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.

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)