1579 - Literature

Literature

Nonfiction: The pamphlet "Vindiciae contra Tyrannos" is published anonymously (probably by Theodore de Bèze). An attack on absolutism, it declares that rulers must be accountable to the people but insists that only magistrates may resist the king. De Juri Begni apud Scotos by Scottish humanist George Buchanan, now 73, confutes absolutism with the argument that kings exist only by the will of the people. Written for the instruction of his royal pupil, who will become England's James I, Buchanan's work justifies tyrannicide and states that the obligation of subjects to their king is conditioned on the performance of that king in the duties of his office. Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans by the Greek biographer Plutarch of the 1st to 2nd century A.D. appears in an English translation from the French of Jacques Amyot, 66, by Sir Thomas North, 44, who will add additional Lives in 1595. North's work will influence Elizabethan poets and provide material for playwrights.

Poetry: The Shepheardes Calendar by English poet Edmund Spenser, 27, who secures a place in the earl of Leicester's household and dedicates the work to Leicester's nephew Philip Sidney, 24, who is also a poet.