1657 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1657.

Events

January – Madame de la Fayette returns to Paris, where she is introduced to, and becomes friends with, Madame de Sévigné.^[1]
March 2 – The Great Fire of Meireki in Edo, Japan, burns down the city's theatres, forcing actors to move to Osaka.^[2]

"William Allen" – Killing No Murder (variously attributed to Colonel Silius Titus, Edward Sexby or William Allen, an English Republican; Sexby admits authorship under duress)^[3]
Cave Beck – The Universal Character
Theodore Haak (translator) – The Dutch Annotations Upon the Whole Bible (original 1637)^[4]
Li Yu (probable author) – The Carnal Prayer Mat (published 1693)
Richard Ligon – A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes
Jeremy Taylor – Discourse of the Nature, Offices and Measures of Friendship
Brian Walton, Bishop of Chester – Polyglot Bible
Baltasar Gracián – El criticón (third part)
François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac – Pratique du théâtre
Cyrano de Bergerac (posthumous) – L'Autre Monde: ou les États et Empires de la Lune (Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon)
Christiaan Huygens – De ratiociniis in ludo aleae
Nihon Ōdai Ichiran (日本王代一覧, Table of the Rulers of Japan)
Paul Scarron – Roman comique (Comic romance, publication concluded)

Les Jeux et plaisirs de l'enfance^[5]

Anonymous – Lust's Dominion (published, falsely attributed in some impressions to Marlowe; probably by Dekker and others, written c.1600)
Richard Brome – The Queen's Exchange (published)
Sir Aston Cockayne – The Obstinate Lady (published)
- - Lodowick Carlell The Fool Would be a Favorite, or The Discreet Lover (published)
- The Tragedy of Osmond the Great Turk, or the Noble Servant (published)
George Gerbier d'Ouvilly – The False Favourite Disgraced, and the Reward of Loyalty (published)
Franciscus van den Enden – Philedonius
Andreas Gryphius – Katharina von Georgien
Thomas Jordan – Fancy's Festivals (masque) (published)
Thomas Middleton (died 1627)
- No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's (published)
- Two New Plays; first publication of Women Beware Women and More Dissemblers Besides Women

February 11 – Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle French author (died 1757)
March 24 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese scholar-bureaucrat and writer (died 1725)
November 26 – William Derham, English natural philosopher and cleric (died 1735)
unknown date – Matthew Tindal, English deist writer (died 1733)

March 7 – Hayashi Razan (林羅山), Japanese philosopher (born 1583)
April ? – Richard Lovelace, English Cavalier poet (born 1617)^[6] ^[7]
August 29 – John Lilburne, English writer and agitator (born c. 1614)^[8]
November 18 – Luke Wadding, Irish historian (born 1588)
November 19 – Théodore Tronchin, Swiss theologian (born 1582)
unknown dates
- Junije Palmotić, Ragusan (Dubrovnik) dramatist and poet (born c. 1606)
- Thomas Tuke, English controversialist and cleric (born c. 1580)
probable – Thomas Bayly, English religious controversialist (born early 17th century)^[9]

Book: Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné. Lettres de Madame de Sévigné. 1823. Dalibon. 128. fr.
Book: Samuel L. Leiter. Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre. 30 October 2014. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 978-1-4422-3911-1. 23–.
Book: Deborah W. Rooke. Handel's Israelite Oratorio Libretti: Sacred Drama and Biblical Exegesis. 23 February 2012. OUP Oxford. 978-0-19-927928-9. 54.
A. G. Keller, "Haak, Theodore (1605–1690)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, OUP 2004)Retrieved 25 July 2017
Children's Book Gallery Retrieved 11 April 2016.
Book: Brinkley, Roberta Florence. English Poetry of the Seventeenth Century. 1942. Norton. 462.
Web site: Richard Lovelace. Find A Grave. 2005-10-14. 2021-04-17.
Book: Anthony à Wood. Athenae Oxonienses: An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who Have Had Their Education in the University of Oxford. To which are Added the Fasti, Or Annals of the Said University. 1817. Rivington. 357.
Book: Charles George Herbermann. Edward Aloysius Pace. Condé Bénoist Pallen. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church. 1912. Robert Appleton Company.