1664 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1664. Events February – London publisher John Twyn is hanged, drawn and quartered, having been convicted of treason for distributing seditious literature. April 6 – Moses ben Isaac Bonems is the first signatory of the approbations to works given by the members of the Council of Four Lands at the Gramnitza (candlestick) fair. May 12 – Molière's comedy Tartuffe is performed in its original version as part of "The Pleasures of the Enchanted Island" at the court of King Louis XIV of France to mark the start of construction of the Palace of Versailles, but objections to its presentation of a hypocritical religious impostor ban it from later public presentation. June – Gazzetta di Mantova is first published in Mantua, Italy. By 2009 it will be the world's oldest private newspaper still published, and the oldest one continuously published in print. June 20 – Racine's tragedy La Thébaïde receives its first performance, by Molière's troupe at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal (rue Saint-Honoré) in Paris. October – Thomas Killigrew and the King's Company stage Killigrew's The Parson's Wedding with an all-female cast. (Killigrew attempts a similar all-female production of his play Thomaso, although this is never achieved.) November 5 – Sir William Davenant's "dramatic opera" Macbeth, adapted from Shakespeare's play, is performed for the first time. New books Prose Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle – Sociable Letters Philosophical Letters René Descartes – Traité de l'homme et de la formation du foetus John Evelyn – Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber Richard Flecknoe – A Discourse of the English Stage John Heydon Psonthonpanchia Theomagia, Part 3 Lucy Hutchinson – Memoirs Of The Life Of Colonel Hutchinson Jeremy Taylor – Dissuasive from Popery Izaak Walton – The Compleat Angler, 3rd edition Francisco Manuel de Melo – Obras morales