The year 1650 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• Blaise Pascal's poor health forces him to retire from the study of mathematics.
• Parliament appoints a commission for the propagation and preaching of the gospel in Wales, advised by Vavasor Powell.
• Despite the official prohibition against stage plays, theatrical manager and promoter William Beeston finances repairs to the Cockpit Theatre and attempts to assemble and train a company of young actors. His effort is unsuccessful.
• Plagiarist Robert Baron publishes his Pocula Castalia, stealing mainly from the minor poems of John Milton issued in 1645.

New books

• Richard Flecknoe - The Idea of His Highness Oliver ...
• George Walker - Anglo-Tyrannus

New drama

• François le Métel de Boisrobert - La Jalouse d'elle-même
• Abraham Cowley - The Guardian

Poetry

• Anne Bradstreet - The Tenth Muse
• Henry Vaughan - Silex scintillans (part 1)

Births

• July - Charles Leslie, theologian (died 1722)
• September 23 - Bishop Jeremy Collier, theologian and theatre critic (died 1726)
• date unknown
• Madame d'Aulnoy, writer of fairy tales (died 1705)
• Carlo Alessandro Guidi, Italian lyric poet (died 1712)
• Henry Scougal, Scottish theologian (died 1678)
• probable - Richard Blackmore, epic poet (died 1729)

Deaths

• February 11 - René Descartes, philosopher (born 1596)
• April 22 - Stephanius, Danish royal historiographer (born 1599)
• June - Jean Rotrou, French poet and dramatist (born 1609)
• June 30 - Niccolo Cabeo, Jesuit philosopher (born 1586)
• August 25 - Richard Crashaw, poet (born c.1613)
• September 17 - Constantino Cajetan, Benedictine scholar and book collector (born 1560)
• October 25 - Franciscus Quaresmius, Milanese Franciscan writer (born 1583)
• November 13 - Thomas May, poet and historian (born 1595)
• December 28 - Bartol Kašić, Croatian linguist and grammarian (born 1575)
• date unknown
• Anthony Ascham, political theorist (born c. 1614)
• İbrahim Peçevi, Ottoman historian (born 1572)
• Tukaram, Hindu poet