This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1582.

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• February – Meleager, a Latin play on the mythological figure of Meleager by "Gulielmus Gagerus" (William Gager), is performed by members of Christ Church, Oxford.
• November 29 – Marriage of William Shakespeare, 18 years old, to 26-year-old Anne Hathaway (who is pregnant with their first daughter, Susanna), perhaps at Temple Grafton (and not at Stratford-upon-Avon) in England.^[1] It will be a decade before he emerges on the London theatrical scene.
• Publication in England of the first part of Richard Mulcaster's textbook on the teaching of English, the Elementarie, including "a generall table [of eight thousand words] we commonlie use" in regularized spelling.
• Earliest reference to the publishing of private newspapers in Beijing (China).

• January 6 – Alonso de Contreras, Spanish adventurer and writer (died 1641)
• January 28 – John Barclay, Scottish satirist and poet (died 1621)
• February 6 – Mario Bettinus, Italian philosopher (died 1657)
• April 8 (baptised) – Phineas Fletcher, English poet (died 1650)
• October 17 – Johann Gerhard, German Lutheran theologian (died 1637)
• November 21 – François Maynard, French poet (died 1646)
• Unknown dates
  • Giovanni Francesco Abela, Maltese writer (died 1655)
  • Richard Corbet, English poet and bishop (died 1635)
  • William Lithgow, Scottish traveller and author (died 1645)

• January 26 – Thomas Platter, Swiss humanist writer (born 1499)
• July/August – Jacques Pelletier du Mans, French humanist poet (born 1517)
• September 28 – George Buchanan, Scottish historian (born 1506)
• October 4 – Teresa of Ávila, Spanish mystical writer (born 1515)
• Unknown dates
  • Arnoldus Arlenius, Dutch humanist philosopher and poet (born c.1510)
  • Natalis Comes, Italian mythographer, poet and historian (born 1520)
  • Jobus Fincelius, German humanist writer