1646 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1646.
Events
- March 24 – The King's Men petition Parliament for three-and-a-half years' back pay, even though the London theatres officially remain closed through the middle 1640s. No details of their activities in these years survive.
- May 5 – Martin Llewellyn's drama The King Found at Southwell is performed at Oxford; it is the last stage piece presented in the city before its surrender to Parliamentary forces in the English Civil War on June 22–24.
- July – John Lilburne is placed in the Tower of London for denouncing his former commander the Earl of Manchester as a traitor.
- September 6 – The Biblioteca Palafoxiana is established in Puebla, Mexico, through the donation of books by Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, perhaps the earliest public library in the American colonies.
- unknown dates
- *Henry Burkhead's closet drama Cola's Fury, or Lirenda's Misery, based on the Irish Rebellion of 1641, is published in Kilkenny. Burkhead presents the historical persons involved under pseudonyms: among others, the Earl of Ormonde as "Osiris" and Sir John Borlase as "Berosus".
- *Jacqueline Pascal is converted to Jansenism, under the influence of her brother, Blaise Pascal.
New books
Prose
- Anonymous – London's Liberty in Chains Discovered
- Anonymous – Vox Plebis, or the People's Outcry
- Sir Thomas Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors
- Thomas Fuller – Andronicus or the Unfortunate Politician
- Sir John Suckling – An Account of Religion by Reason published
- Vida y hechos de Estebanillo González
- Baltasar Gracián – El discreto
- Diego de Saavedra Fajardo – ''Corona gótica, castellana y austríaca''
Children
Drama
- Pierre Corneille – Théodore
- Jean de Rotrou
- *Célie
- *Le Veritable Saint Genest
- James Shirley – The Triumph of Beauty
- Sir John Suckling – Fragmenta Aurea, collected plays, including ''The Sad One''
Poetry
- Richard Crashaw – Steps to the Temple
- Martin Lluelyn – Men-Miracles
- John Milton – Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, compos'd at several times
- Francis Quarles – The Shepherds' Oracle
- James Shirley – Poems
- Henry Vaughan – ''Poems, with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished''
Births
- March 19 – Michael Kongehl, German poet
- July 1 – Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher
- July 20 – Eusèbe Renaudot, French theologian and orientalist
- Probable – John Mason, English poet, cleric and hymnist
Deaths
- August 19 – Alexander Henderson, Scottish theologian
- September 17 – Erycius Puteanus, Netherlandish philologist and encyclopedist
- October 23 – David Wedderburn, Scottish educationist and schoolbook author
- December 23 – François Maynard, French poet