1655 in literature

Events

• February 24 – The English playwright Thomas Porter abducts his future bride Anne Blount.
• 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.
• 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
• 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)
• May 8 – Edward Winslow, English theologian, pamphleteer and New England politician (born 1595)
• July 28 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist (born 1619)
• September 7 – François Tristan l'Hermite, French dramatist (born c. 1601)
• October 24 – Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher (born 1592)
• probable – John Reynolds, English poet, story-writer and pamphleteer (born c. 1588)

References

References

1. Montague Summers. (1964). "The Playhouse of Pepys". Humanities Press.
2. (2004). "The Cambridge History of British Theatre". Cambridge University Press.
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.
4. "Daniël Heinsius {{!}} Dutch poet".
5. Cyrano de Bergerac. (1923). "Cyrano de Bergerac: Voyages to the Moon and the Sun". Routledge & Sons Limited.
6. (2002). "The Encyclopedia Americana". Grolier Incorporated.
7. (18 September 2007). "Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers". Springer Science & Business Media.