1621 In Literature

Events from the year 1621 in literature.

Events

*January 27 – Sir Francis Bacon is created Viscount St Alban.
*February 3 – John Chamberlain writes to Sir Dudley Carleton telling him the anonymous author of the tract ''Vox Populi'' has been revealed to be the radical preacher Thomas Scott.
*May 3 – Sir Francis Bacon is imprisoned in the Tower of London after being convicted of receiving bribes, but pardoned by King James I later in the year.
*August 26 – Barten Holyday's allegorical play ''Technogamia'', originally produced at Christ Church, Oxford in 1618, is staged before James I at Woodstock Palace. He dislikes it, but is persuaded to stay to the end for the student actors' sakes.
*September 24 – The earliest known copy of the ''Corante'', generally regarded as the first English newspaper, is published.
*November 22 – The English poet John Donne is installed as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London.
*December 30 – The Spanish writer Francisco de Borja y Aragón is replaced as Viceroy of Peru by Juan Jiménez de Montalvo, and embarks for home on the following day.

''Uncertain date''
*Jeremias Drexel gives up preaching in order to write a biography of Elisabeth of Lorraine.

New books

Prose

*William Alabaster – ''De bestia Apocalypsis''
*Robert Burton – ''The Anatomy of Melancholy''
*Méric Casaubon – ''Pietas contra maledicos patrii Nominis et Religionis Hostes''
*Mao Yuanyi (茅元儀, editor) – ''Wubei Zhi'' (''武備志'', Treatise on Armaments)
* John Reynolds – ''The triumphs of Gods revenge, against the crying, and execrable sinne of murther''
*Rachel Speght – ''Mortalities Memorandum''
* John Taylor – ''Taylor's Motto''
*John Widdowes – ''A Description of the World''
*Lady Mary Wroth – ''The Countess of Montgomery's Urania''

Drama

*Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, & Philip Massinger – ''Thierry and Theodoret'' (published)
* Thomas Dekker, John Ford, & William Rowley – ''The Witch of Edmonton''
*Ben Jonson – ''The Gypsies Metamorphosed''
*Tirso de Molina – ''El vergonzoso en palacio''

Poetry

*George Wither – ''Wither's Motto''

Births

*January 27 – Thomas Willis, English physician and natural philosopher (died 1675)
*March 18 – Henry Teonge, English diarist and naval chaplain (died 1690)
*March 31 – Andrew Marvell, English poet (died 1678)
*April 25 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, Anglo-Irish dramatist (died 1679)
* July 8 – Jean de La Fontaine, French author of fables (died 1695)
*December 3 – Bohuslav Balbín, Czech Jesuit writer (died 1688)
*December 14 ''(baptised)'' – Thomas Long, English writer and cleric (died 1707)
*''unknown date'' – Jane Cavendish, English poet and playwright (died 1669)
*''probable'' – Françoise Bertaut de Motteville, French memoirist (died 1689)
*''Possible year'' (1621 or 1622) – Richard Allestree, English scholar and cleric (died 1681)

Deaths

*January 25 – François Pithou, French author and jurist (born 1543)
*March 4 – Ana de Jesús, Spanish nun and writer (born 1545)
*May 11 – Johann Arndt, German theologian (born 1555)
*June – William Strachey, English eye-witness historian (born 1572)
*August 3 – Guillaume du Vair, French writer (born 1556)
*August 15 – John Barclay, Scottish writer (born 1582)
*September 25 – Mary Sidney, English playwright and translator (born 1561)
*October 7 or 8 – Antoine de Montchrestien, French adventurer and dramatist (born c. 1575)
*December 4 – Andrew Willet, English polemicist and cleric (born 1562)
*''unknown date'' – Ludwig Hollonius, German dramatist (born c. 1570)

Notelist

References

{{Year in literature article categories

Years of the 17th century in literature