1640 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
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The year 1640 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

January 21 - Salmacida Spolia, a masque written by Sir William Davenant and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace — the final royal masque of the Caroline era.
March 17 (St. Patrick's Day) - Henry Burnell's play Landgartha premieres at the Werburgh Street Theatre in Dublin. It is one of the earliest dramatic works from a native Irish playwright.
April 16 (approx.) - James Shirley returns to England from Ireland.
May 4 - Theatre manager William Beeston is sent to the Marshalsea Prison for staging a play (perhaps Richard Brome's The Court Beggar, or his The Queen and Concubine) that offends the Stuart regime. This constitutes the sole repression of the theatre to occur during the reign of King Charles I.
May 28 - Pedro Calderón de la Barca joins the Catalonian campaign led by the Duke of Olivares.
English Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace, serving in the Bishops' Wars in Scotland, writes "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres" (published 1649) and the unperformed tragedy The Soldier (lost).

The Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in North America
Uriel da Costa - Exemplar Humanae Vitae
Diego de Saavedra Fajardo - Idea de un principe plotico cristiano (literally, "The Idea of a Christian Political Prince;" in English, The Royal Politician)
Thomas Fuller - Joseph's Partly-coloured Coat
James Howell - Dodona's Grove
Cornelius Jansen - Augustinus
Thomas Stephens - Arte da lingoa Canarim, a grammar of the Konkani language^[1]
John Wilkins - A Discourse Concerning a New Planet
Francisco de Rioja - Aristarco o censura de la proclamación católica de los catalanes
Baltasar Gracián - El político Don Fernando el Católico
Juan Eusebio Nieremberg - De la diferencia entre lo temporal y lo eterno. Crisol de desengaño
Diego Saavedra Fajardo - Idea de un príncipe político cristiano representada por cien empresas

Henry Burnell - Landgartha
Pierre Corneille - Horace
William Davenant – Salmacida Spolia
John Fletcher & James Shirley - The Night Walker (published)
Henry Glapthorne - The Hollander, Wit in a Constable, and The Ladies' Privilege (published)
John Gough - The Strange Discovery
William Habington - The Queen of Arragon
Samuel Harding - Sicily and Naples
Jean Mairet - L’Illustre corsaire
Nathaniel Richards - Messalina (published)
Joseph Rutter- The Cid, Part 2 (published)
George Sandys - Christ's Passion (English translation of Hugo Grotius's Christus Patiens)
Lewis Sharpe - The Noble Stranger published
James Shirley - The Imposture performed; a single-volume collection of eight plays published; The Arcadia, The Humorous Courtier, and Saint Patrick for Ireland published; The Coronation published but misattributed to John Fletcher
Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla - Los bandos de Verona
Pedro Calderón de la Barca - Psiquis y Cupido
Valentín de Céspedes - Las glorias del mejor siglo
Lope de Vega - Parte XXIV de comedias
Entremeses nuevos
Fray Alonso Remón - Las tres mujeres en una
Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla
- Donde hay agravios no hay celos
- No hay amigo para amigo
- Progne y Filomena

Thomas Carew - Poems
Robert Sempill the younger - The Life and Death of Habbie Simpson, Piper of Kilbarchan
John Tatham - Fancy's Theatre
Romances varios de diversos autores

April 2 – Marianna Alcoforado, Portuguese nun and purported letter-writer (died 1723)
June 5 – Pu Songling (蒲松龄), Chinese writer (died 1715)
July 10 – Aphra Behn, English dramatist (died 1689)
August 8 – Amalia Catharina, German poet (died 1697)
September 6 – Heinrich Brewer, German historian (died c. 1713)
December 6 – Claude Fleury, French historian (died 1723)
Unknown dates
- David-Augustin de Brueys, French theologian and dramatist (died 1723)
- Madame de Villedieu, French dramatist and novelist (died 1683)

January 25 – Robert Burton, English scholar (born 1577)
March 8 (burial) – Samuel Ward, English Puritan preacher and writer (born 1577)
March 17 – Philip Massinger, English dramatist (born 1583)
March 22 – Thomas Carew, English poet (born 1595)
April – Uriel da Costa, Portuguese philosopher (born c. 1585)
April 2 – Paul Fleming, German poet (born 1609)
May 30 – André Duchesne, French historian (born 1584)
October 1 – Claudio Achillini, Italian philosopher and poet (born 1574)
Unknown dates
- William Alabaster, English poet (born 1567)
- William Aspley, English publisher (unknown year of birth)
- Elizabeth Melville, Scottish poet (born c. 1578)
- Sir John Melton, English politician and writer (unknown year of birth)
- Daniel Naborowski, Polish poet (born 1573)
- Richard Rowlands, English antiquary (born c. 1550)
Probable year of death
- Charles Aleyn, English poet (unknown year of birth)
- John Day, English dramatist (born 1574)
- John Ford, English dramatist (born 1584)

↑ D.O. Hunter-Blair incorrectly describes the Arte as a grammar of the language spoken in Canara, a district on the Malabar coast; see "Thomas Stephen Buston". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. The Catholic Encyclopedia has another article on Thomas Stephens, under "Thomas Stephens".