This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1562.
Events January 18 – First performance of Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's play Gorboduc before Queen Elizabeth I of England. It is the first known English tragedy and the first English-language play to employ blank verse. July 12 – Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatán, burns the Maya codices (sacred books of the Maya) during the Spanish conquest of Yucatán.
New books Prose Magdeburger Centurien (Magdeburg Centuries), volumes V and VI Melchior Cano – De Locis theologicis (posthumously published) Petrus Ramus – Grammaire française Richard Smyth – De Missa Sacrificio
Drama Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville – Gorboduc Nicholas Udall? - Jacke Jugeler
Poetry Arthur Brooke – The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet
Births January 13 – Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet and soldier of fortune (died 1601) January 20 – Ottavio Rinuccini, Italian poet (died 1621) January 31 (bapt.) – Edward Blount, English publisher (died 1632) March – Francis Johnson, English Separatist theologian and polemicist (died 1618) March 27 – Jacob Gretser, German Jesuit writer (died 1625)Jacob Gretser August – Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, Spanish poet and historian (died 1631) November 25 – Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and dramatist (died 1635) Unknown dates Henry Constable, English poet (died 1613) Samuel Daniel, English poet (died 1619) Francis Godwin, English writer and bishop (died 1633) Johann Mechtel, German chronicler (died c. 1631)
Deaths July 23 – Götz von Berlichingen, German knight immortalized by Goethe (born c. 1480) September 5 – Katharina Zell, Protestant writer (born c. 1497) November 6 – Achille Bocchi, Italian humanist writer (born 1488) November 12 – Pietro Martire Vermigli, Italian theologian (born 1499) Unknown dates Matteo Bandello, Italian novelist (b. 1480) Nicholas Grimald, English poet and theologian (b. 1519) Probable year – George Cavendish, English biographer (born 1494)
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