1608 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1608. Events January 10 – Ben Jonson's The Masque of Beauty is performed by Queen Anne and her retinue at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, a sequel to The Masque of Blackness. February 9 – Another masque by Jonson, The Hue and Cry After Cupid, is performed at the Banqueting House, with sets designed by Inigo Jones. March 31 – Hamlet is played aboard the East India Company ship Red Dragon, commanded by Capt. William Keeling. April – Performances of George Chapman's play The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron by the Children of the Chapel at the Blackfriars Theatre in London are suppressed after the French Ambassador complains to King James. After June the play is published with the offensive passages suppressed. May–October – Thomas Coryat makes a walking tour of continental Europe. June 12–August 19 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón returns to Mexico from Spain, to take up an academic post. June 19 – Thomas Overbury is knighted. August – Richard Burbage with fellow members of the King's Men (playing company), including Shakespeare, take direct control of the indoor Blackfriars Theatre in London as a winter playhouse, also taking over the plays and playwrights previously presented there by the Children of the Chapel. unknown dates Henry Ainsworth publishes a response to Richard Bernard's The Separatist Schisme. Father Francisco Blancas de San Jose establishes a printing press at Abucay Church in the Philippines to produce books in the Spanish and Tagalog languages; Tomas Pinpin joins the staff the following year. Scottish poet Arthur Johnston goes to Italy to study medicine at Padua. The Morgan Bible is given by Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, Bishop of Cracow, to Abbas I (Shah of Persia). New books Prose George Abbot – A Brief Description of the Whole World Robert Armin – A Nest of Ninnies Thomas Dekker The Dead Term The Bellman of London Francesco Maria Guazzo – Compendium Maleficarum Johannes Kepler – Somnium (written; published posthumously in 1634) Mathurin Régnier – Les Premieres d'Euvres ou Satyres de Regnier Salomon Schweigger – Newe Reyßbeschreibung Teutschland Auss to Constantinople "P. F." – The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus