1631 in literature

	… 1621; 1622; 1623; 1624; 1625; 1626; 1627; ; 1628; 1629; 1630; 1631; 1632; 1633; 1634; ; 1635; 1636; 1637; 1638; 1639; 1640; 1641 …;
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This article is a summary of the literary events and publications of 1631.

Events

January 9 – Love's Triumph Through Callipolis, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is staged at Whitehall Palace.
January 11 – The Master of the Revels in England refuses to license Philip Massinger's new play, Believe as You List, because of its seditious content; it is first performed in a revised version on May 7.
February 5 – Puritan minister and theologian Roger Williams emigrates from England to Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
February 22 – Chloridia, the year's second Jonson/Jones masque, is performed.
June 10 – The King's Men perform Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c.1607/8) at the Globe Theatre.
The young Blaise Pascal moves with his family to Paris.^[1]
Thomas Hobbes is employed as a tutor by the Cavendish family, to teach the future Earl of Devonshire.^[2]
Publication of the "Wicked Bible" by Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the royal printers in London, an edition of the King James Version of the Bible in which a typesetting erratum leaves the seventh of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:14) with the word not omitted from the sentence "Thou shalt not commit adultery". Copies are withdrawn and about a year later the publishers are called to the Star Chamber, fined £300 and have their licence to print revoked.

Johann Philipp Abelin – Arma Suecica, volume 1
Moses Amyraut – Traité des religions
Collected works of Jacobus Arminius published posthumously in Frankfurt
Robert Fludd – Medicina Catholica (Volume 2)
Thomas Harriot – Artis analyticae praxis
James Mabbe – Celestina, or the Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea, a 300-page closet drama or "novel in dialogue," translated from the Spanish-language original of Fernando de Rojas, La Celestina (1499)
Wicked Bible, a reprint of the King James Bible notable for typographical errors
William Oughtred – Clavis mathematicae

Anonymous – Fair Em published
George Chapman – Caesar and Pompey published
Henry Chettle – Hoffman published
Lope de Vega
- Punishment without Revenge (El castigo sin venganza)
- La noche de San Juan
Thomas Goffe – The Raging Turk published
Peter Hausted – Senile Odium
Thomas Heywood – The Fair Maid of the West, Parts 1 and 2 (published; probably performed in the previous year)^[3]
Ben Jonson
- Chloridia (masque)
- Love's Triumph Through Callipolis (masque)
Ralph Knevet – Rhodon and Iris (masque)
James Mabbe – The Spanish Bawd published
Jean Mairet – La Silvanire, ou la Morte-vive
Shackerley Marmion – Holland's Leaguer runs for a highly unusual six straight performances
John Marston, with William Barkstead & Lewis Machin (?) – The Insatiate Countess published
Philip Massinger
- Believe as You List
- The Emperor of the East
Thomas May – Antigone, the Theban Princess published
Jean Rotrou – L'Hypocondriaque
James Shirley
- The Traitor
- Love's Cruelty
- The Humorous Courtier
- Love Tricks published as The School of Compliment
Aurelian Townshend – Albion's Triumph (masque)
Robert Ward (?) – Fucus Histriomastix
Arthur Wilson – The Swisser
Richard Zouche – The Sophister

January 1 – Katharine Philips (Orinda), English poet (died 1664)
February 22 – Peder Syv, Danish philologist, folklorist and priest (died 1702)
March 16 – René Le Bossu, French critic (died 1680)
April – John Phillips, English satirist and nephew of John Milton (died 1706)^[4]
July 15 – Richard Cumberland, English philosopher (died 1718)
August 9 – John Dryden, English poet and dramatist (died 1700)
October 18 – Michael Wigglesworth, English-born American poet and minister (died 1705)
Unknown date – John Barret, English religious writer and Presbyterian minister (died 1713)

February 7 – Gabriel Harvey, English poet and author (born c. 1545)
March 31 – John Donne, English poet and Dean of St Paul's (born 1572)
May 6 – Robert Bruce Cotton, English antiquary and founder of Cotton Library (born 1570)
May 25 – Samuel Harsnett, English religious writer and archbishop (born 1561)
May 26 – Enrico Caterino Davila, Italian historian, murdered (born 1576)
July 28 – Guillén de Castro y Bellvis, Spanish dramatist (born 1569)^[5]
September 22 – Cardinal Federico Borromeo, Italian archbishop and founder of Biblioteca Ambrosiana (born 1564)
October 26
- Lewis Bayly, Welsh or Scottish-born religious writer and bishop writing in English (unknown year of birth)
- Catherine de Parthenay, Viscountess and Princess of Rohan, French Huguenot noblewoman, mathematician, poet, playwright and translator (born 1554)
November 29 – Edmond Richer, French theologian (born 1559)
December 23 – Michael Drayton, English poet (born 1563)

^ O'Connor, J. J.; Robertson, E. F. (August 2006). "Étienne Pascal". University of St Andrews. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
^ O'Connor, J. J.; Robertson, E. F. (November 2002). "Thomas Hobbes". University of St Andrews. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
^ Thomas Heywood, The Fair Maid of the West Parts I and II, edited by Robert K. Turner Jr.; Regents Renaissance Drama series, Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1967.
^ Barbara K. Lewalski (15 April 2008). The Life of John Milton: A Critical Biography. John Wiley & Sons. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-470-77684-1.
^ Merimee, Ernest (8 May 2018). Revival: A History of Spanish Literature (1930). Routledge. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-351-34931-4.