# 1612 in literature

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

## Events

* January 6 – Ben Jonson's masque Love Restored is performed.
* 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.
* February 2 – Queen Anne's Men return to court to play Greene's Tu Quoque.
* 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.
* 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
* John Brinsley – Ludus literarius; or The Grammar Schoole
* John Davies – Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued
* John Davies of Hereford – The Picture of a Happy Man
* 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
* Antonius Magirus – Koock-boeck ofte Familieren kevken-boeck
* William Strachey - The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia
* Francisco de Quevedo – La cuna y la sepultura

## New drama

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

## Poetry

* Michael Drayton – Poly-Olbion
* 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)
* February 7 – Thomas Killigrew, English dramatist (died 1683)
* February 8 – Samuel Butler, English poet and satirist (died 1680)
* 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)
* June 1 – Carlos Félix, 6-year-old son of Lope de Vega.
* July 29 – Jacques Bongars, French diplomat and scholar (born 1554)
* 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)
* September 27 – Piotr Skarga (Piotr Powęski), Polish hagiographer (born 1536)
* October 7 – Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet (born 1538)
* November 20 – Sir John Harington, English courtier, writer and inventor of flush toilet (born 1560)