1609 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1609.
Events
- January 1 – The Children of the Blackfriars perform Thomas Middleton's A Trick to Catch the Old One at the English royal court.
- January 15 – Avisa Relation oder Zeitung, an early newspaper, begins publication in Wolfenbüttel.
- May 20 – The London publisher Thomas Thorpe issues Shake-speares Sonnets, with a dedication to "Mr. W. H.", and the poem A Lover's Complaint appended. It is unclear whether this has Shakespeare's authority.
- July 28 – The Sea Venture is wrecked in Bermuda – an event thought to be an inspiration for Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
- October 12 – A version of the rhyme "Three Blind Mice" appears in Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie. The editor and possible author of the verse is the teenage Thomas Ravenscroft.
- December 8 – The Sala Fredericiana, the first reading room of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, opens. It is one of the first major libraries to have bookshelves ranged along the walls.
- December 21 – William Ames delivers a controversial sermon for St Thomas's Day criticizing the "heathenish debauchery" of Cambridge students during the Twelve Days of Christmas.
- December 24 – John Marston, having retired from writing for the theater, is ordained a priest.
- c. December – Ben Jonson's comedy Epicœne, or The silent woman is premièred at the Whitefriars Theatre in London by the Children of the Queen's Revels led by Nathan Field.
- unknown date – Jacques Auguste de Thou's Historia sui temporis is placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
New books
Prose
- Douay–Rheims Bible
- Charles Butler – The Feminine Monarchie, or the History of Bees
- Thomas Dekker
- *Four Birds of Noah's Ark
- *The Gull's Hornbook
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega – Comentarios Reales de los Incas
- Edward Grimeston – A General History of the Netherlands
- Hugo Grotius – Mare liberum
- Johannes Kepler – Astronomia nova
- Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola – Conquista de las Islas Molucas
- Marc Lescarbot – Histoire de la Nouvelle-France
- Thomas Middleton
- *Sir Robert Sherley his Entertainment in Cracovia
- *The Two Gates of Salvation
- William Rowley – A Search for Money
- St. Francis de Sales – Introduction à la vie dévote
- Wang Qi and Wang Siyi – ''Sancai Tuhui''
Drama
- Anonymous – Every Woman in Her Humour
- Robert Armin
- *The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke
- *The Italian Tailor and his Boy
- Fulke Greville – Mustapha
- Ben Jonson
- * – The Case is Altered
- *Epicœne, or The silent woman
- William Shakespeare
- *Pericles, Prince of Tyre
- *''Troilus and Cressida''
Poetry
- Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo – La Patrona de Madrid restituida
- Samuel Daniel – Civil Wars
- William Shakespeare – The Sonnets and ''A Lover's Complaint''
Births
- February 10 – Sir John Suckling, English poet
- February 18 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian
- August 19 – Jean Rotrou, French poet and dramatist
- October 5 – Paul Fleming, German poet
- October 19 – Gerrard Winstanley, English religious and political writer
- December 24 – Philip Warwick, English politician and memoirist
- unknown date – Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède, French novelist and dramatist
- probable – Barbara Blaugdone, English Quaker autobiographer
Deaths
- January 21 – Joseph Justus Scaliger, French Protestant writer
- March 9 – William Warner, English poet
- August 22 – Judah Loew ben Bezalel, Jewish mystic and philosopher
- October 19 – Jacobus Arminius, Dutch theologian
- December 4 – Alexander Hume, Scottish poet
- December – Barnabe Barnes, English poet