1653 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1653. Events January 17 – John Evelyn begins to set out gardens at Sayes Court, Deptford, the house he has recently bought. March 26 – James Shirley's masque Cupid and Death is performed before the Portuguese ambassador in London. June – English actor Robert Cox is arrested at the Red Bull Theatre in London for performing a "droll" deemed to be a play (prohibited during the English Interregnum). September 9 – London publisher Humphrey Moseley enters into the Stationers' Register the plays The History of Cardenio (1613), attributed posthumously to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, and Henry I (1624) and Henry II, attributed to Shakespeare and Robert Davenport; none survive. Pastor Daniel Klein's Grammatica Litvanica, the first printed prescriptive grammar of the Lithuanian language, is published in Latin by Johann Reusner in Königsberg, Duchy of Prussia, introducing the distinctive Lithuanian letter Ė. New books Prose Ralph Austen – A Treatise on Fruit-trees, showing the manner of grafting, setting, pruning, and ordering of them in all respects Baltasar Gracián – El criticón (second part) Blaise Pascal – Traité du triangle arithmétique Jeremy Taylor – Twenty-five Sermons Sir Thomas Urquhart First English translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel, Books I and II Logopandecteision Izaak Walton -The Compleat Angler Arthur Wilson – The History of Great Britain, being the Life and Reign of King James I