1648 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1648.

Events

*February
**Ordinances are passed in England against plays; actors are to be fined and theatres pulled down.
**Richard Flecknoe sails from Lisbon to Brazil.
*April 7 – Edward Pococke becomes Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford, in succession to Dr Morris.
*April 16 – René Descartes meets Frans Burman, resulting in the ''Conversation with Burman''.
*June – Pierre Gassendi, having given up lecturing at the Collège Royal because of ill-health, returns to his home area of Digne.
*July 14 – During the siege of Colchester, a cannon nicknamed ''Humpty Dumpty'', is blown off the walls, possibly inspiring the nursery rhyme.
*October – Richard Lovelace, a Royalist poet, is imprisoned for opposition to Parliament.
*December – King Charles I is imprisoned in Windsor Castle, where he reportedly spends much of his time reading the plays of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.
*''unknown dates''
**Robert Boyle writes ''Seraphic Love'', his first important work. Although it will not be published until 1660, he produces presentation copies for friends.
**Richard Crashaw, exiled in Paris, publishes two hymns in Latin.
**King Frederick III of Denmark establishes the Royal Library, Denmark.

New books

Prose

*Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède – ''Cléopâtre''
*Robert Filmer – ''Freeholders Grand Inquest touching our Sovereign Lord the King and his Parliament''
*Thomas Gage – ''The English-American, or a New Survey of the West Indies''
* Baltasar Gracián – ''Agudeza y arte de ingenio''
* Francisco Martínez de Mata – ''Memorial a razón de la despoblación y pobreza de España y su remedio''
* José García de Salcedo Coronel – ''Comentarios al Panegírico del Duque de Lerma de Luis de Góngora''
* Fray Marcos de Salmerón – ''El príncipe escondido''
*Madeleine de Scudéry – ''Artamène, ou le Grand Cyrus'', volume 1
*John Wilkins – ''Mathematical Magick''
*Gerrard Winstanley – ''The Mystery of God''

Drama

*Anonymous – ''Crafty Cromwell''
*Anonymous – ''Kentish Fair, or the Parliament Sold to Their Best Worth''
*Anonymous ("Mercurius Melancholicus") – ''Mistress Parliament Her Gossiping''
*Jasper Mayne – ''The Amorous War''

Poetry

* Christen Aagaard – ''Threni Hyperborci''
*Richard Corbet – ''Poetica Stromata''
*Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland – ''Otia Sacra''
* Robert Herrick
**''Hesperides''
**''Noble Numbers''
*Francisco de Borja y Aragón – ''Obras en verso''
*Francisco López de Zárate – ''La invención de la Cruz''
*Francisco de Quevedo (ed. Jusepe Antonio González de Salas) – ''El Parnaso español, en dos cumbre dividido, con las nueve musas''

Births

*February 1 – Elkanah Settle, English poet and dramatist (died 1724)
*November 12 – Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican Hieronymite nun, polymath, poet and playwright (died 1695)
*''Unknown date'' – Gaspard Abeille, French poet (died 1718)

Deaths

*February 2 – George Abbot, English writer (born c. 1603)
*February 22 – Wilhelm Lamormaini, Luxembourgish Jesuit theologian (born 1570)
*March 12 – Tirso de Molina, Spanish dramatist (born 1571)
*May 26 – Vincent Voiture, French writer and poet (born 1597)
*May – William Percy, English poet and playwright (born 1583)
* July 31 – Benedictus van Haeften, Dutch theologian (born 1588)
*August 20 – Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury Anglo-Welsh writer and soldier (born 1574)
*September 1 – Marin Mersenne, French theologian and philosopher (born 1588)
*December 16 – Arthur Duck, English lawyer and author (born 1580)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1648 In Literature

Years of the 17th century in literature