1599 in literature
Encyclopedia
Events
- Undated - Opening of the Globe Theatre.
- June 4 - MiddletonThomas MiddletonThomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...
's MicrocyniconMicrocynicon: Six Snarling SatiresMicrocynicon is a work of poetic satire written by English playwright Thomas Middleton in 1597 and 1598. The published version was burned publicly as part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's attack on verse satire. Although a minor work, the poems included prefigure the interests of Middleton's...
and MarstonJohn MarstonJohn Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...
's Scourge of Villainy are publicly burned, as ecclesiastical authorities crack down on the craze for satire of the past year. The Bishop of LondonBishop of LondonThe Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
and the Archbishop of CanterburyArchbishop of CanterburyThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
tighten their enforcement of the existing censorship regime. Earlier, minor works like pamphlets and plays were being published only with the approval of the Wardens of the Stationers CompanyWorshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper MakersThe Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
, and without ecclesiastical review; this arrangement is terminated. The War of the TheatresWar of the TheatresThe War of the Theatres is the name commonly applied to a controversy from the later Elizabethan theatre; Thomas Dekker termed it the Poetomachia....
breaks out as a result of the "bishops' ban". - June 7 - John DayJohn Day (dramatist)John Day was an English dramatist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.-Life:He was born at Cawston, Norfolk, and educated at Ely. He became a sizar of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1592, but was expelled in the next year for stealing a book...
kills fellow playwright Henry Porter, allegedly in self-defence. - September 21 - First recorded performance of Shakespeare's Julius CaesarJulius Caesar (play)The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
at the Globe TheatreGlobe TheatreThe Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613...
in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, reported by Swiss traveller Thomas Platter the YoungerThomas Platter the YoungerThomas Platter the Younger was a Swiss-born physician, traveller and diarist, the son of the humanist Thomas Platter the Elder....
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New books
- George Abbot - A Brief Description of the Whole World
- Mateo AlemánMateo AlemánMateo Alemán y de Enero was a Spanish novelist and writer.He graduated at Seville University in 1564, studied later at Salamanca and Alcalá, and from 1571 to 1588 held a post in the treasury; in 1594 he was arrested on suspicion of malversation, but was speedily released...
- Guzmán de AlfaracheGuzmán de AlfaracheGuzmán de Alfarache is a picaresque novel written by Mateo Alemán and published in two parts: the first in Madrid in 1599 with the title Primera parte de Guzmán de Alfarache, and the second in 1604, titled Segunda parte de la vida de Guzmán de Alfarache, atalaya de la vida humana.The works tells... - 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...
- Wits' Theater - Roger FentonRoger Fenton (clergyman)Roger Fenton was an English clergyman, one of the translators of the Authorised King James Version.-Life:He was born in Lancashire and was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he matriculated as a sizar in 1585. He graduated B.A. in 1589, becoming a fellow in 1590. He graduated M.A. in...
- An Answer to William AlabasterWilliam AlabasterWilliam Alabaster was an English poet, playwright, and religious writer. His surname is one of the many variants of "arbalester", a crossbowman....
, His Motives - Ferrante ImperatoFerrante ImperatoFerrante Imperato , an apothecary of Naples, published Dell'Historia Naturale and illustrated it with his own cabinet of curiosities displayed at Palazzo Gravina in Naples; the engraving became the first pictorial representation of a Renaissance humanist's displayed natural history research...
- Dell'Historia Naturale - 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...
- The First Book of Consort Lessons - John RainoldsJohn RainoldsJohn Rainolds , English divine, was born about Michaelmas 1549 at Pinhoe, near Exeter.He was educated at Merton and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, becoming a fellow of the latter in 1568. In 1572-73 he was appointed reader in Greek, and his lectures on Aristotle's Rhetoric laid the sure basis of...
- Th' Overthrow of Stage Plays
New drama
- Anonymous (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...
?) - George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield published - Anonymous - A Larum for London
- Anonymous - Sir Clyomon and Sir ClamydesSir Clyomon and Sir ClamydesThe History of the Two Valiant Knights, Sir Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield, Son to the King of Denmark, and Clamydes the White Knight, Son to the King of Swabia is an early Elizabethan stage play, first published in 1599 but written perhaps three decades earlier...
- Anonymous - A Warning for Fair Women published
- Thomas Dekker - The Shoemaker's HolidayThe Shoemaker's HolidayThe Shoemakers' Holiday, or the Gentle Craft is an Elizabethan play written by Thomas Dekker. It was first performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men. It falls into the sub-genre of city comedy.The play was first published in 1600 by the printer Valentine Simmes...
- Old FortunatusOld FortunatusThe Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus is a play in a mixture of prose and verse by Thomas Dekker, based on the German legend of Fortunatus and his magic inexhaustible purse. Though the play is not easy to categorise, it has been called "the only example of an interlude inspired by the fully...
- Patient GrisselPatient GrisselPatient Grissel is a play by Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton. It was mentioned in Henslowe's diary in the entry for December 1599...
(with 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...
and 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....
)
- Old Fortunatus
- 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,...
, 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....
, 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...
, & Robert WilsonRobert Wilson (dramatist)Robert Wilson , was an Elizabethan dramatist who worked primarily in the 1580s and 1590s. He is also believed to have been an actor who specialized in clown roles....
- Sir John OldcastleSir John OldcastleSir John Oldcastle is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-15th century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr.-Publication:... - 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...
- Alphonsus King of Aragon published - 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 Out of His HumourEvery Man Out of His HumourEvery Man out of His Humour is a satirical comedy written by English playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It is a conceptual sequel to his 1598 comedy Every Man in His Humour... - John MarstonJohn MarstonJohn Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...
- Antonio and MellidaAntonio and MellidaAntonio and Mellida is a late Elizabethan play written by the satirist John Marston, usually dated to c. 1599.The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on Oct. 24, 1601, and first published in quarto in 1602 by the booksellers Matthew Lownes and Thomas Fisher...
- Jack Drum's EntertainmentJack Drum's EntertainmentJack Drum's Entertainment is a late Elizabethan play written by the dramatist and satirist John Marston c. 1599–1600. It was first performed by the Children of Paul's, one of the troupes of boy actors popular in that era....
- Jack Drum's Entertainment
- Henry Porter - The Two Angry Women of Abingdon published
- 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 VHenry V (play)Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
- Julius CaesarJulius Caesar (play)The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
- Julius Caesar
Poetry
- Samuel DanielSamuel DanielSamuel Daniel was an English poet and historian.-Early life:Daniel was born near Taunton in Somerset, the son of a music-master. He was the brother of lutenist and composer John Danyel. Their sister Rosa was Edmund Spenser's model for Rosalind in his The Shepherd's Calendar; she eventually married...
- MusophilusMusophilusMusophilus is a long poem by Samuel Daniel, first published in 1599.Among Daniel's most characteristic works, it is a dialogue between a courtier and a man of letters, and is a general defence of learning, and in particular of poetic learning as an instrument in the education of the perfect... - Sir John DaviesJohn Davies (poet)Sir John Davies was an English poet and lawyer, who became attorney general in Ireland and formulated many of the legal principles that underpinned the British Empire.-Early life:...
- Hymnes of Astraea
- Nosce Teipsum
- Thomas MiddletonThomas MiddletonThomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...
- Microcynicon: Six Snarling SatiresMicrocynicon: Six Snarling SatiresMicrocynicon is a work of poetic satire written by English playwright Thomas Middleton in 1597 and 1598. The published version was burned publicly as part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's attack on verse satire. Although a minor work, the poems included prefigure the interests of Middleton's... - George PeeleGeorge PeeleGeorge Peele , was an English dramatist.-Life:Peele was christened on 25 July 1556. His father, who appears to have belonged to a Devonshire family, was clerk of Christ's Hospital, and wrote two treatises on bookkeeping...
- The Love of King David and Faire Bethsabe - 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"...
(and unacknowledged others) - The Passionate PilgrimThe Passionate PilgrimThe Passionate Pilgrim is an anthology of 20 poems that were attributed to "W. Shakespeare" on the title page, only five of which are accepted by present-day scholars as authentically Shakespearean.-Editions:...
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Births
- May 30 - Samuel BochartSamuel BochartSamuel Bochart was a French Protestant biblical scholar, a student of Thomas Erpenius and the teacher of Pierre Daniel Huet...
, Biblical scholar - July 23 - StephaniusStephaniusStephan Hansen Stephanius , born in Copenhagen, was a Danish royal historiographer and professor in Sorø. His name is sometimes fully Latinized as "Stephanus Johannis Stephanius"....
, Danish royal historiographer - August 14 - Méric CasaubonMéric CasaubonMéric Casaubon , son of Isaac Casaubon, was a French-English classical scholar...
, English classicist (died 1671) - October 31 - Denzil Holles, 1st Baron HollesDenzil Holles, 1st Baron HollesDenzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles PC was an English statesman and writer, best known as one of the five members of parliament whom King Charles I of England attempted to arrest in 1642.-Early life:...
, English statesman and writer (died 1680) - date unknown - Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de SabléMadeleine de Souvré, marquise de SabléMadeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé , French writer, was the daughter of Gilles de Souvré, marquis de Courtenvaux, tutor of Louis XIII, and marshal of France....
, maxim writer
Deaths
- January 13 - 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...
, English poet (born 1552) - June - Henry Porter, dramatist
- October 9 - Reginald ScotReginald ScotReginald Scot was an English country gentleman and Member of Parliament, now remembered as the author of The Discoverie of Witchcraft, which was published in 1584. It was written against the belief in witches, to show that witchcraft did not exist...
, author of The Discoverie of Witchcraft - October 18 - Daniel Adam z VeleslavínaDaniel Adam z VeleslavínaDaniel Adam z Veleslavína, literally translated Daniel Adam of Veleslavín, , was a Czech lexicographer, publisher, translator, and writer....
, lexicographer (born 1546) - date unknown
- Jerónimo BermúdezJerónimo BermúdezJerónimo Bermúdez de Castro was a playwright of the Spanish Golden Age....
, dramatist - Sherefxan BidlisiSherefxan BidlisiSharaf Khan Bidlisi or Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi, , was a medieval Kurdish Emir and a politician from the Emirate of Bitlis....
, historian and poet
- Jerónimo Bermúdez