1600 to 1699: Cinna to Polyeucte

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Corneille. French. 1640. Play. Cinna. Augustus must choose between justice or mercy for the plotters against him. He decides on mercy.

Calderon. Spanish. 1640. Play. El Alcald de Zalamea. Captain violates the host’s daughter and refuses to marry her. Does not believe that he has to answer to commoners for his conduct. Her father has him committed to prison where he is strangled. King agrees that justice has been done and makes her father permanent mayor of the town. Protest against capricious despotic feudal nobility.

Corneille. French. 1640. Play. Horace. Horace kills Curiace, his sister’s betrothed. She swears revenge. He kills her too. Horace is pardoned. Horace represents Rome. Curiace represents Alba (Scotland). Purpose of the combat was to decide a war between the cities.

Richard Mather, et al. American. 1641. Poetry. Bay Psalm Book. Translation of the biblical psalms. First bound book printed in the English colonies.

Corneille. French. 1641. Play. Polyeucte. Armenia in the early Christian era. Newly baptized Christian reviles pagans and is imprisoned. His martyrdom subsequently stimulates conversions of his wife Pauline and his father-in-law, Felix.