List of years in literature (Table)
… 1636 • 1637 • 1638 • 1639 • 1640 • 1641 • 1642 •    1643 • 1644 • 1645 – 1646 – 1647 • 1648 • 1649 •    1650 • 1651 • 1652 • 1653 • 1654 • 1655 • 1656 …
Related time period or subjects
… 1643 • 1644 • 1645 – 1646 – 1647 • 1648 • 1649 … … 1610s • 1620s • 1630s – 1640s – 1650s • 1660s • 1670s … … 16th century – 17th century – 18th century …
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The year 1646 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• John Lilburne is placed in the Tower of London for denouncing his former commander the Earl of Manchester as a traitor.
• Jacqueline Pascal is converted to Jansenism by her brother, Blaise Pascal.
• The London theatres officially remain closed through the middle 1640s. Yet on March 24, the King's Men petition Parliament for three and a half years' back pay. Unfortunately, no details about their activities in these years survive.
• Martin Llewellyn's drama The King Found at Southwell is performed at Oxford on May 5; it is the last stage piece presented in the city before its surrender to Parliamentary forces in the English Civil War, June 22-4.

New books

• Anonymous (John Lilburne?) - London's Liberty in Chains Discovered
• Anonymous (John Lilburne?) - Vox Plebis, or the People's Outcry
• Sir Thomas Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors
• Thomas Fuller - Andronicus or the Unfortunate Politician
• Sir John Suckling - An Account of Religion by Reason published

Published plays

• James Shirley - The Triumph of Beauty (masque)
• Sir John Suckling - Fragmenta Aurea, collected plays, including The Sad One (unfinished)

Poetry

• Richard Crashaw - Steps to the Temple
• Martin Lluelyn - Men-Miracles
• John Milton - Poems
• Francis Quarles - The Shepherds' Oracle
• James Shirley - Poems
• Henry Vaughan - Poems, with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished

Births

• July 1 - Gottfried Leibniz, philosopher (died 1716)

Deaths

• August 19 - Alexander Henderson (theologian) (died c.1583)
• December 23 - François Maynard, poet (died c.1582)