1562 in poetry

Events

• 18 January - First performance of Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's play Gorboduc before Queen Elizabeth I of England. It is the first known English tragedy and the first English-language play to employ blank verse.

  Works published

England">English poetry">England

• Thomas Brice, Against Filthy Writing, and Such Like Delighting
• Arthur Brooke, translation, The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet, a narrative poem, translated from the French version by Pierre Boaistuau of Matteo Bandello's story, "La sfortunata morte di dui infelicissimi manti", from Bandello's Novelle, 1554; Brooke's work is considered to be William Shakespeare's chief source for his play Romeo and Juliet.
• Barnabe Googe, Eglogs, Epytaphes and Sonettes
• John Heywood:
• * A Ballad Against Slander and Detraction
• * Woorkes, including the author's 600 previously published epigrams and his proverbs; the book proved popular, with new editions in 1566, 1576, 1587 and 1598.
• Thomas Phaer, The Nyne First Bookes of the Eneidos of Virgil, edited by W. Wightman

  Other

• Francesco Berni Latin poems, Florence, Italy
• Maurice Scève, Microcosme, a long, cosmic, religious and scientific poem about the creation of man, his fate and his achievements; France
• Clément Marot and Theodore Beza, The Geneva Psalter, revised edition, with rhymed versions of all 150 Psalms for the first time; some earlier melodies were replaced; many of the lyrics were updated or replaced and all were written by Marot and De Bèze, Swiss, French-language work published in Geneva
• Torquato Tasso, Renaud, heroic poem, Italy

  Births

• January 13 - Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet and soldier of fortune
• January 15 - Robert Tofte, English translator and poet
• January 20 - Ottavio Rinuccini, Italian poet, courtier and opera librettist
• August 26 - Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, Spanish poet, writer and historian; brother of poet Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola
• November 25 - Félix Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and playwright
• Also:
• * Henry Constable, English poet
• * Samuel Daniel, English poet and historian
• * Alonso de Ledesma, born this year, according to many sources, or 1552, according to many others, Spanish

  Deaths

• Nicholas Grimald, English poet and translator
• Georg Wickram, German poet and novelist