1611 in literature

The year 1611 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• January 1 - Oberon, the Faery Prince, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace.
• February 3 - Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly, another Jonson/Jones masque, is staged at Whitehall.
• November 1 - The King's Men perform The Tempest at Whitehall Palace.
• November 5 - The King's Men perform The Winter's Tale at Whitehall Palace.
• December 26 - The King's Men return to Court with Beaumont and Fletcher's A King and No King
• December 27 - Queen Anne's Men act one of their most popular plays, Greene's Tu Quoque.
• Juan Ruiz de Alarcón returns to Spain from Mexico.

New books

• Jacques Bongars - Gesta Dei per Francos
• Thomas Coryat - Coryat's Crudities hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Italy, &c
• John Donne - An Anatomy of the World
• King James Version of the Bible
• Samuel Rowlands - The Knave of Clubs
• John Speed:
  • The History of Great Britain
  • The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain (map atlas)

New drama

• Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher - A King and No King
• George Chapman - May Day published
• John Cooke (?) - Greene's Tu Quoque
• Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton - The Roaring Girl published
• Thomas Dekker - If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is In It
• Thomas Heywood - The Golden Age published
• Ben Jonson
  • Oberon, the Faery Prince
  • Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly
• Johannes Messenius - Disa
• Anthony Munday - Chryso-Thriambos
• Thomas Middleton (attributed to) - The Second Maiden's Tragedy
• William Shakespeare - The Tempest (consensus date)
• Cyril Tourneur - The Atheist's Tragedy published

Poetry

See also 1611 in poetry

• Richard Braithwaite - The Golden Fleece
• Emilia Lanier - Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum

Births

• September 1 - William Cartwright, dramatist (died 1643)
• October 22 - Jacques Esprit ("abbé Esprit"), moralist (died 1677)
• October 26 - Antonio Coello, dramatist and poet (died 1652)
• date unknown
  • Richard Alleine, religious writer (died 1681)
  • Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, writer on art (died 1665)
  • Thomas Urquhart, translator (died c. 1660)
• probable - Jean François Sarrazin, satirist (died 1654)

Deaths

• June 8 - Jean Bertaut, poet (born 1552)
• September 22 - Pedro de Ribadeneira, ecclesiastical historian (born 1527)
• date unknown
  • Benet Canfield, mystical writer (born 1562)
  • Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, historian (born 1563)
  • Martin Ruland the younger, alchemist and editor of his father's writings