1653 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1653.

Events

• March 26 – James Shirley's masque Cupid and Death is performed before the Portuguese ambassador in London.^[1]
• Pierre Corneille retires from the theatre for six years.
• John Evelyn buys Sayes Court, Deptford.
• The actor Robert Cox is arrested at the Red Bull Theatre in London for performing a "droll" deemed to be a play (prohibited during the English Interregnum).
• A law in Holland prohibits promulgation of Socinianism or other forms of nontrinitarianism.

New books

• Richard Brome – Five New Plays, a collection of his dramas including A Mad Couple Well-Match'd, The Novella, The Court Beggar, The City Wit, and The Damoiselle
• Margaret Cavendish – Poems and Fancies
• Ann Collins – Divine Songs and Meditations
• Sir Percy Herbert – The Princess Cloria, Parts 1 and 2
• Edward Johnson – A History of New England
• James Shirley – Six New Plays, a collection of his drama including The Brothers, The Sisters, The Doubtful Heir, The Imposture, The Cardinal, and The Court Secret.
• Jeremy Taylor – Twenty-five Sermons
• Sir Thomas Urquhart
  • first English translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel, Books I and II
  • Logopandecteision
• Izaak Walton -The Compleat Angler
• Arthur Wilson – The History of Great Britain, being the Life and Reign of King James I.
• Baltasar Gracián – El criticón (second part)
• Juan de Zabaleta – Errores celebrados
• Blaise Pascal – Traité du triangle arithmétique

New drama

• Anonymous – The Ghost, or the Woman Wears the Breeches published
• John Ford (attributed to) – The Queen published
• William Heminges – The Fatal Contract published
• Henry Killigrew – Pallantus and Eudora published (Killigrew's revision of his own The Conspiracy, 1638)
• Philippe Quinault – Les Rivales
• Lope de Vega – La discreta enamorada
• Agustín Moreto – El lindo don Diego
• Paul Scarron – Don Japhel d'Arménie

Births

• January 13 – Philipp Jakob Spener, German theologian (died 1705)
• March 8 – Goodwin Wharton, English autobiographer and politician (died 1704)
• Unknown date – Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese dramatist (died 1725)
• Probable year of birth
  • Nathaniel Lee, English dramatist (died 1692)
  • Matthew Tindal, English deist writer (died 1733)

Deaths

• May 26 – Robert Filmer, English political theorist (born 1558)
• July 10 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (born 1600)
• September 3 – Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (born 1588)
• September 23 – Jacques Goar, French Hellenist (born 1601)
• Unknown dates
  • Zachary Boyd, Scottish poet (born 1585)
  • Piaras Feiritéar, Irish-language poet and rebel (hanged, born c. 1600)
  • John Taylor, English poet (born 1578)

References