1606 in literature

The year 1606 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• May 27 – The English Parliament passes An Act to Restrain Abuses of Players, which tightens the censorship controls on public theatre performances, most notably on the question of profane oaths.
• December 26 (St. Stephen's Day) – Shakespeare's King Lear is performed at Court before King James I.
• Sir Thomas Craig becomes church procurator.
• The theatre scandal of John Day's The Isle of Gulls sends several of the young actors from the Children of the Chapel to prison for short periods of time.

New books

• Thomas Dekker
  • The Double PP
  • News From Hell
• Salvator Fabris – Lo Schermo, overo Scienza D'Arme
• The King James Version of the Holy Bible

New drama

• Anonymous – The Return from Parnassus (published)
• Anonymous – Wily Beguiled (published)
• Anonymous (probably Thomas Middleton) – The Revenger's Tragedy
• George Chapman (attributed to) – Sir Giles Goosecap (published)
  • The Gentleman Usher (published)
  • Monsieur D'Olive (published)
• John Day – The Isle of Gulls
• Ben Jonson – Volpone; Hymenaei
• John Marston – The Wonder of Women, or the Tragedy of Sophonisba; Parasitaster, or The Fawn (published)
• Thomas Middleton – The Puritan
• William Shakespeare – Macbeth (possible first performance); King Lear (first recorded performance)^[1]
• Edward Sharpham – The Fleir

Poetry

• Hieronim Morsztyn - Światowa Rozkosz (Worldly Pleasure)

Births

• February 28 – Sir William Davenant, poet and dramatist (died 1668)
• May 12 – Joachim von Sandrart, art historian (died 1688)
• June 6 – Pierre Corneille, dramatist (died 1684)
• date unknown – Pierre du Ryer, dramatist (died 1658)

Deaths

• May 17 - Niccolò Orlandini, Jesuit writer (born 1554)
• October 5 – Philippe Desportes, poet (born 1546)
• November - John Lyly, dramatist and novelist (born c.1553)
• November 13 – Geronimo Mercuriali, philologist and medical writer (born 1530)
• November 22 – Sir Henry Billingsley, translator
• date unknown - Nicolaus Taurellus, philosopher and theologian (born 1547)

References