1584 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1584.

Events

 * Master Thomas Giles takes charge of the Children of Paul's, a company of boy actors. This is the start of a close association with the works of John Lyly.
 * London printer John Twyn is hanged, drawn and quartered for producing an edition of Gregory Martin's Catholic A Treatise of Schisme (1578).

Prose

 * Giordano Bruno – La Cena de le Ceneri (Ash Wednesday Supper)
 * John Dee – 48 Claves angelicae (48 Angelic Keys, written in Kraków)
 * James VI of Scotland – Some Reulis and Cautelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottis poesie
 * David Powel – The Historie of Cambria, now called Wales (first printed history of Wales)
 * Reginald Scot – The Discoverie of Witchcraft
 * Richard Stanihurst – De rebus in Hibernia gestis (Of matters in the history of Ireland)
 * Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer – Spiegel der Zeevaerdt (Mariners' Mirror, English 1588, Latin 1591)

Drama

 * 'A.M.' (probably Anthony Munday) – Fidele and Fortunio
 * Robert Wilson (attributed) – The Three Ladies of London

Poetry
See 1584 in poetry
 * Thomas Watson – Hekatompathia or Passionate Centurie of Love (publication)

Births

 * May – André Duchesne, French geographer and historian (died 1640)
 * August 29 – Patrick Young, Scottish scholar and royal librarian (died 1652)
 * September 15 – Georg Rudolf Weckherlin, German poet (died 1653)
 * December 16 – John Selden, English polymath (died 1654)
 * unknown dates
 * Francis Beaumont, English dramatist and poet (died 1616)
 * Anna Ovena Hoyer, German/Swedish poet (died 1655)
 * Hu Zhengyan, Chinese artist, printmaker, calligrapher and publisher (died 1674)

Deaths

 * February 18 – Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian prose writer (born 1503)
 * March 10 – Thomas Norton, English lawyer, politician and poet (born 1532)
 * June 13 – János Zsámboky, Hungarian humanist, philologist and historian (born 1531)
 * July 23 – John Day, English Protestant printer (born c. 1522)
 * August 12 – Carolus Sigonius, Italian humanist writer (born c. 1524)
 * November 21 – Turrianus, Spanish Jesuit Hellenist and polemicist (born c. 1509)
 * unknown dates
 * Stephen Batman, English translator (date of birth unknown)
 * Gerhard Dorn, Flemish philosopher, translator and polymath (born c. 1530)
 * Alonso Gutiérrez, Spanish philosopher (born c. 1507)