1613 in literature

The year 1613 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• English poet Francis Quarles becomes cupbearer to Princess Elizabeth.
• At the English royal court, January and February see massive celebrations for the marriage of Frederick V, Elector Palatine to King James's daughter Princess Elizabeth, culminating in their wedding on February 14.
  • During the court festivities in the winter of 1612–13, the King's Men give twenty performances, which include eight Shakespearean plays, four by Beaumont and Fletcher, and the lost Cardenio.
  • The Children of the Queen's Revels give two performances of Beaumont and Fletcher's Cupid's Revenge in early January.
  • On January 11, the playing company that had been the Admiral's Men, then Prince Henry's Men, becomes the Elector Palatine's (or Palsgrave's) Men.
  • The Memorable Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn, written by George Chapman and designed by Inigo Jones, is staged on February 15. Francis Beaumont's The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn follows five days later on February 20.
  • The Lady Elizabeth's Men perform Marston's The Dutch Courtesan at Court on February 25. (They repeat it at the end of the year, on December 12.)
  • The Queen's Revels Children act Chapman's The Widow's Tears on February 27.
  • Frederick and Prince Charles visit Cambridge University early in March, where they see performances of Samuel Brooke's Latin plays Adelphe and Scyros.
• The King's Men re-play Cardenio at Court on June 8.
• The Globe Theatre burns down on June 29, during a performance of Henry VIII.
• Cyril Tourneur is paid £10 for delivering letters from the Stuart monarchy to Brussels.

New books

• Miguel de Cervantes - Exemplary Novels
• Thomas Dekker - A Strange Horse Race
• Samuel Purchas - Purchas, his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages
• Sir Anthony Shirley - Sir Anthony Shirley: his Relation of his Travels into Persia
• Alexander Whitaker - Good Newes from Virginia

New drama

• Anonymous - Heteroclitanomalonomia
• Giovan Battista Andreini - L'Adamo
• Francis Beaumont - The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn
• Beaumont and Fletcher -The Honest Man's Fortune
• Samuel Brooke - Adelphe and Scyros (in Latin)
• Thomas Campion - The Lords' Masque
  • - The Somerset Masque
• Elizabeth Tanfield Cary – The Tragedy of Mariam published
• George Chapman -The Memorable Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn; The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois published
• Thomas Heywood - The Silver Age and The Brazen Age published
• Ben Jonson - A Challenge at Tilt; The Irish Masque
• John Marston and William Barksted - The Insatiate Countess published
• Thomas Middleton - A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
• William Shakespeare - Henry VIII
• Shakespeare and John Fletcher (attributed) - Cardenio

Poetry

• William Drummond of Hawthornden - Tears on the Death of Moeliades

Births

• August 15 - Gilles Ménage, classical scholar and historian (died 1692)
• September 15 - François de La Rochefoucauld, writer of maxims and memoirs (died 1680)
• November 5 - Isaac de Benserade, poet (died 1691)
• date unknown - John Cleveland, poet (died 1658)
• date unknown - Henry Killigrew, dramatist (died 1700)
• date unknown - Franciscus Plante, poet (died 1690)
• date unknown - Jeremy Taylor, "the Shakespeare of divines" (died 1667)
• probable - Richard Crashaw, poet (died 1667)

Deaths

• January 28 - Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library (born 1545)
• February 16 - Mikalojus Daukša, Lithuanian religious writer and translator (born c. 1527)
• August 18 - Giovanni Artusi, music theorist (born c. 1540)
• August 26 - George Owen, antiquarian author (born 1552)
• September 15 - Sir Thomas Overbury, poet and essayist (probably poisoned by Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset) (born 1581)
• October 22 - Mathurin Régnier, satirist (born 1573)
• November 16 - Trajano Boccalini, satirist (born 1556)
• date unknown - Henry Constable, poet (born 1562)
• probable - George Carew, historian