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
Drama Antony Brewer – The Lovesick King Lodowick Carlell – The Passionate Lovers, Parts 1 and 2 Robert Daborne – The Poor Man's Comfort Robert Davenport – King John and Matilda Thomas Heywood and William Rowley – Fortune by Land and Sea Philip Massinger – Three New Plays, a collection that included The Guardian, The Bashful Lover, and (with John Fletcher) A Very Woman James Shirley The Gentleman of Venice The Politician Jeremy Taylor –
Poetry Henry Vaughan – Silex Scintillans (part 2)
Births January 1 – Christian Thomasius, German philosopher (died 1728) February 7 – Jean-François Regnard, French dramatist and diarist (died 1709) February 28 – Johann Beer, Austrian author, court official and composer (died 1700) c. November – Jacob Tonson, English bookseller and publisher (died 1736) unknown date – Lin Yining (林以寧), Chinese poet (died c. 1730)
Deaths February 25 – Daniel Heinsius, Dutch poet (born 1580) May 8 – Edward Winslow, English theologian, pamphleteer and New England politician (born 1595) July 28 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist (born 1619) September 7 – François Tristan l'Hermite, French dramatist (born c. 1601) October 24 – Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher (born 1592) probable – John Reynolds, English poet, story-writer and pamphleteer (born c. 1588)
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