1598 in literature

• Before September – A second edition of Love's Labour's Lost appears in London as the first known printing of a Shakespeare play to have his name on the title page ("Newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakespere").
• February 23 – Thomas Bodley refounds the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
• March 28 – Philip Henslowe contracts Edward Alleyn and Thomas Heywood to act for the Admiral's Men in London for two years.Henslowe's Diary.
• April 30 – A comedy, by an anonymous playwright about an expedition of soldiers, is the very first theatrical performance in North America, staged near El Paso for Spanish colonists.{{cite book|first=Clifton|last=Daniel|title=Chronicle of America|publisher=Chronicle publication|year=1989|page=39|ISBN=0-13-133745-9}}
• May 3 – The Spanish playwright Lope de Vega marries for the second time, to Juana de Guardo.
• c. May – The premiėre of William Haughton's Englishmen for My Money, or, A Woman Will Have Her Will introduces what is seen as the first city comedy, probably by the Admiral's Men at London's Rose Theatre.{{Cite book |first=Andrew |last=Stott |title=Comedy |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |isbn=9780415299336 |page=44}}
• c. July/September – Ben Jonson's comedy of humours Every Man in His Humour is probably first performed, by the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the Curtain Theatre, London, perhaps with Shakespeare playing Kno'well.{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Hywel |title=Cassell's Chronology of World History |location=London |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=2005 |isbn=0-304-35730-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/233 233–238] |url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/233}}
• September 7 – Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury is registered for publication, including the first list and critical discussion of Shakespeare's works; he also mentions that Shakespeare's "sugar'd sonnets" are circulating privately.
• September 22 – Ben Jonson kills actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel in London and is briefly held in Newgate Prison, but escapes capital punishment by pleading benefit of clergy.Helen Ostovich, Holger Schott Syme, Andrew Griffin, Locating the Queen's Men, 1583-1603: Material Practices and Conditions of Playing, Ashgate Publishing, 2009, p. 91.
• October – Edmund Spenser's castle, Kilcolman Castle near Doneraile in Ireland, is burned down by native forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Spenser leaves for London shortly after.
• November 25 – Henry Chettle is paid for "mending" a play about Robin Hood to make it suitable for performance at court.{{cite book|author=Stephen Knight|title=Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dPtpkU1WSbcC&pg=PA216|year=2003|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0-8014-3885-3|pages=216}}
• December 28 – London's The Theatre is dismantled.{{Cite book |title=Penguin Pocket On This Day |publisher=Penguin Reference Library |isbn=0-14-102715-0 |year=2006}}
• unknown dates
• Lancelot Andrewes turns down the bishoprics of Ely and Salisbury.
• The English poet Barnabe Barnes is prosecuted in the Star Chamber for attempted murder of one John Browne, first by offering him a poisoned lemon and then by sweetening his wine with sugar laced with mercury sublimate; Browne survives both attempts.John D. Cox, "Barnes, Barnabe (bap. 1571, d. 1609)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
• John Marston's The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image and Certaine Satyres begins a trend in English satirical writing that leads to official suppression in the following year.{{cite book|author1=Arthur F. Kinney|author2=David W. Swain|author3=Eugene D. Hill|author4=William A. Long|title=Tudor England: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHasAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA624|date=17 November 2000|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-74530-0|pages=624}}

• John Florio – A World of Words, Italian/English dictionary, the first dictionary published in England to use quotations ("illustrations") for meaning to the words
• Emanuel Ford – Parismus, the Renowned Prince of Bohemia (first part)
• King James VI of Scotland – The True Law of Free Monarchies
• Francis Meres – Palladis Tamia{{cite book|author1=Stanley Wells|author2=Gary Taylor|

year=1987|title=William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=90}}{{ISBN|0-19-812914-9}}

• Merkelis Petkevičius – {{lang|pl|Polski z litewskim katechism}}
• John Stow – Survey of London{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan |last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica |year=1992 |title=The Chronology of British History |publisher=Century Ltd |location=London |pages=163–165 |isbn=0-7126-5616-2}}
• Zhao Shizhen – Shenqipu (3rd century, possible first publication){{cn|date=November 2024}}
• Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer – Enchuyser zeecaertboeck (Enkhuizen book of sea charts)

• Anonymous
• The Famous Victories of Henry V earliest known publication
• Mucedorus published
• The Pilgrimage to Parnassus (earliest possible date of composition)
• Jakob Ayrer
• Von der Erbauung Roms (The Building of Rome)
• Von der schönen Melusina (Fair Melusina)
• Samuel Brandon – Virtuous Octavia
• Henry Chettle, Henry Porter and Ben Jonson – Hot Anger Soon Cold{{cite book|author=Roslyn Lander Knutson|title=Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare's Time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Mqurh3QxoYC&pg=PA147|date=26 July 2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-42837-8|pages=147}}
• Robert Greene – The Scottish History of James IV published
• William Haughton – Englishmen for My Money
• Ben Jonson – Every Man in His Humour{{cite book|author1=Ben Jonson|author2=Johanna Procter|author3=Martin Butler|title=The Selected Plays of Ben Jonson: Volume 2: The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair, The New Inn, A Tale of a Tub|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTBvvPrJOOUC&pg=PR9|date=26 May 1989|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-31842-6|pages=9|language=en}}
• Anthony Munday – The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon
• Anthony Munday (and Henry Chettle?) – The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon
• Henry Porter – Love Prevented
• William Shakespeare
• Henry IV, Part 1 (published)
• Love's Labour's Lost (published){{cite book|author=William Shakespeare|title=Love's Labour's Lost, 1598|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uyDPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP9|year=1598|publisher=Clarendon Press|pages=9}}

• Richard Barnfield
• The Encomium of Lady Pecunia
• Poems in Divers Humours
• George Chapman – translation of Homer's Iliad into English
• Lope de Vega – La Arcadia and La Dragontea{{cite book|author1=Lope de Vega|author2=Richard W. Tyler|title=A critical edition of Lope de Vega's La corona de Hungría|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X3oKAQAAMAAJ|year=1972|publisher=Department of Romance Languages, University of North Carolina|page=186|language=en}}
• Christopher Marlowe – Hero and Leander (completed by Chapman following Marlowe's death)A. H. Bullen, ed., The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3; London, John C. Nimmo, 1885; pp. 3–4; Fredson Bowers, ed., The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe, vol. 2; Cambridge Univ. Press, 1973; pg. 426.
• John Marston – The Metamorphosis of Pigmalian's Image and The Scourge of Villanie

• March 12 – Guillaume Colletet, French writer (died 1659){{cite book|author=Manchester Literary Club|title=Papers of the Manchester Literary Club|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-CA_AQAAMAAJ|year=1907|publisher=H. Rawson & Company|page=335}}
• March 13 – Johannes Loccenius, German historian (died 1677)
• July 29 – Henricus Regius, Dutch philosopher and correspondent of René Descartes (died 1679){{cite book|author=Gerrit Arie Lindeboom|title=Descartes and Medicine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_W8eAQAAIAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-90-6203-882-4|page=22}}
• August 7 – Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (died 1672){{cite book|author=Marina Grut|title=Royal Swedish Ballet: History from 1592 to 1962|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Qf0AAAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Georg Olms|isbn=978-3-487-13494-9|page=12}}
• unknown date – Johann George Moeresius, German poet (died 1657)

• January 2 - Morris Kyffin, Welsh soldier and author (born c.1555){{cite DWB|id=s-KYFF-MOR-1555|title=Kyffin, Morris (c.1555-1598), writer and soldier|author=Glanmor Williams|author-link=Glanmor Williams|access-date=7 July 2020}}
• January 9 – Jasper Heywood, English translator (born 1535)
• February 27 – Friedrich Dedekind, German theologian (born 1524){{cite book|author=John Francis Waller|title=The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography: A Series of Original Memoirs of Distinguished Men, of All Ages and All Nations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TzMOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA49|year=1857|publisher=William Mackenzie, 22 Paternoster Row; Howard Street, Glasgow; South Bridge, Edinburgh|pages=49}}
• April 10 – Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher (born 1548){{cn|date=October 2021}}
• August – Alexander Montgomerie, outlawed Scottish poet (born c. 1545/1550)
• December 6 – Paolo Paruta, Venetian historian (born 1540){{cite book|title=The Catholic Encyclopedia: New Mexico-Philip|publisher=Appleton|year=1911|page=510}}
• December 15 – Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, Dutch statesman and author (born 1540){{cite book|author1=May King|author2=David Leer Ringo|author3=William K. Barnarad|title=Supplemental research and history (volume XIV)|publisher=McDowell Publications for the Freeborn Family Association|year=2001|page=24}}
• December 31 – Heinrich Rantzau, German humanist writer (born 1526)
• unknown date – David Powel, Welsh historian who popularised continuing legends such as that of Prince Madoc (born c. 1549){{cite web|authorlink1=Margo Todd|last=Todd|first=Margo|title=Powell, Gabriel (bap. 1576, d. 1611)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|url-access=subscription |publisher=Oxford University Press|year= 2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22646|accessdate=26 March 2009}}

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