1598 in literature

Events

• Before September – A second edition of Love's Labour's Lost appears in London as the first known printing of a Shakespeare play to have his name on the title page.
• February 23 – Thomas Bodley refounds the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
• March 28 – Philip Henslowe contracts Edward Alleyn and Thomas Heywood to act for the Admiral's Men in London for two years.
• May 3 – The Spanish playwright Lope de Vega marries for the second time, to Juana de Guardo.
• c. May – The premiėre of William Haughton's Englishmen for My Money, or, A Woman Will Have Her Will introduces what is seen as the first city comedy, probably by the Admiral's Men at London's Rose Theatre.
• c. July/September – Ben Jonson's comedy of humours Every Man in His Humour is probably first performed, by the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the Curtain Theatre, London, perhaps with Shakespeare playing Kno'well.
• September 7 – Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury is registered for publication, including the first list and critical discussion of Shakespeare's works
• September 22 – Ben Jonson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel in London and is briefly held in Newgate Prison, but escapes capital punishment by pleading benefit of clergy.
• October – Edmund Spenser's castle at Kilcolman, County Cork, near Doneraile in Ireland, is burned down by native forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Spenser leaves for London shortly after.
• December 28 – London's The Theatre is dismantled.
• unknown dates
• *Lancelot Andrewes turns down the bishoprics of Ely and Salisbury.
• *The English poet Barnabe Barnes is prosecuted in the Star Chamber for attempted murder of one John Browne, first by offering him a poisoned lemon and then by sweetening his wine with sugar laced with mercury sublimate; Browne survives both attempts.
• *John Marston's The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image and Certaine Satyres begins a trend in English satirical writing that leads to official suppression in the following year.

  New books

Prose

• John Bodenham – Politeuphuia
• John Florio – A World of Words, Italian/English dictionary, the first dictionary published in England to use quotations for meaning to the words
• Emanuel Ford – Parismus, the Renowned Prince of Bohemia
• King James VI of Scotland – The Trew Law of Free Monarchies
• Francis Meres – Palladis Tamia
• Merkelis Petkevičius – Polski z litewskim katechism
• John Stow – Survey of London
• Zhao Shizhen – Shenqipu
• Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer – Enchuyser zeecaertboeck

  Drama

• Anonymous
• *The Famous Victories of Henry V earliest known publication
• *Mucedorus published
• *The Pilgrimage to Parnassus earliest probable date of performance
• Jakob Ayrer
• *Von der Erbauung Roms
• *Von der schönen Melusina
• Samuel Brandon – Virtuous Octavia
• Henry Chettle, Henry Porter and Ben Jonson – Hot Anger Soon Cold
• Robert Greene – The Scottish History of James IV published
• William Haughton – Englishmen for My Money
• Ben Jonson – Every Man in His Humour
• Anthony Munday – The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon
• Anthony Munday – The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon
• Henry Porter – Love Prevented
• William Shakespeare
• *Henry IV, Part 1
• *Love's Labor's Lost

  Poetry

• Richard Barnfield
• *The Encomium of Lady Pecunia
• *Poems in Divers Humours
• George Chapman – translation of Homer's Iliad into English
• Lope de Vega – La Arcadia and La Dragontea
• Christopher Marlowe – Hero and Leander
• John Marston – The Metamorphosis of Pigmalian's Image and The Scourge of Villanie

  Births

• July 29 – Henricus Regius, Dutch philosopher and correspondent of René Descartes
• August 7 – Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet
• unknown date – Johann George Moeresius, German poet

  Deaths

• January 2 - Morris Kyffin, Welsh soldier and author
• January 9 – Jasper Heywood, English translator
• February 27 – Friedrich Dedekind, German theologian
• April 10 – Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher
• August – Alexander Montgomerie, outlawed Scottish poet
• December 6 – Paolo Paruta, Venetian historian
• December 15 – Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, Dutch statesman and author
• December 31 – Heinrich Rantzau, German humanist writer
• unknown date – David Powel, Welsh historian who popularised continuing legends such as that of Prince Madoc