1600 in literature

Events

• January 1 – The Admiral's Men perform Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday at the English Court.
• January – Carpenter Peter Street is contracted to build the Fortune Playhouse just north of the City of London by theatrical manager Philip Henslowe and his stepson-in-law, the leading actor Edward Alleyn, for the Admiral's Men, who move there from The Rose by the end of the year.
• March 6 – George Carey, Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain of England, entertains the Flemish ambassador Ludowic Verreyken at Hunsdon House in the Blackfriars district of London. The entertainment includes a performance of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
• March 10 – Philip Henslowe lends William Haughton ten shillings "to release him out of the Clink".
• c. April – Publication of Ben Jonson's 1599 play Every Man out of His Humour; it goes through three editions this year.
• April 18 – Hortensio Félix Paravicino joins the Trinitarian Order.
• May – Robert Shirley returns from Persia.
• Whitsuntide – The last performances of the Chester miracle plays take place.
• June 3 – Thomas Pavier becomes a publisher in the City of London, securing the rights to the plays Captain Thomas Stukeley, Sir John Oldcastle, Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and Shakespeare's Henry V.
• By August – Robert Armin succeeds Will Kempe as clown of the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the Globe Theatre in London. By September, Kempe is playing with Worcester's Men at The Rose.
• September – Richard Burbage leases the disused Blackfriars Theatre in London to Henry Evans and Nathaniel Giles for £40 per year. Evans and Giles use the space for the performances of the Children of the Chapel. Giles drafts Solomon Pavy, age ten, into his acting troupe.
• September 8 – John Marston's Jack Drum's Entertainment is entered in the Stationers' Register. It is being acted by the newly re-formed Children of Paul's. The character of Brabant Senior represents Ben Jonson, thus continuing London's War of the Theatres. Jonson responds with Cynthia's Revels, acted by the Children of the Chapel at the Blackfriars Theatre.
• October 18 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón begins his legal studies at the University of Salamanca.
• November 4 – Tirso de Molina joins the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy.
• By end – The Admiral's Men are playing at Edward Alleyn and Philip Henslowe's new Fortune Playhouse just north of the City of London.
• Biblioteca Riccardiana established in Florence.

  New books

Prose

• Robert Armin – Fool Upon Fool
• William Camden – Reges, reginae, nobiles et alii in ecclesia collegiata B. Petri Westmonasterii sepulti
• Fabritio Caroso – Nobiltà de dame
• Olivier de Serres – Théâtre d'agriculture
• Lope de Vega – Romancero general
• William Gilbert and Aaron Dowling – De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure
• Philemon Holland – The Romane Historie
• Aonio Paleario – Actio in pontifices romanos et eorum asseclas
• Samuel Rowlands – The Letting of Humour's Blood in the Head-vaine with A Mery Meetinge, or tis Mery when Knaves mete

  Drama

• Anonymous
• *Look About You
• *The Maid's Metamorphosis
• *Sir John Oldcastle
• *The Weakest Goeth to the Wall
• *The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll
• Henry Chettle & John Day – The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, Part 1
• Georgios Chortatzis – Erofili
• Lope de Vega – year of some approximate
• *La campana de Aragón
• *El castigo del discreto
• *La imperial de Otón
• *El postrer godo de España
• *La quinta de Florencia
• *Roma abrasada
• *La viuda valenciana
• Thomas Dekker – Old Fortunatus
• Thomas Dekker and others – Lust's Dominion
• Thomas Dekker, John Marston, and William Haughton – The Spanish Moor's Tragedy
• Thomas Heywood – Edward IV, Parts 1 and 2 published
• Thomas Heywood and others? – Edward IV
• Ben Jonson – Cynthia's Revels
• John Marston – Jack Drum's Entertainment
• Thomas Nashe – Summer's Last Will and Testament
• William Shakespeare – Henry IV, Part 2, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing

  Poetry

• Siddha Basavaraja – Bedagina Vachanagalu
• England's Helicon
• Robert Jones – The First Book of Songs and Airs
• Gervase Markham – The Tears of the Beloved
• Thomas Middleton – The Ghost of Lucrece

  Births

• January 1 – Friedrich Spanheim, Flemish writer
• January 17 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish dramatist
• February 2 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar
• September 19 – Hermann Busenbaum, German Jesuit theologian
• October 5 – Thomas Goodwin, English theologian
• November – John Ogilby, Scottish translator
• November 19 – Leo Aitzema, Dutch historian
• Unknown dates
• *Martin de Barcos, French Jansenist theologian
• *Bihari, Hindi poet
• *Marin le Roy de Gomberville, French poet and novelist
• *William Prynne, English Puritan controversialist
• *Adriaan Vlacq, Dutch publisher
• *Brian Walton, Bishop of Chester, English compiler of Polyglot Bible and bishop
• Probable year of birth
• *Piaras Feiritéar, Irish poet
• *Richard Flecknoe, English dramatist and poet
• *Samuel Hartlib, German-born English polymath

  Deaths

• January 23 – John Case, English commentator on Aristotle
• February 15 – José de Acosta, Spanish naturalist
• April – Thomas Deloney, English novelist and balladist
• May 18 – Fulvio Orsini, Italian historian
• June 25 – David Chytraeus, German theologian and historian
• September 25 – Antoine du Verdier, French politician and writer
• October 12 – Luis Molina, Spanish Jesuit writer
• November – Robert Wilson, English dramatist
• November 3 – Richard Hooker, English theologian
• November 23 or 24 – Balthasar Russow, Estonian chronicler
• Unknown dates
• *Bâkî, Ottoman Turkish poet
• *Mustafa Selaniki, Ottoman chronicler