1640 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1640.

Events

January 21 – Salmacida Spolia, a masque written by Sir William Davenant and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace. It is the final royal masque of the Caroline era.
March 17 – Henry Burnell's play Landgartha is first performed, at the Werburgh Street Theatre in Dublin. It is one of the earliest plays from a native Irish playwright.
c. April 16 – James Shirley returns to England from Ireland.
May 4 – Theatre manager William Beeston is sent to the Marshalsea Prison for staging a play which offends the Stuart regime. This constitutes the only repression of the theatre to occur during the reign of King Charles I.
May 28 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca joins the Catalan campaign led by the Duke of Olivares.
English Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace, serving in the Bishops' Wars in Scotland, writes "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres" and the unperformed tragedy The Soldier.

The Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in North America
Uriel da Costa – Exemplar Humanae Vitae
Diego de Saavedra Fajardo – Idea de un príncipe político cristiano
Thomas Fuller – Joseph's coloured Coat
James Howell – Dodona's Grove
Cornelius Jansen – Augustinus
Thomas Stephens – Arte da lingoa Canarim, a grammar of the Konkani language
John Wilkins – A Discourse Concerning a New Planet
Francisco de Rioja – Aristarco o censura de la proclamación católica de los catalanes
Baltasar Gracián – El político Don Fernando el Católico
Juan Eusebio Nieremberg – ''De la diferencia entre lo temporal y lo eterno. Crisol de desengaño''

Henry Burnell – Landgartha
Pierre Corneille – Horace
William Davenant – Salmacida Spolia
John Fletcher & James Shirley – The Night Walker
Henry Glapthorne – The Hollander, Wit in a Constable, and The Ladies' Privilege
John Gough – The Strange Discovery
William Habington – The Queen of Arragon
Samuel Harding – Sicily and Naples
Jean Mairet – L’Illustre corsaire
Nathaniel Richards – Messalina
Joseph Rutter- The Cid, Part 2
George Sandys – Christ's Passion
Lewis Sharpe – The Noble Stranger published
James Shirley – The Imposture performed; a single-volume collection of eight plays published; The Arcadia, The Humorous Courtier, and Saint Patrick for Ireland published; The Coronation published but misattributed to John Fletcher
Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla – Los bandos de Verona
Pedro Calderón de la Barca – Psiquis y Cupido
Valentín de Céspedes – Las glorias del mejor siglo
Lope de Vega – Parte XXIV de comediasEntremeses nuevos
Fray Alonso Remón – Las tres mujeres en una
Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla
*Donde hay agravios no hay celos
*No hay amigo para amigo
*''Progne y Filomena''

Thomas Carew – Poems
Robert Sempill the younger – The Life and Death of Habbie Simpson, Piper of Kilbarchan
John Tatham – Fancy's Theatre
''Romances varios de diversos autores''

Uncertain dates