1590 in literature

Events

• The Children of Paul's perform at Court twice in the first week of January; one of the plays they acted may have been John Lyly's Midas. Later in the year, however, they are banned from performing because of the involvement of their chief script-writer, Lyly, in the Marprelate controversy.

New books

• Robert Greene - Greene's Mourning Garment
  • - Never Too Late
• Thomas Lodge - Rosalynde
• Thomas Nashe - An Almond for a Parrat

New drama

• Christopher Marlowe - Tamburlaine (both parts published)
• George Peele - Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First
• Robert Wilson - The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London (published)

Poetry

• Sir Philip Sidney - Arcadia
• Edmund Spenser - The Faerie Queene, Books 1-3

Births

• March 18 - Manuel de Faria e Sousa, historian and poet (died 1649)
• June 24 - Samuel Ampzing, poet (died 1632)
• July 26 - Johannes Crellius, theologian (died 1633)
• September 12 - María de Zayas, poet and dramatist (died 1661)
• October 11 - William Pynchon, theologian (died 1662)
• date unknown
  • Alonso Andrada, biographer (died 1672)
  • Thomas Carve, historian (died c. 1672)
  • Faqi Tayran, Kurdish poet (died 1660)
  • Grigore Ureche, chronicler (died 1647)
  • Théophile de Viau, poet and dramatist (died 1626)

Deaths

• February 1 - Lawrence Humphrey, theologian (born c. 1527)
• March - Petru Cercel, Wallachian prince and poet
• July - Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, poet (born 1544)
• November 23 - André Thévet, cosmographer (born 1502)
• November 29 - Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin, poet and dramatist (born 1547)
• December 5 - Johann Habermann, theologian (born 1516)
• date unknown
  • Jakob Andreae, theologian (born 1528)
  • Robert Garnier, poet (born 1544)