Tragicomedy is a genre of transition, crossing from danger to safety, from a tragic perception of the world to a potentially comic interpretation. This is a particularly apt dramatic mode for a year in which a great deal was in transition politically and textually. One of the key activities in the textual culture of 1611 is translation – by which is meant both the work of transferring a text from one language to another, and the wider culture of reinterpretation and rereading. This chapter shows how the ′anatomy′ of an individual year in terms of its textual and creative impulses can cumulatively reveal a distinctive cultural mood. It focuses on the intertextual richness of 1611. In 1611, a great number of strange and fascinating things were written, performed and published. The chapter offers a glimpse of the rich and densely interwoven textual culture of one early modern year.