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.

New books

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
• ' (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