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| List of years in literature (Table) |
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| … 1598 • 1599 • 1600 • 1601 • 1602 • 1603 • 1604 • 1605 • 1606 • 1607 – 1608 – 1609 • 1610 • 1611 • 1612 • 1613 • 1614 • 1615 • 1616 • 1617 • 1618 … |
| Related time period or subjects |
| … 1605 • 1606 • 1607 – 1608 – 1609 • 1610 • 1611 … … 1570s • 1580s • 1590s – 1600s – 1610s • 1620s • 1630s … … 16th century – 17th century – 18th century … |
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The year 1608 in literature involved some significant events.
Contents |
Events
- Henry Ainsworth publishes a response to Richard Bernard's The Separatist Schisme.
- Thomas Overbury is knighted.
- Juan Ruiz de Alarcón returns to Mexico from Spain, to take up an academic post.
- Arthur Johnston goes to Italy to study at Padua.
- The Morgan Bible is given by Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, Bishop of Cracow, to Abbas I (Shah of Persia).
- Thomas Coryat begins his walking tour of Europe.
- On March 31, Hamlet is performed aboard the East India Company ship Red Dragon, under the command of Capt. William Keeling.
New books
- George Abbot - A Brief Description of the Whole World
- Robert Armin - A Nest of Ninnies
- Thomas Dekker - The Dead Term
- Thomas Dekker - The Bellman of London
- Mathurin Régnier - Les Premieres d'Euvres ou Satyres de Regnier
- "P. F." - The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus
New drama
- Anonymous - The Merry Devil of Edmonton; has been attributed to William Shakespeare, Michael Drayton, and others
- Anonymous - A Yorkshire Tragedy; attributed to Thomas Middleton, or George Wilkins
- Lording Barry - Ram Alley published
- George Chapman - The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron
- John Day - Humour Out of Breath and Law Tricks published
- Thomas Heywood - The Rape of Lucrece published
- Ben Jonson - The Masque of Beauty performed, and published with The Masque of Blackness; The Hue and Cry After Cupid performed, and (likely) published
- Henry Machin & Gervase Markham - The Dumb Knight
- Thomas Middleton - The Family of Love, A Mad World, My Masters, and A Trick to Catch the Old One published
- John Sansbury - Periander
- William Shakespeare - King Lear published
Births
- February 6 - António Vieira, Portuguese Jesuit orator and writer (died 1697)
- December 9 - John Milton, poet and author (died 1674)
- date unknown - Daniello Bartoli, Jesuit writer (died 1685)
- date unknown - Thomas Fuller, churchman and historian (died 1661)
- date unknown - Jin Shengtan, Chinese editor and critic (died 1661)
Deaths
- February 16 - Nicolas Rapin, translator, poet and satirist (born 1535)
- February 26
- Thomas Craig, poet (born c1538)
- John Still, bishop, formerly credited with authorship of Gammer Gurton's Needle (born c1543)
- April 19 - Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, statesman and poet (born 1536)
- June 19 - Alberico Gentili, legal writer (born 1552)
- October 19
- Martin Delrio, theologian (born 1551)
- Geoffrey Fenton, writer and politician (born c1539)
- date unknown - Mary Arden, mother of Shakespeare (born c1540)
- date unknown - George Bannatyne, collector of Scottish poems (born 1545)
- date unknown - Pablo de Céspedes, poet and artist (born 1538)
- date unknown - Nicolas de Montreux, novelist, poet and dramatist (born c1561)
- date unknown - Laurence Tomson, Calvinist theologian (born 1539)
- date unknown - Jean Vauquelin de la Fresnaye, poet (born 1536)
