1616 in literature

Events

• January 1 – King James I of England attends the masque The Golden Age Restored, a satire by Ben Jonson on a fallen court favorite, the Earl of Somerset. The King asks for a repeat performance on January 4.
• February 1 – King James I of England grants Ben Jonson an annual pension of 100 marks, making him de facto poet laureate.
• March 5 – Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Roman Catholic Church.
• March 19 – Sir Walter Ralegh, English explorer of the New World, is released from the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned for treason and has been composing The Historie of the World, in order to conduct a second expedition in search of El Dorado in South America.
• April 22 – Miguel de Cervantes dies in Madrid and is buried the following day in the Trinitarias convent there.
• April 23 – William Shakespeare dies in retirement in Stratford-upon-Avon and is buried two days later in the Church of the Holy Trinity there.
• June 10 – Foundation date of Ets Haim Library, housed from 1675 at the Portuguese Synagogue.
• August – Christopher Beeston acquires the lease of the Cockpit off Drury Lane in London and converts it into a theatre.
• October/November – Ben Jonson's satirical five-act comedy The Devil is an Ass is produced at the Blackfriars Theatre, London, by the King's Men, poking fun at contemporary belief in witchcraft.
• November 6/25 – Ben Jonson's works appear in a collected folio edition; the first of any English playwright.
• December 25 – Ben Jonson's Christmas, His Masque is presented before King James I of England.
• unknown date – Marie Venier, called Laporte, becomes the first female player to appear on the stage in Paris.

  New books

Prose

• Johannes Valentinus Andreae – Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz Anno 1459
• Christoph Besold – Axiomata Philosophico-Theologica
• Dr. John Bullokar – An English Expositor: teaching the interpretation of the hardest words used in our language, with sundry explications, descriptions and discourses
• George Chapman – The Whole Works of Homer
• Philipp Clüver – Germania Antiqua
• Fray Martín de Murúa – Historia General del Pirú
• Francis de Sales, Roman Catholic Bishop of Geneva – Treatise on the Love of God
• John Deacon – Tobacco Tortured in the Filthy Fumes of Tobacco Refined
• Thomas Dekker – The Artillery Garden
• Robert Fludd – Apologia Compendiaria, Fraternitatem de Rosea Cruce suspicionis
• Johannes Gysius – Oorsprong en voortgang der Nederlandtscher beroerten
• Ben Jonson – The Workes of Beniamin Ionson
• Captain John Smith – A Description of New England
• Giulio Cesare Vanini – De admirandis naturae reginae deaeque mortalium arcanis

  Drama

• Anonymous – The Barriers
• Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher – The Scornful Lady published
• Gerbrand Bredero – Treur-spel van Rodd'rick ende Alphonsus; Griane; Lucelle
• Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft – Warenar
• Ben Jonson
• *The Golden Age Restored
• *The Devil is an Ass
• *Christmas, His Masque
• Christopher Marlowe – Doctor Faustus
• Thomas Middleton – The Witch
• Anthony Munday – Chrysanaleia

  Poetry

• Agrippa d'Aubigné – Les Tragiques
• George Chapman – The Whole Works of Homer
• Ben Jonson – "To Celia" and "On my first Sonne"

  Births

• January 26 – Ralph Josselin, English diarist and Anglican cleric
• March 24 – John Birkenhead, English political writer and journalist
• April 27 – Jeremias Felbinger, German Socinian writer
• October 11 – Andreas Gryphius, Silesian poet and dramatist
• October 16 – Nicholas Culpeper, English herbalist, physician and astrologer
• November 17 – William Gurnall, English writer and cleric
• December 17 – Roger L'Estrange, English pamphleteer
• unknown date – John Owen, English theologian

Deaths

• January 6 – Philip Henslowe, English theatre impresario
• February 13 – Anders Sørensen Vedel, Danish historian
• March 6 – Francis Beaumont, English dramatist
• April 22 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist
• April 23 – William Shakespeare, English dramatist and poet
• April 23 – Garcilaso de la Vega, Peruvian Spanish chronicler
• August 7 – Vincenzo Scamozzi, Venetian writer on architecture
• November 23 – Richard Hakluyt, English travel writer