1648 in literature

See also: 1647 in literature, other events of 1648, 1649 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Richard Lovelace, Royalist poet, is imprisoned for opposition to Parliament.
• René Descartes meets Frans Burman, resulting in the Conversation with Burman.
• During the siege of Colchester, the cannon, Humpty Dumpty, is blown off the walls, inspiring the nursery rhyme.
• Robert Boyle writes Seraphic Love, his first important work, which will not be published until 1660.
• Ill-health forces Pierre Gassendi to give up lecturing at the Collège Royal.
• Richard Flecknoe travels to Brazil.
• Edward Pococke becomes Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford, but Obadiah Walker loses his academic post.
• Richard Crashaw, exiled in Paris, publishes two hymns in Latin.

New Books

• Freeholders Grand Inquest touching our Sovereign Lord the King and his Parliament – Robert Filmer
• The Amorous War – Jasper Mayne
• Hesperides – Robert Herrick (poet)

Births

• January 1 – Elkanah Settle, poet and dramatist
• exact date unknown – Gaspard Abeille, poet

Deaths

• February 2 – George Abbot, Puritan writer
• March 12 – Tirso de Molina, dramatist
• May 26 – Vincent Voiture, poet
• September 1 – Marin Mersenne, theologian and philosopher