1631 in literature

This article is a summary of the literary events and publications of 1631.

Events

• January 9 – Love's Triumph Through Callipolis, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is staged at Whitehall Palace.
• January 11 – The Master of the Revels in England refuses to license Philip Massinger's new play, Believe as You List, because of its seditious content; it is first performed in a revised version on May 7.
• February 5 – Puritan minister and theologian Roger Williams emigrates from England to Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• February 22 – Chloridia, the year's second Jonson/Jones masque, is performed.
• June 10 – The King's Men perform Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c.1607/8) at the Globe Theatre.
• The young Blaise Pascal moves with his family to Paris.
• Thomas Hobbes is employed as a tutor by the Cavendish family, to teach the future Earl of Devonshire.
• Publication of the "Wicked Bible" by Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the royal printers in London, an edition of the King James Version of the Bible in which a typesetting erratum leaves the seventh of the Ten Commandments () with the word not omitted from the sentence "Thou shalt not commit adultery". Copies are withdrawn and about a year later the publishers are called to the Star Chamber, fined £300 and have their licence to print revoked.

New books

Prose

• Johann Philipp Abelin – Arma Suecica, volume 1
• Moses Amyraut – Traité des religions
• Collected works of Jacobus Arminius published posthumously in Frankfurt
• Robert Fludd – Medicina Catholica (Volume 2)
• Thomas Harriot – Artis analyticae praxis
• James Mabbe – Celestina, or the Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea, a 300-page closet drama or "novel in dialogue," translated from the Spanish-language original of Fernando de Rojas, La Celestina (1499)
• Wicked Bible, a reprint of the King James Bible notable for typographical errors
• William Oughtred – Clavis mathematicae

Drama

• Anonymous – Fair Em published
• George Chapman – Caesar and Pompey published
• Henry Chettle – Hoffman published
• Lope de Vega
  • Punishment without Revenge (El castigo sin venganza)
  • La noche de San Juan
• Thomas Goffe – The Raging Turk published
• Peter Hausted – Senile Odium
• Thomas Heywood – The Fair Maid of the West, Parts 1 and 2 (published; probably performed in the previous year)
• Ben Jonson
  • Chloridia (masque)
  • Love's Triumph Through Callipolis (masque)
• Ralph Knevet – Rhodon and Iris (masque)
• James Mabbe – The Spanish Bawd published
• Jean Mairet – La Silvanire, ou la Morte-vive
• Shackerley Marmion – Holland's Leaguer runs for a highly unusual six straight performances
• John Marston, with William Barkstead & Lewis Machin (?) – The Insatiate Countess published
• Philip Massinger
  • Believe as You List
  • The Emperor of the East
• Thomas May – Antigone, the Theban Princess published
• Jean Rotrou – L'Hypocondriaque
• James Shirley
  • The Traitor
  • Love's Cruelty
  • The Humorous Courtier
  • Love Tricks published as The School of Compliment
• Aurelian Townshend – Albion's Triumph (masque)
• Robert Ward (?) – Fucus Histriomastix
• Arthur Wilson – The Swisser
• Richard Zouche – The Sophister

Poetry

• Richard Braithwait – The English Gentleman

Births

• January 1 – Katharine Philips (Orinda), English poet (died 1664)
• February 22 – Peder Syv, Danish philologist, folklorist and priest (died 1702)
• March 16 – René Le Bossu, French critic (died 1680)
• April – John Phillips, English satirist and nephew of John Milton (died 1706)
• July 15 – Richard Cumberland, English philosopher (died 1718)
• August 9 – John Dryden, English poet and dramatist (died 1700)
• October 18 – Michael Wigglesworth, English-born American poet and minister (died 1705)
• Unknown date – John Barret, English religious writer and Presbyterian minister (died 1713)

Deaths

• February 7 – Gabriel Harvey, English poet and author (born c. 1545)
• March 31 – John Donne, English poet and Dean of St Paul's (born 1572)
• May 6 – Robert Bruce Cotton, English antiquary and founder of Cotton Library (born 1570)
• May 25 – Samuel Harsnett, English religious writer and archbishop (born 1561)
• May 26 – Enrico Caterino Davila, Italian historian, murdered (born 1576)
• July 28 – Guillén de Castro y Bellvis, Spanish dramatist (born 1569)
• September 22 – Cardinal Federico Borromeo, Italian archbishop and founder of Biblioteca Ambrosiana (born 1564)
• October 26
  • Lewis Bayly, Welsh or Scottish-born religious writer and bishop writing in English (unknown year of birth)
  • Catherine de Parthenay, Viscountess and Princess of Rohan, French Huguenot noblewoman, mathematician, poet, playwright and translator (born 1554)
• November 29 – Edmond Richer, French theologian (born 1559)
• December 23 – Michael Drayton, English poet (born 1563)