1612 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1612.

Events

• January 6 – Ben Jonson's masque Love Restored is performed.^[1]
• January 12 – The King's Men and Queen Anne's Men unite for the first of two English Court performances in January, with Thomas Heywood's The Silver Age
• January 13 – The King's Men perform Heywood's The Rape of Lucrece.^[2]
• February 2 – Queen Anne's Men return to court to play Greene's Tu Quoque.^[3]
• May 11 – Shakespeare testifies in the Bellott v. Mountjoy lawsuit which involves his London landlord.
• November 6 – Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son and heir to King James I of England, dies of typhoid fever. His coterie of followers, which included literary figures like Ben Jonson and John Selden, are forced to seek other patrons.^[4]
• unknown dates
  • Thomas Shelton publishes The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha, the first translation of Cervantes' novel Don Quixote (first part) into English (or any other language).
  • The Accademia della Crusca publishes the first dictionary of the Italian language.
  • "Printers Bible": Some copies of the King James Version of the Bible printed in England this year contain an erratum with Psalm 119:161 reading "printers" (rather than "princes") "have persecuted me without a cause."

New books

• Traiano Boccalini – Ragguagli di Parnasso^[5]
• John Brinsley – Latin: Ludus literarius; or The Grammar Schoole^[6]
• John Davies – Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued^[7]
• John Davies of Hereford – The Picture of a Happy Man^[8]
• Edward Grimeston
  • The Generall Historie of Spaine (translated from French)
  • The General History of the Magnificent State of Venice
• Thomas Heywood – An Apology for Actors^[9]
• Antonius Magirus – Koock-boeck ofte Familieren kevken-boeck^[10]
• William Strachey - The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia^[11]
• Francisco de Quevedo – La cuna y la sepultura^[12]

New drama

• George Chapman – The Widow's Tears published
• Robert Daborne – A Christian Turn'd Turk published^[13]
• Nathan Field – A Woman is a Weathercock published^[14]
• Ben Jonson – Love Restored (masque)
• John Webster – The White Devil published^[15]

Poetry

See main article: 1612 in poetry.

• Michael Drayton – Poly-Olbion^[15]
• Luis de Góngora – Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea)
• Expanded edition of The Passionate Pilgrim
• George Wither – Elegy on the death of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales

Births

• February 6 – Antoine Arnauld, French theologian and philosopher (died 1694)^[16]
• February 7 – Thomas Killigrew, English dramatist (died 1683)^[17]
• February 8 – Samuel Butler, English poet and satirist (died 1680)^[18]
• February 28 – John Pearson, English theologian and scholar (died 1686)
• March 4 (bapt.) – Jan Vos, Dutch poet and dramatist (died 1667)
• March 20 – Anne Bradstreet, née Dudley, English-born American poet (died 1672)
• unknown date – Edward King, English poet (died 1637)
• probable – John Rushworth, English lawyer and historian (died 1690)

Deaths

• February – John Gerard (John Gerarde), English botanist and author of herbal (born c. 1545)
• March 16 – Thomas Holland, English theologian and Bible translator (born 1539)
• April 11 – Emanuel van Meteren, Flemish historian (born 1535)^[19]
• June 1 – Carlos Félix, 6-year-old son of Lope de Vega.
• July 29 – Jacques Bongars, French diplomat and scholar (born 1554)^[20]
• August 4 – Hugh Broughton, English Biblical scholar (born 1549)
• September – Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian music theorist and critic (born 1534)
• September 24 – Johannes Lippius, German theologian, philosopher, composer, and music theorist (born 1585)^[21]
• September 27 – Piotr Skarga (Piotr Poweski), Polish hagiographer (born 1536)^[22]
• October 7 – Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet (born 1538)^[23]
• November 20 – Sir John Harington, English courtier, writer and inventor of flush toilet (born 1560)^[24]

Notes and References

1. Book: Chambers, E. K. . E. K. Chambers

   . E. K. Chambers . The Elizabethan Stage . Oxford . Clarendon Press . 1923 . 3 . 387.

2. Book: Thomas James King. Shakespearean Staging, 1599-1642. 1971. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-80490-6. 63.
3. Book: John Pitcher. Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England. March 1999. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. 978-0-8386-3805-7. 329.
4. Book: Strong, Roy . Roy Strong

   . Roy Strong . Henry, Prince of Wales and England's Lost Renaissance . London . Pimlico . 1986.

5. Book: Alan Houston. Steve Pincus. A Nation Transformed: England After the Restoration. 20 August 2001. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-80252-9. 269.
6. Book: John Roach. A Regional Study of Yorkshire Schools, 1500-1820. 1998. E. Mellen Press. 978-0-7734-8250-0. 145.
7. Book: Audrey Horning. Ireland in the Virginian Sea: Colonialism in the British Atlantic. 16 December 2013. UNC Press Books. 978-1-4696-1073-3. 185.
8. Book: John W. Cousin. Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. 1938. Library of Alexandria. 978-1-4655-7188-5. 169.
9. Book: Laura C. Lambdin. Robert T. Lambdin. Arthurian Writers: A Biographical Encyclopedia. 2008. 978-0-313-34682-8. 146.
10. Book: Joop Witteveen. Bart Cuperus. Bibliotheca gastronomica: eten en drinken in Nederland en België 1474-1960. 1998. Linnaeus. 978-90-6105-035-3. 227. nl.
11. Book: Lee Miller. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. 2001. Arcade Publishing. 978-1-55970-584-4. 340.
12. Book: Richard E. Chandler. Kessel Schwartz. A New History of Spanish Literature. 1 September 1991. LSU Press. 978-0-8071-1735-4. 319. en.
13. Book: Jacob Lopes Cardozo. The Contemporary Jew in the Elizabethan Drama. 1968. B. Franklin. xiii.
14. Book: Lukas Erne. Shakespeare and the Book Trade. 25 April 2013. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-76566-4. 102. en.
15. Book: Williams, Hywel. Cassell's Chronology of World History. registration. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. 0-304-35730-8. 243–248.
16. Book: The History of Paris, from the Earliest Period to the Present Day. 1825. 424.
17. Book: Christopher Baker. Absolutism and the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1720: A Biographical Dictionary. 2002. Greenwood Publishing Group. 978-0-313-30827-7. 206.
18. Book: John Scott Clark. A Study of English and American Writers: A Laboratory Method. 1974. AMS Press. 978-0-404-01559-6. 167. en.
19. Book: Walpole Society (Great Britain). The ... Volume of the Walpole Society. 1980. Walpole Society. 205.
20. Book: Keith Busby. Les Manuscrits de Chrétien de Troyes. 1993. Rodopi. 90-5183-603-1. 98.
21. Book: Benito V. Rivera. German Music Theory in the Early 17th Century: The Treatises of Johannes Lippius. 1980. UMI Research Press. 978-0-8357-1074-9. 3.
22. Book: Harvard Theological Studies. 1995. Scholars Press. 978-0-8006-7085-6. 865.
23. Book: Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. 2004. Gale Research Company. 978-0-7876-6968-3. 1.
24. Book: Jason Scott-Warren. Sir John Harington and the Book as Gift. 2001. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-924445-4. 20.