1656 in literature
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The year 1656 in literature involved some significant events.
Events
- April 25 - In London, the Council of State, usually busy with larger matters, has taken on the censorship of individual books and orders the Lord Mayor of the City of London to burn a volume titled Sportive Wit, or the Muses' Merriment for its "scandalous, lascivious, scurrilous, and profane matter."
- May - Performance of The Siege of Rhodes, Part I, by Sir William Davenant, the "first English opera" (under the guise of a recitative), in a private theatre at his home, Rutland House, in the City of London. This also includes the innovative use of painted backdrops and the appearance of England's first professional actress, Mrs. Coleman as Ianthe.
- May 9 - Choice Drollery, Songs, and Sonnets is ordered destroyed by Britain's Council of State.
- July 27 - Baruch Spinoza is excluded from the Jewish religious community in Amsterdam.[1]
- November 12 - John Milton marries Katherine Woodcock.
- Two playbooks published in London in this year, The Careless Shepherdess and The Old Law, contain the first "play lists" or catalogues of published dramas ever issued in England.
- Publication in Cambridge, New England, of the catechism Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes by Rev. John Cotton, the first known children's book published in America.
New books
- Cyrano de Bergerac - Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon
- Méric Casaubon - A Treatise Concerning Enthusiasm
- Margaret Cavendish - Nature's Pictures
- Andreas Gryphius - Kirchlzofsgedanken (lyrics)
- James Harrington - The Commonwealth of Oceana
- Thomas Hobbes - Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance
- The English translation of Michael Maier's Themis aurea is published.
- Elizabeth Major - Honey on the Rod
- Marchamont Nedham - The Excellency of a Free State
- Adam Olearius, German traveller - Vermehrte Newe Beschreibung Der Muscowitischen und Persischen Reyse So durch gelegenheit einer Holsteinischen Gesandtschaft an den Russischen Zaar und König in Persien geschehen
- Francis Osborne - Advice to a Son (an anti-marriage book, condemned and burned for immorality)
- Gerard Winstanley - The Law of Freedom
- Blaise Pascal - Provincial Letters (first letter in series — completed in March 1657)
New drama
- Robert Cox - John Swabber the Seaman
- Thomas Dekker & John Ford - The Sun's Darling
- Thomas Goffe - Three Excellent Tragedies; The Careless Shepherdess
- Sir William Lower - Horatius
- Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, & Philip Massinger - The Old Law
- Molière - Le Dépit amoureux
- Walter Montague - The Accomplished Woman
- Edmund Prestwich - The Hectors, or the False Challenge
New poetry
- Abraham Cowley - The Miscellanies
- William Davenant - Wit and Drollery: Jovial Poems
- Juan de Moncayo - Poema trágico de Atalanta e Hipómenes
- Pierre Corneille - L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ
Births
- January 1 – Silvester Jenks, English Catholic theologian and philosopher (died 1714)
- April 17 – William Molyneux, Irish natural philosopher and political writer (died 1698)
- August 3 – Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (died 1723)
- September 14 – Thomas Baker, English antiquary (died 1746)
- November 17 – Charles Davenant, English economist (died 1714)
Deaths
- January 19 – Godfrey Goodman, English theologian and bishop (born c. 1582)
- August 24 – Aegidius Gelenius, German historian (born 1595)
- September 8 – Bishop Joseph Hall, English satirist (born 1574)
- October 3 – Myles Standish, American colonist (born c. 1584)
- December – John Edwards (Siôn Treredyn), Welsh Anglican priest and translator (born c. 1605)