Morley was an English composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance, and the foremost member of the English Madrigal School. He was the most famous composer of secular music in Elizabethan England and an organist at St Paul's Cathedral...
- Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music - Dinko ZlatarićDinko ZlataricDominko "Dinko" Zlatarić was a poet and translator from Republic of Ragusa, considered the best translator of the Renaissance.-Life:...
- Ljubav i smrt Pirama i Tizbe, iz veće tuđijeh jezika u hrvacki složene (Love and Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, Translated into Croatian from Several Foreign Languages)
New drama
- George ChapmanGeorge ChapmanGeorge Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...
- An Humorous Day's MirthAn Humorous Day's MirthAn Humorous Day's Mirth is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy by George Chapman, first acted in 1597 and published in 1599.Algernon Charles Swinburne called Chapman's play one of the finest comedies in English... - Richard HathwayeRichard HathwayeRichard Hathwaye , was an English dramatist. Little is known about Hathwaye's life. There is no evidence that he was related to his namesake Richard Hathaway, the father of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway. Hathwaye is not heard of after 1603....
- King Arthur - John LylyJohn LylyJohn Lyly was an English writer, best known for his books Euphues,The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England. Lyly's linguistic style, originating in his first books, is known as Euphuism.-Biography:John Lyly was born in Kent, England, in 1553/1554...
- The Woman in the Moon published - John MarstonJohn MarstonJohn Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...
- HistriomastixHistriomastixHistriomastix: The Player's Scourge, or Actor's Tragedy is a critique of professional theatre and actors, written by the Puritan author and controversialist William Prynne.... - Anthony MundayAnthony MundayAnthony Munday was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. The chief interest in Munday for the modern reader lies in his collaboration with Shakespeare and others on the play Sir Thomas More and his writings on Robin Hood.-Biography:He was once thought to have been born in 1553, because...
& Michael DraytonMichael DraytonMichael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...
-Mother Redcap - Thomas NasheThomas NasheThomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
& Ben JonsonBen JonsonBenjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
- The Isle of DogsThe Isle of Dogs (play)The Isle of Dogs is a play by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson which was performed in 1597. It was immediately suppressed, and no copy of it is known to exist.-The Play:... - William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
- Richard IIRichard II (play)King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...
, Richard IIIRichard III (play)Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
, and Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
(the "bad quartoBad quartoBad quarto is a term and concept developed by twentieth-century Shakespeare scholars to explain some problems in the early transmission of the texts of Shakespearean works...
") published
Births
- February 24 - Vincent VoitureVincent VoitureVincent Voiture , French poet, was the son of a rich merchant of Amiens. He was introduced by a schoolfellow, the count Claude d'Avaux, to Gaston, Duke of Orléans, and accompanied him to Brussels and Lorraine on diplomatic missions.Although a follower of Gaston, he won the favour of Cardinal...
, French poet (died 1648) - December 23 - Martin Opitz von BoberfeldMartin Opitz von BoberfeldMartin Opitz von Boberfeld was a German poet, regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime.Opitz was born in Bunzlau in Lower Silesia, the son of a prosperous citizen...
, German poet (died 1639) - date unknown
- Wang WeiWang Wei (17th century poet)Wang Wei was a Chinese poet.Orphaned at the age of seven, she became a prostitute in Yangzhou. In later life she was twice married and twice widowed, before becoming a priestess with the name "Taoist Master in the Straw coat". Thereafter she traveled throughout central China on a boat, writing...
, Chinese poet (died 1647)
- Wang Wei
Deaths
- June 6 - William HunnisWilliam HunnisWilliam Hunnis was an English Protestant poet, dramatist, and composer.Hunnis was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal to Edward VI, but was imprisoned during the reign of Mary for plotting against her regime and narrowly escaped execution...
, English poet - July 20 - Franciscus RaphelengiusFranciscus RaphelengiusFrans van Ravelingen, latinized to Franciscus Raphelengius, , was a Flemish-born Dutch scholar, printer and bookseller, based in Leiden. He held the chair in Hebrew at Leiden from 1587, and also had knowledge of Arabic and Persian. He wrote an Arabic-Latin lexicon, which was published posthumously...
, printer and bookseller (born 1539) - date unknown
- James BurbageJames BurbageJames Burbage was an English actor, theatre impresario, and theatre builder in the English Renaissance theatre. He built The Theatre, the facility famous as the first permanent dedicated theatre built in England since Roman times...
, English actor - Franciscus Patricius, Italian philosopher and scientist (born 1529)
- James Burbage