1618 in literature

• January – Lady Hay and eight other Court ladies plan and rehearse a Ladies' Masque or Masque for Ladies, intended for a Twelfth Night performance, but it is cancelled a few days before, either by King James or Queen Anne.
• January 4 – Sir Francis Bacon is appointed Lord Chancellor by King James I of England.{{Cite web |url=http://www.fbrt.org.uk/pages/shakespeare/ptiv/mask/descriptions/description-mask.html |title=Francis Bacon Research Trust |access-date=2012-06-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050930134816/http://www.fbrt.org.uk/pages/shakespeare/ptiv/mask/descriptions/description-mask.html |archive-date=2005-09-30 |url-status=dead }}
• April 6 (Easter Monday) – The King's Men perform Twelfth Night at Court.
• April 7 – The King's Men perform The Winter's Tale at Court.
• July – Ben Jonson sets out to walk to Scotland.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/research-activities/ben-jonson-walk-scotland |title=University of Edinburgh: Ben Jonson's walk to Scotland |access-date=2012-06-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309235111/http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/research-activities/ben-jonson-walk-scotland |archive-date=2012-03-09 |url-status=dead }}
• Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, begins remodelling the Paris residence which becomes the Hôtel de Rambouillet to form a literary salon.

• William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley – Certain Precepts or Directions, For the Well-ordering and Carriage of a Man's Life
• Renold Elstracke – Braziliologia
• Vicente Espinel – Relaciones de la vida del escudero Marcos de Obregón
• Robert Fludd – De Musica Mundana
• Michael Maier – Atalanta Fugiens
• Themis aurea
• Daniel Mögling – Speculum Sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum
• John Selden – History of Tythes

• Anonymous – The Tragedy of Amurath
• Jakob Ayrer (died 1605) – Opus Theatricum published
• Guillén de Castro y Bellvis – Comedias, part 1
• Lope de Vega
• {{ill|La moza de cántaro|es}} (The Pitcher Girls)
• El rey don Pedro en Madrid
• Nathan Field – Amends for Ladies published
• John Fletcher – The Loyal Subject
• Peter Heylin – Theomachia (in Latin)
• Barten Holyday – Technogamia
• Ben Jonson – masques
• Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue
• For the Honour of Wales

{{Main|1618 in poetry}}

• Jacob Cats – Emblemata
• Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar – Rimas
• John Taylor – The Pennylesse Pilgrimage

• March 23 – Ferrante Pallavicino, Italian satirist (died 1644)
• April – Agustín Moreto y Cavana, Spanish dramatist and priest (died 1661)
• Unknown dates
• Thomas Blount, English antiquary and lexicographer, (died 1679)
• Abraham Cowley, English poet (died 1667)
• Raffaello Fabretti, Italian antiquary (died 1700)
• Isaac Vossius, Dutch scholar and librarian (died 1689)
• Probable year of birth – Jacques Chausson, French writer and criminal (died 1661)

• July – John Davies of Hereford, Anglo-Welsh poet (born c. 1565)
• July 26 – Martinus Smiglecius, Polish Jesuit philosopher (born 1563)
• August 23 – Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero, Dutch poet (born 1585)
• September 22 – Jacobus Taurinus, Dutch theologian (born 1576){{cite book|author=Lutzen H. Wagenaar|title=Van strijd en overwinning: de groote Synode van 1618 op '19, en wat aan haar voorafging|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yQAyAQAAMAAJ|year=1909|publisher=Ruys|page=203|language=nl}}
• September 28 – Joshua Sylvester, English poet (born 1563)
• October 29 – Sir Walter Ralegh, English adventurer and author (executed, born c. 1554)
• Unknown dates
• François de Boivin, French chronicler
• Richard Stanihurst, Irish translator of Virgil (born 1547)
• Probable year – Bento Teixeira, Portuguese poet (born c. 1561)

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{{Year in literature article categories}}