1598 in literature
Encyclopedia
Events
- September 22 - 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...
is charged with manslaughter, after killing actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel. - October - Edmund SpenserEdmund SpenserEdmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
's castle at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork, is burned down by the native Irish forces of Aodh Ó Néill. Spenser leaves for London shortly afterwards. - Lancelot AndrewesLancelot AndrewesLancelot Andrewes was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the...
turns down the bishoprics of both Ely and Salisbury. - Lope de VegaLope de VegaFélix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
marries Juana de Guardo. - The year sees a burst of satirical writing, especially from John MarstonJohn MarstonJohn Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...
; the excesses would lead to an official suppression in the following year.
New books
- John BodenhamJohn BodenhamJohn Bodenham , anthologist, is stated to have been the editor of some of the Elizabethan anthologies, viz., Politeuphuia , Wits' Theater , Belvidere, or the Garden of the Muses , and England's Helicon . Mr...
- Politeuphuia (Wits' Commonwealth) - King James VI of Scotland - The Trew Law of Free Monarchies
- Francis MeresFrancis MeresFrancis Meres was an English churchman and author.He was born at Kirton in the Holland division of Lincolnshire in 1565. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of Oxford...
- Palladis Tamia, Wits TreasuryPalladis TamiaPalladis Tamia, subtitled "Wits Treasury", is a 1598 book written by the minister Francis Meres. Meres calls it "A Comparative Discourse of our English Poets, with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets", and is important in English literary history as the first critical account of the poems and early...
, including the first critical discussion of Shakespeare's works - John StowJohn StowJohn Stow was an English historian and antiquarian.-Early life:The son of Thomas Stow, a tallow-chandler, he was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. His father's whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow in his youth fetched milk every...
- Survey of London
New drama
- Anonymous - MucedorusMucedorusMucedorus is an Elizabethan play, performed up until the Restoration and surviving in seventeen quartos, making it the most widely printed extant play from the time...
published - Samuel Brandon - Virtuous Octavia
- Henry ChettleHenry ChettleHenry Chettle was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era.The son of Robert Chettle, a London dyer, he was apprenticed in 1577 and became a member of the Stationer's Company in 1584, traveling to Cambridge on their behalf in 1588. His career as a printer and author is...
, Henry Porter & Ben Jonson - Hot Anger Soon ColdHot Anger Soon ColdHot Anger Soon Cold is a play written by Henry Chettle, Henry Porter and Ben Jonson. It is mentioned in Philip Henslowe's diary in August 1598. No extant copies of the play are known.... - Robert GreeneRobert Greene (16th century)Robert Greene was an English author best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, widely believed to contain a polemic attack on William Shakespeare. He was born in Norwich and attended Cambridge University, receiving a B.A. in 1580, and an M.A...
- The Scottish History of James IV published - William HaughtonWilliam HaughtonWilliam Haughton was an English playwright in the age of English Renaissance theatre. During the years 1597 to 1602 he collaborated in many plays with Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, John Day, Richard Hathwaye and Wentworth Smith....
- Englishmen for My MoneyEnglishmen for My MoneyEnglishmen for My Money, or A Woman Will Have Her Will is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by William Haughton that dates from the year 1598... - 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...
- Every Man in His HumourEvery Man in His HumourEvery Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humours comedy," in which each major character is dominated by an overriding humour or obsession.-Performance and Publication:... - 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...
- The Downfall of Robert Earl of HuntingdonThe Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of HuntingtonThe Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington are two closely related Elizabethan-era stage plays on the Robin Hood legend, that were written by Anthony Munday in 1598 and published in 1601... - Anthony Munday (& Henry Chettle?) - The Death of Robert Earl of HuntingdonThe Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of HuntingtonThe Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington are two closely related Elizabethan-era stage plays on the Robin Hood legend, that were written by Anthony Munday in 1598 and published in 1601...
- Henry Porter - Love Prevented
- 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"...
- Henry IV, Part 1Henry IV, Part 1Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV , and Henry V...
and Love's Labor's Lost published
Poetry
- Richard BarnfieldRichard BarnfieldRichard Barnfield , English poet, was born at Norbury, Staffordshire, and brought up in Newport, Shropshire.He was baptized on 13 June 1574, the son of Richard Barnfield, gentleman. His obscure though close relationship with Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars...
– The Encomium of Lady Pecunia - Lope de VegaLope de VegaFélix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
– La Arcadia - Lope de Vega – La Dragontea
- Christopher MarloweChristopher MarloweChristopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
– Hero and LeanderHero and Leander (poem)Hero and Leander is a mythological poem by Christopher Marlowe. After Marlowe's death it was completed by George Chapman. Henry Petowe published an alternate completion to the poem.-Publication:...
(completed by 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...
and published after Marlowe's death) - John MarstonJohn MarstonJohn Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...
– The Metamorphosis of Pigmalian's Image; The Scourge of Villanie
Births
- August 7 - Georg StiernhielmGeorg StiernhielmGeorg Stiernhielm was a Swedish civil servant, linguist and poet. Stiernhielm was born in a middle-class family in the village Svartskär in Vika parish in Dalarna...
, poet (d. 1672) - date unknown - Johann George MoeresiusJohann George MoeresiusJohann Georg Moeresius was a poet and rector in Danzig , Poland.Moeresius, a friend of the poet Johannes Plavius, dedicated a series of poems to the singer Constantia Zierenberg, the daughter of Johann Zierenberg who was mayor of the town from 1630 to 1642.-Sources:...
, poet (d. 1657)
Deaths
- January 9 - Jasper HeywoodJasper HeywoodJasper Heywood, SJ , son of John Heywood, translated into English three plays of Seneca, the Troas , the Thyestes and Hercules Furens ....
, translator - February 27 - Friedrich DedekindFriedrich DedekindFriedrich Dedekind was a German humanist, theologian, and bookseller.Born in Neustadt am Rübenberge, he was educated at the universities of Marburg and Wittenberg, where he studied theology. At Wittenberg, his talents were recognized by Philipp Melanchthon...
, theologian (b. 1524) - December 6 - Paolo ParutaPaolo Paruta-Biography:He was born at Venice of a Luccan family. After studying at Padua he served the Republic of Venice in various political capacities, including that of secretary to one of the Venetian delegates at the Council of Ten...
, historian - December 15 - Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-AldegondePhilips van Marnix, lord of Sint-AldegondePhilips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde, Lord of West-Souburg was a Flemish and Dutch writer and statesman, and the probable author of the text of the Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus.He was...
, statesman and author - December 31 - Heinrich RantzauHeinrich RantzauHeinrich Rantzau or Ranzow was a German humanist writer and statesman, a prolific astrologer and an associate of Tycho Brahe. He was son of Johan Rantzau....
, humanist writer (b. 1526) - date unknown - Jacopo MazzoniJacopo MazzoniJacopo Mazzoni was an Italian philosopher. -Biography:Giacopo Mazzoni was born in Cesena, Italy in 1548...
, philosopher