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 (Holy Roman Empire). 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 (London). 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