1655 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1655. Events February 24 – The English playwright Thomas Porter abducts his future bride Anne Blount. March 26 – The playwright Thomas Porter kills a soldier named Thomas Salkeld in Covent Garden, probably in a duel, is consequently tried for murder, pleads guilty to manslaughter, is allowed benefit of clergy, and is sentenced to be burned in the hand. May–October – Church of England clergyman Jeremy Taylor is imprisoned at Chepstow Castle for an injudicious preface to his popular manual of devotion, , published this year. August 6 – The Blackfriars Theatre in London is demolished. October 29 – To celebrate Lord Mayor's Day, Edmund Gayton's pageant Charity Triumphant or the Virgin Show is staged in London; it is the first City pageant in fifteen years. New books Prose John Bramhall – Defense of True Liberty (Anglican divine begins exchange of treatises with Thomas Hobbes) Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle – The World's Olio Nicholas Culpeper – Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick Thomas Fuller – The Church History of Britain John Heydon – Eugenius Theodidacticus Michel Millot and Jean L'Ange (attributed) – L'Escole des filles William Prynne A New Discovery of Free-State Tyranny The Quakers Unmasked Thomas Stanley – History of Philosophy John Wallis – (attack on the works of Thomas Hobbes) Izaak Walton – The Compleat Angler (2nd edition) Baltasar Gracián – El comulgatorio Francisco de Quevedo – Política de Dios y gobierno de Cristo (second part) Diego de Saavedra Fajardo – Juicio de artes y ciencias