1615 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1615 in literature involved some significant events.
Events
- January 6 - Mercury Vindicated from the AlchemistsMercury Vindicated from the AlchemistsMercury Vindicated from the Alchemists at Court is a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. It was performed at Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1615...
, a masqueMasqueThe masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
written by Ben JonsonBen JonsonBenjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
and designed by Inigo JonesInigo JonesInigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...
, is performed at Whitehall Palace. - January 13 - William Browne's masqueMasqueThe masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
Circe and Ulysses is staged at the Inner TempleInner TempleThe Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
. - In England, the Archbishop of Canterbury imposes a year’s imprisonment for publishing BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
s without including the ApocryphaApocryphaThe term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", ancient Chinese "revealed texts and objects" and "Christian texts that are not canonical"....
. - Pierre Dupuy is commissioned by Mathieu MoléMathieu MoléMathieu Molé was a French statesman.The son of Edouard Molé , who was for a time procureur-general, he was educated at the University of Orléans...
, first president of the parlement of Paris, to draw up an inventory of the documents known as the Trésor des diaries. - March 7-March 11 King James IJames I of EnglandJames VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
and Prince CharlesCharles I of EnglandCharles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
visit Cambridge UniversityUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, the first royal visit to the university since the progress of Queen Elizabeth IElizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in 1564. The University stages entertainments that include performances of Cecil's Aemilia (March 7), Ruggle's IgnoramusIgnoramus (drama)Ignoramus is a college farce, a 1615 academic play by George Ruggle. Written in Latin , it was arguably the most famous and influential academic play of English Renaissance drama...
(March 8), Tomkis'sThomas TomkinsThomas Tomkins was an English composer of the late Tudor and early Stuart period. In addition to being one of the prominent members of the English madrigal school, he was a skilled composer of keyboard and consort music, and the last member of the English virginalist school.-Life:Tomkins was born...
Albumazar (March 9), and Brooke's Melanthe (March 10). The royals leave Cambridge prior to the premiere of Fletcher's Sicelides (March 13). King James enjoys Ignoramus so much that he returns to Cambridge in May to see it again.
New books
- Miguel de CervantesMiguel de CervantesMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
- Don Quixote, Part 2 - Johannes Valentinus AndreaeJohannes Valentinus AndreaeJohannes Valentinus Andreae , a.k.a. Johannes Valentinus Andreä or Johann Valentin Andreae, was a German theologian, who claimed to be the author of the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459 one of the three founding works of...
- Confessio oder Bekenntnis der Societät und Bruderschaft Rosenkreuz - Antoine de MontchrestienAntoine de MontchrestienAntoine de Montchrestien was a French soldier, dramatist, adventurer and economist.Montchrestien was born in Falaise, Normandy...
- Traité de l'économie politique - Joseph SwetnamJoseph SwetnamJoseph Swetnam was a Renaissance author and Jacobean fencing master, author of the first complete English fencing treatise.- The Pamphlet Wars :...
- The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women
New drama
- "R. A." (Robert Anton?) - The Valiant Welshman published
- Samuel Brooke - Melanthe (in Latin)
- William Browne - Circe and Ulysses (masqueMasqueThe masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
) - Edward Cecil - Aemilia (in Latin)
- Phineas FletcherPhineas FletcherPhineas Fletcher was an English poet, elder son of Dr Giles Fletcher, and brother of Giles the younger. He was born at Cranbrook, Kent, and was baptized on 8 April 1582.-Life:...
- Sicelides, a Piscatory - Thomas HeywoodThomas HeywoodThomas Heywood was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre.-Early years:...
- The Four Prentices of LondonThe Four Prentises of LondonThe Four Prentices of London is an Elizabethan play by English Renaissance playwright Thomas Heywood, thought to have originated c. 1592.The play is known to have been acted by the Admiral's Men on July 19, 1594...
published - Ben JonsonBen JonsonBenjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
- Mercury Vindicated from the AlchemistsMercury Vindicated from the AlchemistsMercury Vindicated from the Alchemists at Court is a Jacobean era masque, written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones. It was performed at Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1615... - Anthony MundayAnthony MundayAnthony Munday was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. The chief interest in Munday for the modern reader lies in his collaboration with Shakespeare and others on the play Sir Thomas More and his writings on Robin Hood.-Biography:He was once thought to have been born in 1553, because...
- Metropolis Coronata - George Ruggle - IgnoramusIgnoramus (drama)Ignoramus is a college farce, a 1615 academic play by George Ruggle. Written in Latin , it was arguably the most famous and influential academic play of English Renaissance drama...
(in Latin) - Thomas TomkisThomas TomkisThomas Tomkis was an English playwright of the late Elizabethan and the Jacobean eras, and arguably one of the more cryptic figures of English Renaissance drama....
- AlbumazarAlbumazar (play)Albumazar is a Jacobean era play, a comedy written by Thomas Tomkis that was performed and published in 1615.-Productions:The play was specially commissioned by Trinity College, Cambridge to entertain King James I during his 1615 visit to the University...
Births
- March 23 - Ferrante PallavicinoFerrante PallavicinoFerrante Pallavicino was an Italian writer of lampoons and satires which, according to Edward Muir, "were so popular that booksellers and printers bought them from him at a premium." Pallavicino's scandalous satires, which cost him his head at the age of twenty-eight, were all published under...
, satirist (died 1644) - November 12 - Richard BaxterRichard BaxterRichard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...
, religious leader and writer (died 1691) - date unknown
- Laurence ClarksonLaurence ClarksonLaurence Clarkson , sometimes called Claxton, was an English theologian and accused heretic. He was the most outspoken and notorious of the loose collection of radical Protestants known as the Ranters....
, Protestant pamphleteer (died 1667) - John DenhamJohn Denham (poet)Sir John Denham was an English poet and courtier. He served as Surveyor of the King's Works and is buried in Westminster Abbey....
, poet (died 1669) - Gabriel CossartGabriel CossartGabriel Cossart was a French Jesuit, known as a historian. He taught rhetoric at the College de Clermont. He was a librarian there, described as “worldly-wise”, and a promoter of the careers of his students. As a scholar he collaborated with Philippe Labbe.He engaged in controversy over Petrus...
, French historian (died 1674) - Adam GdacjuszAdam GdacjuszAdam Gdacjusz or Gdacius or Gdak, also called Rey of Silesia was a Polish-language writer and a Lutheran pastor at the Wilna church and since 1644 was a deacon and, later, a parish priest in the Silesian town of Kreuzburg , where he was born...
, Polish writer and preacher (died 1688) - Tanneguy LefebvreTanneguy LefebvreTanneguy Le Fèvre was a French classical scholar.He was born at Caen. After completing his studies in Paris, he was appointed by Cardinal Richelieu inspector of the printing-press at the Louvre...
, classicist (died 1672) - Salvator RosaSalvator RosaSalvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic.-Early life:...
, Italian painter and poet (died 1673)
- Laurence Clarkson
Deaths
- July 10 - Henry Neville, diplomat (credited by some with the authorship of William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's plays) (born 1562) - September 1 - Étienne PasquierÉtienne PasquierÉtienne Pasquier , French lawyer and man of letters, was born at Paris, on 7 June 1529 by his own account, according to others a year earlier. He was called to the Paris bar in 1549....
, historian (born 1529) - date unknown
- Arthur AgardeArthur AgardeArthur Agarde was an English antiquary. He was born in Foston, Derbyshire. Agarde was trained as a lawyer, but entered the exchequer as a clerk....
, English antiquary (born 1540) - Robert ArminRobert ArminRobert Armin was an English actor, a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He became the leading comedy actor with the troupe associated with William Shakespeare following the departure of Will Kempe around 1600...
, English actor and dramatist (born c. 1563) - Gabriel Lobo Lasso de la VegaGabriel Lobo Lasso de la VegaGabriel Lobo Lasso de la Vega was a Castilian poet, playwright, and historian of the Spanish Golden Age.De la Vega came from a minor noble family, the Counts of Puertollano. He studied under the epic poet Alonso de Ercilla from 1571 to 1572. He was a king's guardsman under Philip II and Philip III...
, Castilian poet, dramatist and historian (born 1555) - Giambattista della PortaGiambattista della PortaGiambattista della Porta , also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta and John Baptist Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation....
, polymath (born c1535)
- Arthur Agarde