1593 in literature

Events

• Ongoing – London theatres remain closed for almost the whole year as a result of the previous year's outbreak of bubonic plague. In the summer, Edward Alleyn and other actors make a provincial tour. Some performances take place in the winter, when plague tends to abate. Lord Strange's Men act three times in January a play called Titus – perhaps Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
• After April – William Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis probably becomes his first published work, printed from his own manuscript. In his lifetime it will be his most frequently reprinted work: at least nine times.
• May 5 – "Dutch church libel" bills posted in London threaten Protestant refugees from France and the Netherlands, alluding to Christopher Marlowe's plays.
• May 12 – The English dramatist Thomas Kyd is arrested over the "Dutch church libel". "Atheist" literature found in his home is claimed to be Marlowe's.
• May 18 – A warrant for the arrest of Christopher Marlowe is issued. On May 20 he presents himself to the Privy Council.
• May 29 – The Welsh-born Protestant John Penry is executed for involvement in the Marprelate Controversy.
• May 30 – Christopher Marlowe is stabbed to death by a speculator, Ingram Frizer, in a dispute over a bill at a lodging house in Deptford kept by the widow Eleanor Bull.

  New books

Prose

• Bible of Kralice, first complete translation of Bible into Czech
• Fray Juan de Plasencia – Doctrina Christiana, first book published in the Philippines, in Spanish and Tagalog
• John Eliot – Ortho-epia Gallica
• Claudius Hollyband – A Dictionarie French and English
• Richard Hooker – Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
• Antonio Possevino – Bibliotheca selecta

  Drama

• Daniel Cramer – Plagium
• Thomas Kyd – The Raigne of King Edward the Third
• George Peele – Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First

  Poetry

• Barnabe Barnes – Parthenophil and Parthenophone
• Anthony Chute – Beauty Dishonoured, written under the title of Shore's wife
• Michael Drayton
• *Idea: The Shepherd's Garland
• *The Legend of Piers Gaveston
• William Shakespeare – Venus and Adonis
• Thomas Watson – The Tears of Fancie, or Love Disdained

  Births

• April 3 – George Herbert, Welsh-born poet
• May 20 – Salomo Glassius, German theologian
• Unknown date – Robert Creighton, Scottish classicist, politician and bishop
• Approximate year – Aodh Buidhe Mac an Bhaird, Irish poet and hagiographer

  Deaths

• February 6 – Jacques Amyot, French translator
• May 30 – Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist and poet
• August 19 – Antonio Veneziano, Italian poet writing in Sicilian
• Unknown date – Jeong Cheol, Korean poet and statesman