1643 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1643.

Events

 * May/June – René Descartes, having had his philosophy condemned by the University of Utrecht, begins his long correspondence with Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia.
 * June 16 – The Parliament of England issues the Licensing Order of 1643 to control the press – the action against which John Milton protests in his Areopagitica of the following year.
 * August 1 – The first of Milton's divorce tracts is published, anonymously and unlicensed.
 * unknown dates
 * Cardinal Mazarin opens the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris to scholars.
 * The medieval Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius comes to light, in the possession of Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson.
 * Miyamoto Musashi begins dictating The Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho).
 * Francis Bacon's New Atlantis and Tommaso Campanella's Civitas Solis, The City of the Sun, are published together in a volume titled Mundus Alter et Idem – the first time, though not the last, that the two works will be bound together.

Prose

 * Sir Thomas Browne – Religio Medici (first "authorized" edition, after two unauthorized in the previous year)
 * Sir Kenelm Digby – Observations Upon Religio Medici
 * Philip Hunton – A Treatise of Monarchie
 * John Milton – Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
 * Roger Williams – A Key into the Language of America
 * Pedro Agerre (Axular) – Gero

Drama

 * Pierre Corneille
 * Le Menteur
 * Polyeucte
 * Sir William Davenant – The Unfortunate Lovers published
 * Claude de L'Estoile – La Belle Esclave (The Beautiful Slave)
 * Francisco de Quevedo
 * Entremés de las sombras
 * La mujer de Peribáñez

Poetry

 * Ramillete gracioso
 * Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant – Albion

Births

 * March 26 – Louis Moréri, French encyclopedist and priest (died 1680)
 * September 18 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish historian and bishop (died 1715)
 * November 1 – John Strype, English historian, biographer and cleric (died 1737)
 * November 16 – Jean Chardin, French travel writer (died 1713)
 * unknown date – Thomas Rymer, English Historiographer Royal (died 1713)

Deaths

 * February 9 – Sidney Godolphin, English poet (born 1610)
 * April 4 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian (born 1583)
 * April 12 – Nicolaus Hunnius, German theologian (born 1585)
 * April 20 – Christoph Demantius, German poet and composer (born 1567)
 * November 29 – William Cartwright, English poet, dramatist and cleric (born 1611)
 * unknown dates
 * Abraham Azulai, Moroccan-born Kabbalistic author (born c. 1570)
 * Thomas Master, English poet, translator and cleric (born 1603)
 * Pedro de Oña, Chilean poet (born 1570)
 * probable
 * Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, Irish chronicler (born c. 1590)
 * Henry Glapthorne, English dramatist (born 1610)