1621 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1621.

Events

• January 27 - Sir Francis Bacon is created Viscount St Alban.
• February 3 - John Chamberlain writes to Sir Dudley Carleton to tell him that the anonymous author of the tract Vox Populi has been unmasked as the radical preacher Thomas Scott.
• May 3 - Sir Francis Bacon is imprisoned in the Tower of London after being tried and convicted of taking bribes; he is pardoned by King James I later in the year.^[1]
• August 26 - Barten Holyday's allegorical play Technogamia, originally produced at Christ Church, Oxford in 1618, is staged before King James at Woodstock Palace. (James does not like it, but is persuaded to stay to the end for the student actors' sakes.)
• September 24 - The earliest known copy of the Corante, generally regarded as "the first English newspaper", is published.
• November 22 - English poet John Donne is installed as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London.
• December 30 - Spanish writer Francisco de Borja y Aragón is replaced as Viceroy of Peru by Juan Jiménez de Montalvo, and embarks for his native land on the following day.
• Jeremias Drexel gives up preaching in order to write a biography of Elisabeth of Lorraine.

New books

• William Alabaster - De bestia Apocalypsis
• Robert Burton - The Anatomy of Melancholy
• Méric Casaubon - Pietas contra maledicos patrii Nominis et Religionis Hostes
• Mao Yuanyi - Wubei Zhi
• John Reynolds - The triumphs of Gods revenge, against the crying, and execrable sinne of murther
• Rachel Speght - Mortalities Memorandum
• John Taylor - Taylor's Motto
• John Widdowes - A Description of the World
• Lady Mary Wroth - The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania

New drama

• Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, & Philip Massinger - Thierry and Theodoret (published)
• Guillem de Castro - Mocedades del Cid
• Thomas Dekker, John Ford, & William Rowley - The Witch of Edmonton
• Ben Jonson - The Gypsies Metamorphosed
• Tirso de Molina - El vergonzoso en palacio

Poetry

• George Wither - Wither's Motto

Births

• March 18 – Henry Teonge, English diarist and naval chaplain (died 1690)
• March 31 – Andrew Marvell, English poet (died 1678)
• April 25 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, Anglo-Irish dramatist (died 1679)
• July 8 – Jean de La Fontaine, French author of fables (died 1695)
• December 3 – Bohuslav Balbín, Czech Jesuit writer (died 1688)
• December 14 (bapt.) – Thomas Long, English writer and cleric (died 1707)
• Unknown dates
  • Jane Cavendish, English poet and playwright (died 1669)
  • Françoise Bertaut de Motteville, French memoirist (died 1689)

Deaths

• March 4 – Ana de Jesús, Spanish nun and writer (born 1545)
• May 11 – Johann Arndt, German theologian (born 1555)
• June – William Strachey, English eye-witness historian (born 1572)
• August 3 – Guillaume du Vair, French writer (born 1556)
• August 15 – John Barclay, Scottish writer (born 1582)
• September 25 – Mary Sidney, English playwright and translator (born 1561)
• October 7 or 8 – Antoine de Montchrestien, French adventurer and dramatist (born c. 1575)
• December 4 – Andrew Willet, English controversialist and cleric (born 1562)
• Unknown dates
  • Ludwig Hollonius, German dramatist (born c. 1570)
  • François Pithou, French author and jurist, brother of Pierre, Jean and Nicolas Pithou (born 1543)

References