1618 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1618.

Events

 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, begins remodelling the Paris residence which becomes the Hôtel de Rambouillet to form a literary salon.

Prose

 * 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

Drama

 * Anonymous – The Tragedy of Amurath
 * Jakob Ayrer (died 1605) – Opus Theatricum published
 * Guillén de Castro y Bellvis – Comedias, part 1
 * Lope de Vega
 * La moza de cántaro (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

Poetry

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

Births

 * 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)

Deaths

 * 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)
 * 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)