1562 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1562.

Events

 * January 18 – First performance of Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's play Gorboduc before Queen Elizabeth I of England. It is the first known English tragedy and the first English-language play to employ blank verse.
 * July 12 – Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatán, burns the Maya codices (sacred books of the Maya) during the Spanish conquest of Yucatán.

Prose

 * Magdeburger Centurien (Magdeburg Centuries), volumes V and VI
 * Melchior Cano – De Locis theologicis (posthumously published)
 * Petrus Ramus – Grammaire française
 * Richard Smyth – De Missa Sacrificio

Drama

 * Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville – Gorboduc
 * Nicholas Udall? - Jacke Jugeler

Poetry

 * Arthur Brooke – The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet

Births

 * January 13 – Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet and soldier of fortune (died 1601)
 * January 20 – Ottavio Rinuccini, Italian poet (died 1621)
 * January 31 (bapt.) – Edward Blount, English publisher (died 1632)
 * March – Francis Johnson, English Separatist theologian and polemicist (died 1618)
 * March 27 – Jacob Gretser, German Jesuit writer (died 1625)
 * August – Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, Spanish poet and historian (died 1631)
 * November 25 – Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and dramatist (died 1635)
 * Unknown dates
 * Henry Constable, English poet (died 1613)
 * Samuel Daniel, English poet (died 1619)
 * Francis Godwin, English writer and bishop (died 1633)
 * Johann Mechtel, German chronicler (died c. 1631)

Deaths

 * July 23 – Götz von Berlichingen, German knight immortalized by Goethe (born c. 1480)
 * September 5 – Katharina Zell, Protestant writer (born c. 1497)
 * November 6 – Achille Bocchi, Italian humanist writer (born 1488)
 * November 12 – Pietro Martire Vermigli, Italian theologian (born 1499)
 * Unknown dates
 * Matteo Bandello, Italian novelist (b. 1480)
 * Nicholas Grimald, English poet and theologian (b. 1519)
 * Probable year – George Cavendish, English biographer (born 1494)