1615 in literature

The year 1615 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• January 6 - Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace.
• January 13 - William Browne's masque Circe and Ulysses is staged at the Inner Temple.
• In England, the Archbishop of Canterbury imposes a year’s imprisonment for publishing Bibles without including the Apocrypha.
• Pierre Dupuy is commissioned by Mathieu Molé, 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 I and Prince Charles visit Cambridge University, the first royal visit to the university since the progress of Queen Elizabeth I in 1564. The University stages entertainments that include performances of Cecil's Aemilia (March 7), Ruggle's Ignoramus (March 8), Tomkis's 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 Cervantes - Don Quixote, Part 2
• Johannes Valentinus Andreae - Confessio oder Bekenntnis der Societät und Bruderschaft Rosenkreuz
• Antoine de Montchrestien - Traité de l'économie politique
• Joseph Swetnam - 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 (masque)
• Edward Cecil - Aemilia (in Latin)
• Phineas Fletcher - Sicelides, a Piscatory
• Thomas Heywood - The Four Prentices of London published
• Ben Jonson - Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists
• Anthony Munday - Metropolis Coronata
• George Ruggle - Ignoramus (in Latin)
• Thomas Tomkis - Albumazar

Poetry

Births

• March 23 - Ferrante Pallavicino, satirist (died 1644)
• November 12 - Richard Baxter, religious leader and writer (died 1691)
• date unknown
  • Laurence Clarkson, Protestant pamphleteer (died 1667)
  • John Denham, poet (died 1669)
  • Gabriel Cossart, French historian (died 1674)
  • Adam Gdacjusz, Polish writer and preacher (died 1688)
  • Tanneguy Lefebvre, classicist (died 1672)
  • Salvator Rosa, Italian painter and poet (died 1673)

Deaths

• July 10 - Henry Neville, diplomat (credited by some with the authorship of William Shakespeare's plays) (born 1562)
• September 1 - Étienne Pasquier, historian (born 1529)
• date unknown
  • Arthur Agarde, English antiquary (born 1540)
  • Robert Armin, English actor and dramatist (born c. 1563)
  • Gabriel Lobo Lasso de la Vega, Castilian poet, dramatist and historian (born 1555)
  • Giambattista della Porta, polymath (born c. 1535)