| content |
| List of years in literature (Table) |
|---|
| … 1639 • 1640 • 1641 • 1642 • 1643 • 1644 • 1645 • 1646 • 1647 • 1648 – 1649 – 1650 • 1651 • 1652 • 1653 • 1654 • 1655 • 1656 • 1657 • 1658 • 1659 … |
| Related time period or subjects |
| … 1646 • 1647 • 1648 – 1649 – 1650 • 1651 • 1652 … … 1610s • 1620s • 1630s – 1640s – 1650s • 1660s • 1670s … … 16th century – 17th century – 18th century … |
| Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Science more |
The year 1649 in literature involved some significant events.
Contents |
Events
- Sir William Davenant is appointed treasurer of the colony of Virginia.
- On January 1, local authorities raid the four remaining London theatres (the Salisbury Court, Red Bull, Cockpit, and Fortune) to suppress clandestine play-acting. The actors found are arrested — except for the Red Bull company, who manage to escape.
- On Saturday, March 24, the authorities damage the Cockpit Theatre to inhibit continued attempts to use it for plays. (The building is not destroyed, however, and in 1660, when drama resumes in England with the Restoration, the theatre is fixed and used again.)
- On April 23, the Levellers issue "The Declaration and Standard of the Levellers of England."
- With the London theatres remaining closed since 1642, the trend toward closet drama (often highly politicized) continues — and is accentuated by the January 30 execution of Charles I. In the play Newmarket Fair, Oliver Cromwell and other Parliamentary leaders commit suicide when they learn of the accession of Charles II (an event that, in actuality, still lies eleven years in the future).
- Eikon Basilike, supposedly Charles I's account of his final days, is published, and becomes an enormous popular success. The work was most likely written by John Gauden.
- Antoine Girard's poem Rome Ridicule starts a fashion for burlesque poetry.
- Alexander Ross, the Scottish controversialist, publishes the first English translation of the Qur'an. Knowing no Arabic, Ross works from Andre du Ryer's 1647 French version, L'Alcoran de Mahomet.
New books
- René Descartes - Les passions de l'âme (Passions of the Soul)
- John Donne - Fifty Srmons
- John Gauden (?) - Eikon Basilike: The Portraicture of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings
- John Lilburne - England's New Chains Discovered
- - Legal Fundamental Liberties
- John Milton - The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
- - Eikonoklastes (a reply to Eikon Basilike)
- Alexander Ross - The Alcoran of Mahomet
- "Salmasius" (Claude de Saumaise) - Defensio Regia
- Jeremy Taylor - Apology for authorized and set forms of Liturgy against the Pretence of the Spirit
Published plays
- Anonymous - A Bartholomew Fairing
- Anonymous - The Disease of the House, or the State Mountebank Administering Physic to a Sick Parliament
- Anonymous - The Famous Tragedy of Charles II, Basely Butchered
- Anonymous - Newmarket Fair, or A Parliament Outcry
- Anonymous ("T. B.") - The Rebellion of Naples, or the Tragedy of Massenello
- William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle -The Country Captain
- - The Variety
- Sir William Davenant - Love and Honour
- Francis Quarles - The Virgin Widow
- William Peaps - Love in Its Ecstasy, or the Large Prerogative
- Christopher Wase - The Electra of Sophocles
Poetry
- Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant - Rome Ridicule
Births
- June 13 - Adren Baillet, critic
- date unknown - Sir John Floyer, physician and writer (died 1734)
- date unknown - Samuel Johnson (1649-1703), political writer (died 1703)
Deaths
- March 19 - Gerhard Johann Vossius, theologian (born 1577)
- June 3 - Manuel de Faria e Sousa, historian and poet (born 1590)
- August 25 - Richard Crashaw (born c. 1613)
- October 3 - Giovanni Diodati, theologian (born 1576)
- November 19 - Caspar Schoppe, critic (born 1576)
- December 4 - William Drummond of Hawthornden, poet(born 1585)
- date unknown - Maria Tesselschade Roemersdochter Visscher, poet
