1602 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1602.

Events

 * February 2 – The Lord Chamberlain's Men perform Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple in London.
 * May – Henry Wotton returns to Florence having disclosed a plot to murder King James VI of Scotland.
 * May 4 – Richard Hakluyt is installed as prebendary of Westminster Abbey.
 * November 8 – The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford opens to scholars.
 * November 22 – Samuel Rowley and William Bird(e) (or Borne) are paid by the Admiral's Men for additions to Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus.

Prose

 * Tommaso Campanella – The City of the Sun (La città del sole, a philosophical work, one of the most important utopias)
 * Thomas Campion – Observations in the Art of English Poetry
 * Richard Carew – A Survey of Cornwall
 * Cipriano de Valera (rev.) – 'Reina-Valera' (Spanish translation of the Bible)
 * Sir Hugh Plat – Delightes for Ladies (book of recipes and household hints)

Drama

 * Anonymous – A Larum for London, or The Siedge of Antwerpe with the ventrous actes and valorous deeds of the lame soldier published
 * Henry Chettle – Hoffmann
 * John Davies of Hereford – Mirum in Modum
 * Thomas Dekker (with Thomas Middleton?) – Blurt, Master Constable, or The Spaniards Night-Walke published
 * Ben Jonson – The Poetaster published
 * Sir David Lyndsay (died c. 1555) – Humanity and Sensuality and A Satire of the Three Estates published
 * John Marston – Antonio and Mellida published
 * William Percy – A Country Tragaedye in Vacunium and The Aphrodysial, or, Sea-Feast: a Marinall (approximate date)
 * William Shakespeare – Hamlet performed (latest date), The Merry Wives of Windsor published, Troilus and Cressida probable completion date
 * "W.S." – Thomas Lord Cromwell published

Poetry

 * Giambattista Marino – Le Rime
 * Cristóbal de Virués – El Monserrate segundo

Births

 * March 29 – John Lightfoot, English theologian (died 1675)
 * April 30 – Robert Baillie, Scottish divine and historian (died 1662)
 * May 2 – Athanasius Kircher, German scholar (died 1680)
 * May 10 – Samuel Newman, American Biblical commentator (died 1663)
 * October or November – Dudley North, English poet, writer and politician (died 1677)
 * Unknown date – Juan Pérez de Montalbán, Spanish dramatist and poet (died 1638)
 * Approximate year – Owen Feltham, English essayist (died 1668)

Deaths

 * February 13 – Alexander Nowell, English theologian (born c. 1507)
 * September 14 – Jean Passerat, French poet and satirist (born 1534)
 * October 13 – Franciscus Junius (the elder), Swiss theologian (born 1545)
 * October 30 – Jean-Jacques Boissard, French poet (born 1528)
 * Unknown date – Jean Pithou, French legal writer (born 1534)