1636 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1636.
Events
- January 31 – The King's Men perform Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at St James's Palace, London.
- February – James Shirley's tragicomedy The Duke's Mistress is performed at St James's Palace.
- March 3 – A "great charter" to the University of Oxford establishes the Oxford University Press as the second of England's privileged presses.
- April – Thomas Hobbes travels from Rome to Florence.
- May 10 – London theatres close, and remain almost continuously closed until the end of the year, due to an outbreak of bubonic plague. Playing companies are profoundly impacted; the King's Revels Men dissolve and other companies tour the countryside to survive.
- June – Tommaso Campanella, having left Italy for France, because of his pro-French views, gives a speech in front of Cardinal Richelieu; he teaches at the Sorbonne.
- August – King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria visit the University of Oxford. They are entertained with college theatricals, including William Strode's allegory The Floating Island, which mocks William Prynne as the play-hating Melancholico; George Wilde's Love's Hospital; and William Cartwright's The Royal Slave. Henrietta Maria enjoys the last so much that she brings it to be performed at Hampton Court by her Queen Henrietta's Men.
- November – Compilation of the Irish language Annals of the Four Masters is completed by Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, assisted by Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire and Peregrine Ó Duibhgeannain, in the Franciscan friary in Donegal Town in Ireland, under the patronage of Fearghal Ó Gadhra.
- December 8 – The King's Men perform Shakespeare's Othello at Hampton Court Palace.
New books
- Athanasius Kircher – Prodromus Coptus, First grammar of the Coptic language
- Sir Henry Blount – A Voyage to the Levant
- Juan Pérez de Montalbán – Fama póstuma a la vida y muerte de Lope de Vega Carpio
- Salvador Jacinto Polo de Medina – Hospital de incurables y Viaje de este mundo y el otro
- Cristóbal de Salazar Mardones – Ilustración y defensa de la Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe
- José García de Salcedo Coronel – ''Comentario a las Soledades de Góngora''
New drama
- Richard Brome – The New Academy
- Lodowick Carlell – Arviragus and Philicia
- William Cartwright – The Royal Slave
- John Cayworth – Enchiridion Christiados
- Pierre Corneille – L'Illusion Comique, performed
- Sir William Davenant – The Triumphs of the Prince D'Amour, The Wits, and The Platonick Lovers published
- Pierre Corneille – Le Cid
- Henry Glapthorne – The Hollander and perhaps Wit in a Constable
- François Tristan l'Hermite – La Mariane
- Thomas Heywood – A Challenge for Beauty published
- Thomas Killigrew – Claracilla
- Philip Massinger – The Bashful Lover performed; The Great Duke of Florence published
- Pedro Calderón de la Barca
- *Casa con dos puertas mala es de guardar
- *La dama duende
- *La devoción de la cruz
- *La vida es sueño
- Parte XXX de comedias de varios autores
- Tirso de Molina –
- *La vida de Herodes
- *Marta la piadosa
- Thomas Nabbes – Microcosmus, a Moral Masque
- Jean Rotrou – Les Deux Sosies
- William Sampson – The Vow-Breaker, or The Fayre Maid of Clifton
- James Shirley – The Duke's Mistress
- William Strode – The Floating Island
- George Wilde – ''Love's Hospital''
New poetry
- Abraham Cowley – Sylva
- William Sampson – ''Virtus post Funera vivit, or Honour Tryumphing over Death, being true Epitomes of Honorable, Noble, Learned, and Hospitable Personages''
Births
- April 7 – Gregório de Matos, Brazilian poet
- November 1 – Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, French poet and critic
- November 11 – Yan Ruoqu, Chinese scholar and polymath
- Unknown dates
- *Joseph Glanvill, English philosopher and cleric
- *James Janeway, English children's writer and Puritan minister
- *Jean de Montigny, French poet and philosopher
- Probable year of birth – Thomas Traherne, English poet and religious writer
Deaths
- January 19 – Daniel Schwenter, German Orientalist, polymath, poet and librarian
- February 4 – James Perrot, Welsh politician and philosophical writer
- April 26 – Paul Hay du Chastelet, French orator and writer
- September 15 – Cuthbert Burbage, English theatre owner, associate of William Shakespeare
- December 9 – Fabian Birkowski, Polish writer and preacher
- Unknown dates
- *Henning Arnisaeus, German political theorist and philosopher
- *Johannes Messenius, Swedish dramatist and historian
- *Cesare Rinaldi, Italian poet
- *Wen Zhenmeng, Chinese artist and author
- Probable date
- *Antonio Mira de Amescua, Spanish dramatist
- *William Sampson, English dramatist