1655 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1655.

List of years in literature (table)
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Events

• February 24 – The English playwright Thomas Porter abducts his future bride Anne Blount.[1]
• March 26 – The playwright Thomas Porter kills a soldier named Thomas Salkeld in Covent Garden, probably in a duel, is consequently tried for murder, pleads guilty to manslaughter, is allowed benefit of clergy, and is sentenced to be burned in the hand.
• May–October – Church of England clergyman Jeremy Taylor is imprisoned at Chepstow Castle for an injudicious preface to his popular manual of devotion, Golden Grove; or a Manuall of daily prayers and letanies, published this year.
• August 6 – The Blackfriars Theatre in London is demolished.[2]
• October 29 – To celebrate Lord Mayor's Day, Edmund Gayton's pageant Charity Triumphant or the Virgin Show is staged in London; it is the first City pageant in fifteen years.

New books

Prose

• John Bramhall – Defense of True Liberty (Anglican divine begins exchange of treatises with Thomas Hobbes)
• Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle – The World's Olio
• Nicholas Culpeper – Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick
• Thomas Fuller – The Church History of Britain
• John Heydon – Eugenius Theodidacticus
• Michel Millot and Jean L'Ange (attributed) – L'Escole des filles
• William Prynne
  • A New Discovery of Free-State Tyranny
  • The Quakers Unmasked
• Thomas Stanley – History of Philosophy[3]
• John Wallis – Elenchus geomeiriae Hobbianae (attack on the works of Thomas Hobbes)
• Izaak Walton – The Compleat Angler (2nd edition)
• Baltasar Gracián – El comulgatorio
• Francisco de Quevedo – Política de Dios y gobierno de Cristo (second part)
• Diego de Saavedra Fajardo – Juicio de artes y ciencias

Drama

• Antony Brewer – The Lovesick King
• Lodowick Carlell – The Passionate Lovers, Parts 1 and 2
• Robert Daborne – The Poor Man's Comfort
• Robert Davenport – King John and Matilda
• Thomas Heywood and William Rowley – Fortune by Land and Sea
• Philip Massinger – Three New Plays, a collection that included The Guardian, The Bashful Lover, and (with John Fletcher) A Very Woman
• James Shirley
  • The Gentleman of Venice
  • The Politician
• Jeremy Taylor – Golden Grove; or a Manuall of daily prayers and letanies . .

Poetry

• Henry Vaughan – Silex Scintillans (part 2)

Births

• January 1 – Christian Thomasius, German philosopher (died 1728)
• February 7 – Jean-François Regnard, French dramatist and diarist (died 1709)
• February 28 – Johann Beer, Austrian author, court official and composer (died 1700)
• c. November – Jacob Tonson, English bookseller and publisher (died 1736)
• unknown date – Lin Yining (林以寧), Chinese poet (died c. 1730)

Deaths

• February 25 – Daniel Heinsius, Dutch poet (born 1580)[4]
• May 8 – Edward Winslow, English theologian, pamphleteer and New England politician (born 1595)
• July 28 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist (born 1619)[5]
• September 7 – François Tristan l'Hermite, French dramatist (born c. 1601)[6]
• October 24 – Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher (born 1592)[7]
• probable – John Reynolds, English poet, story-writer and pamphleteer (born c. 1588)

References

1. Montague Summers (1964). The Playhouse of Pepys. Humanities Press. p. 230.
2. Milling, Jane; Thomson, Peter; Donohue, Joseph W.; Kershaw, Baz (2004). The Cambridge History of British Theatre. Cambridge University Press. p. 462. ISBN 9780521650403.
3. Giovanni Santinello (17 April 2013). Models of the History of Philosophy: From its Origins in the Renaissance to the ‘Historia Philosophica’. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 163. ISBN 978-94-015-8181-3.
4. "Daniël Heinsius | Dutch poet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
5. Cyrano de Bergerac (1923). Cyrano de Bergerac: Voyages to the Moon and the Sun. Routledge & Sons Limited. p. 24.
6. The Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Incorporated. 2002. p. 282. ISBN 978-0-7172-0135-8.
7. Virginia Trimble; Thomas R. Williams; Katherine Bracher (18 September 2007). Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 408. ISBN 978-0-387-30400-7.