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.^[1]
• 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.^[2]
• 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
  • La moza de cántaro [es] (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)^[3]
• 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)