1657 in literature

Events

• January – Madame de la Fayette returns to Paris, where she is introduced to, and becomes friends with, Madame de Sévigné.
• March 2 – The Great Fire of Meireki in Edo, Japan, burns down the city's theatres, forcing actors to move to Osaka.

  New books

Prose

• "William Allen" – Killing No Murder
• Cave Beck – The Universal Character
• Theodore Haak – The Dutch Annotations Upon the Whole Bible
• Li Yu – The Carnal Prayer Mat
• Richard Ligon – A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes
• Jeremy Taylor – Discourse of the Nature, Offices and Measures of Friendship
• Brian Walton, Bishop of Chester – Polyglot Bible
• Baltasar Gracián – El criticón
• François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac – Pratique du théâtre
• Cyrano de Bergerac – L'Autre Monde: ou les États et Empires de la Lune
• Christiaan Huygens – De ratiociniis in ludo aleae
• Nihon Ōdai Ichiran
• Paul Scarron – Roman comique

  Children

Drama

• Anonymous – Lust's Dominion
• Richard Brome – The Queen's Exchange
• Sir Aston Cockayne – The Obstinate Lady
• Lodowick Carlell
• *The Fool Would be a Favorite, or The Discreet Lover
• *The Tragedy of Osmond the Great Turk, or the Noble Servant
• George Gerbier d'Ouvilly – The False Favourite Disgraced, and the Reward of Loyalty
• Franciscus van den Enden – Philedonius
• Andreas Gryphius – Katharina von Georgien
• Thomas Jordan – Fancy's Festivals
• Thomas Middleton
• *No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's
• *Two New Plays; first publication of Women Beware Women and More Dissemblers Besides Women

  Poetry

• William Davenant – Poems on Several Occasions
• Angelus Silesius – Heilige Seelenlust

  Births

• February 11 – Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle French author
• March 24 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese scholar-bureaucrat and writer
• November 26 – William Derham, English natural philosopher and cleric
• unknown date – Matthew Tindal, English deist writer

  Deaths

• March 7 – Hayashi Razan, Japanese philosopher
• August 29 – John Lilburne, English writer and agitator
• November 18 – Luke Wadding, Irish historian
• November 19 – Théodore Tronchin, Swiss theologian
• unknown dates
• *Richard Lovelace, English Cavalier poet
• *Junije Palmotić, Ragusan dramatist and poet
• *Thomas Tuke, English controversialist and cleric
• probable – Thomas Bayly, English religious controversialist