1585 in literature

• February 2 – Hamnet and Judith, twin children of William Shakespeare and his wife Anne, are baptised at Stratford-upon-Avon. • March 3 – The Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio, and completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, opens with a production of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex), using trompe-l'œil scenery in one-point perspective. • December 13 – The blind poet, playwright and actor Luigi Groto dies in Venice, having just come from the theatre, where he has played the role of the blind Oedipus Rex. • At the order of the Inquisition, a collection of verses ("canczuni") in Italian and Maltese published by Maltese Dominican friar Pasquale Vassallo in 1584 is burned for its allegedly 'obscene' content. ==New books==

Prose • John Calvin – The Commentaries... upon the Actes of the Apostles, Faithfully translated out of Latine into English for the great profite of our countrie-men, by Christopher Fetherstone, student in divinitie • Miguel de Cervantes – La Galatea Drama • Nicolas de Montreux – Athlette • Richard Tarlton (attributed) – The Seven Deadly Sins Poetry See 1585 in poetry • Thomas Watson – Amyntas (pastoral epic in Latin) ==Births==

• January 6 – Claude Favre de Vaugelas, French grammarian (died 1650) • January 31 – Daniel Schwenter, German Orientalist, polymath, poet and librarian (died 1636) • March 16 – Gerbrand Bredero, Dutch poet and playwright (died 1618) • June 24 – Johannes Lippius, German Protestant theologian, philosopher, and theorist of music (died 1612) • October 11 – Johann Heermann, German poet (died 1647) • December 4 – John Cotton, English-born American theologian and minister (died 1652) • December 13 – William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet (died 1649) Uncertain dates • Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland, née Elizabeth Tanfield, English poet, translator and dramatist (died 1639) • Diego Jiménez de Enciso, Spanish dramatist (died 1634) ==Deaths==

• January – Anthony Gilby, English Puritan and Bible translator (born c. 1510) • February 6 – Edmund Plowden, English lawyer and theorist (born 1518) • February 13 – Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish Jesuit Biblical commentator (born 1515) • March 10 – Rembert Dodoens, Flemish botanist (born 1517) • June 4 – Muretus, French humanist poet and writer in Latin (born 1526) • June 20 – Christian Kruik van Adrichem, Dutch Catholic theologian (born 1533) • July 30 – Christian Schesaus, German humanist poet (born 1535) • September 1 – Alexander Arbuthnot, Scottish printer (year of birth unknown) • September 18 – Molanus, Flemish theologian of the Counter Reformation (born 1533) • December 8 – Piero Vettori, Italian humanist philologist and writer (born 1499) • December 27 – Pierre de Ronsard, French poet (born 1524) ==References==