# 1641 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1641.

## Events

* March 12 – Abraham Cowley's play The Guardian is acted at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the presence of Prince Charles (later King Charles II).
* Spring – Pierre Corneille marries Marie de Lampérière.
* c. May – William Davenant is convicted of high treason for his part in the First Army Plot in England and flees to France.
* August 5 – Because of an increase in cases of bubonic plague, John Lowin delivers warrants to London theatres ordering them to close.
* c. December – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, becomes an advisor to King Charles I of England.

## New books
### Prose

* George Abbot – Vindiciae Sabbathi
* Moses Amyraut – De l'elevation de la foy et de l'abaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion
* Richard Baker – Apologie for Laymen's Writing in Divinity, with a Short Meditation upon the Fall of Lucifer
* Sir Edward Coke – The Complete Copyholder
* Luís Vélez de Guevara – El Diablo cojuelo
* René Descartes – Meditations on First Philosophy
* William Habington – Observations upon History
* Joseph Hall – Episcopacy by Divine Right
* Samuel Hartlib (nominal author, really by Gabriel Plattes) – A Description of the Famous Kingdom of Macaria
* Thomas Heywood – The Life of Merlin surnamed Ambrosius
* Thomas Hobbes – De Cive
* Sir Francis Kynaston – Leoline and Sydanis
* John Milton – Of Reformation
* Sir Robert Naunton (died 1635) – Fragmenta Regalia, or Observations on the late Queen Elizabeth, her Times and Favourites
* Mother Shipton (died 1561, attributed) – The prophesie of Mother Shipton in the raigne of King Henry the eighth
* Sir Henry Spelman – De Sepultura
* Heinrich Stahl – Leyen Spiegel
* John Taylor – John Taylors Last Voyage and Adventure
* Nicolaes Tulp – Observationes Medicae
* John Wilkins – Mercury, or The Secret and Swift Messenger
* Francisco de Quevedo – Providencia de Dios
* Juan Eusebio Nieremberg – De la hermosura de Dios y su amabilidad, por las infinitas perfecciones del ser divino
* Luis Vélez de Guevara – El diablo Cojuelo

### Drama

* Richard Braithwaite – Mercurius Britanicus
* Richard Brome – A Jovial Crew
* Abraham Cowley – The Guardian
* John Day – The Parliament of Bees (published)
* John Denham – The Sophy
* Thomas Killigrew – The Prisoners and Claricilla (published)
* Shackerley Marmion – The Antiquary (published)
* James Shirley – The Cardinal
* John Tatham – The Distracted State
* Lope de Vega (died 1635) – El caballero de Olmedo (posthumous, written in 1620)
* Jan Vos – Aran en Titus, of wraak en weerwraak (Aran and Titus, or Revenge and Vengeance)

## Births

* April 8 (baptised) – William Wycherley, English playwright (died 1716)
* April 15 – Robert Sibbald, Scottish historian (died 1722)
* March 15 (baptised) – Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, English politician and writer (died 1711)
* May 16 – Dudley North, English economist, merchant and politician (died 1691)
* May – Juan Núñez de la Peña, Spanish historian (died 1721)
* Late October – Henry Dodwell, Irish-born theologian (died 1711)
* unknown dates
** Pierre Allix, French-born Protestant preacher and writer (died 1717)
** William Sherlock, English churchman and theologian (died 1707)

## Deaths

* January 11
** Franciscus Gomarus, Dutch theologian (born 1563)
** Juan de Jáuregui, Spanish poet and painter (born 1583)
* February 15 – Sara Copia Sullam, Italian poet and writer (born 1592)
* April 6 (buried) – Thomas Nabbes, English dramatist (born 1605)
* April 13 – Richard Montagu, English bishop and religious controversialist (born 1577)
* June 26 – Antony Hickey, Irish Franciscan theologian (born 1586)
* July 15 – Arthur Johnston, Scottish poet and physician (born c. 1579)
* August 9 – Augustine Baker, Welsh-born Benedictine mystic and ascetic writer, of plague (born 1575)
* August 16 – Thomas Heywood, English playwright, actor, poet and author (born c. 1573)
* August (between 14 and 27) – Sir William Vaughan, Welsh writer and colonist (born 1575)