1661 in literature

The year 1661 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• The Book of Kells is presented to Trinity College, Dublin.
• Controversial author James Harrington is arrested on a charge of conspiracy.
• John Gauden claims authorship of Eikon Basilike.
• Third edition of Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler.
• Sir William Davenant's troupe of actors, the Duke's Company, moves from the Salisbury Court Theatre to the theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields, where they are joined by Thomas Betterton. On August 24, Samuel Pepys sees their new production of Hamlet, with the innovation of stage scenery; he praises Betterton's Hamlet as "beyond imagination."
• The trend toward closet drama (often highly politicized), which distinguished the English Civil War and Interregnum periods, does not immediately end once the theatres re-open with the Restoration — as the publication of Hell's High Court of Justice (below) illustrates.
• Abraham Cowley's pamphlet The Advancement of Experimental Philosophy helps to inspire the foundation of the Royal Society.

New books

• Robert Boyle - The Sceptical Chymist
• Abraham Cowley - The Advancement of Experimental Philosophy
• Sir Robert Dudley - Dell'Arcano del Mare
• John Evelyn - Tyrannus, or The Mode
• Marchmont Nedham - A Short History of the English Rebellion

New drama

• Anonymous ("J. D.") - Hell's High Court of Justice, or the Trial of the Three Politic Ghosts, viz. Oliver Cromwell, the King of Sweden, and Cardinal Mazarin (published)
• George Cartwright - The Heroic Lover, or the Infanta of Spain (published)
• Abraham Cowley - The Cutter of Coleman Street
• Robert Davenport - The City Nightcap (published)
• Richard Flecknoe - Erminia, or the Fair and Virtuous Lady (published)
• John Fountain - The Rewards of Virtue (published)
• Thomas Fuller - Andronicus (published)
• Thomas Middleton - Hengist, King of Kent (published)
• Molière - Dom Garcie de Navarre, ou le Prince jaloux
• John Webster & William Rowley - A Cure for a Cuckold (published)
• William Rowley & Thomas Heywood (?) - The Thracian Wonder (published; misattributed to Webster and Rowley)

Births

• January 30 - Charles Rollin (died 1741)
• April 16 - Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (died 1715)
• May 25 - Claude Buffier (died 1737)
• November 1 - Florent Carton Dancourt (died 1725)
• November 15 - Christoph von Graffenried (died 1743)
• date unknown
  • William Cleland (died 1689)
  • Thomas Knaggs (died 1724)

Deaths

• March 30 - François le Métel de Boisrobert (born 1592)
• October 4 - Jacqueline Pascal (born 1625)
• November 29 - Brian Walton (born 1600)
• December 29 - Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant (born 1594)
• date unknown - Jin Shengtan (born 1608)