17th century in literature

New books and plays

1600

• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare
• England's Helicon (anthology) – including work by Edmund Spenser, Michael Drayton, Thomas Lodge, Philip Sidney and others
• Old Fortunatus – Thomas Dekker
• The Spanish Moor's Tragedy – Thomas Dekker, John Marston, and William Haughton

1601

• Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare
• Cynthia's Revels – Ben Jonson
• Disputationes Metaphysicae by Francisco Suárez first published
• Satiromastix – Thomas Dekker

1602

• Rymes by Lope de Vega
• Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
• Antonio and Mellida (play) – John Marston
• Mirum in Modum (poetry) – John Davies of Hereford
• Satiromastix (play) – Thomas Dekker and John Marston
• A Survey of Cornwall – Richard Carew

1603

• The True Law of Free Monarchies by King James VI and I
• Ane Godlie Dreame (poem) by Elizabeth Melville published in Edinburgh
• Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
• Othello by William Shakespeare
• The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (published)

1604

• All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare
• The Honest Whore (play) – Thomas Dekker
• The Malcontent (play) – John Marston

1605

• Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
• The Dutch Courtesan (play) – John Marston
• The Tragedy of Philotas (play) – Samuel Daniel
• The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare
• Don Quixote (El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha), Part I – Miguel de Cervantes
• Epistle concerning the Excellencies of the English Tongue – Richard Carew

1606

• Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

1607

• A Woman Killed with Kindness (play) – Thomas Heywood
• Bussy D'Ambois (play) – George Chapman
• Michaelmas Terme (play) – Thomas Middleton
• The Knight of the Burning Pestle (play) – Francis Beaumont
• The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt (play) – Thomas Dekker and John Webster
• The Legend of Great Cromwell – Michael Drayton
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre by William Shakespeare
• The Revenger's Tragedy by Thomas Middleton

1608

• Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
• A Nest of Ninnies – Robert Armin
• Humour out of Breathe (play) – John Day
• The Belman of London (play) – Thomas Dekker
• The Merry Devil of Edmonton (play) – anonymous; has been attributed to William Shakespeare, Michael Drayton and others.

1609

• The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
• Jerusalem Conquered (epic poem) by Lope de Vega
• Fourre Birds of Noahs Arke – Thomas Dekker

1610

• Sidereus Nuncius by Galileo Galilei
• Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
• The Faithful Shepherdess (play) – John Fletcher

1611

• Fuente Ovejuna (play) – Lope de Vega
• The Authorized Version (King James version) of the Bible
• The Tempest by William Shakespeare
• Catiline his Conspiracy (play) – Ben Jonson
• The Roaring Girle (play) – Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton

1612

• Four Soluloquies – Lope de Vega
• El comendador de Ocaña (Ocaña's mayor) – Lope de Vega
• A Woman is a Weather-Cocke – Nathan Field

1613

• Soledades – Luis de Góngora
• La dama boba (the fool lady) – Lope de Vega
• The Dog in the Manger (play) – Lope de Vega
• Henry VIII by William Shakespeare
• Tears on the Death of Moeliades – William Drummond of Hawthornden
• The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois – George Chapman
• Purchas, his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages – Samuel Purchas

1614

• Bartholomew Fair (play) – Ben Jonson
• La Lira by Giambattista Marino
• Fama fraternitatis Roseae Crucis oder Die Bruderschaft des Ordens der Rosenkreuzer – Johannes Valentinus Andreae

1615

• Don Quixote, Part II – Miguel de Cervantes
• El caballero de Olmedo (The knight from Olmedo) (play) – Lope de Vega
• Confessio oder Bekenntnis der Societät und Bruderschaft Rosenkreuz – Johannes Valentinus Andreae

1616

• Ben Jonson's Works
• The Whole Works of Homer – George Chapman
• Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz Anno 1459 – Johannes Valentinus Andreae
• Rollo, Duke of Normandy (also known as The Bloody Brother) (?1616–30?) – John Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Philip Massinger, George Chapman (The drinking song)

1617

• Warenar (play) by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
• A Faire Quarrell (play) – Thomas Middleton and William Rowley

1618

• History of Tythes – John Selden
• Amends for Ladies (play) – Nathan Field

1619

• A King and No King (play) – Beaumont and Fletcher
• The Maid's Tragedy (play) – Beaumont and Fletcher
• The Shoemaker's Holiday – Thomas Deloney
• The Custome of the Countrey – John Fletcher and Philip Massinger
• Reipublicae Christianopolitanae descriptio – Johannes Valentinus Andreae

1620

• Philaster – Beaumont and Fletcher

1621

• The Anatomy of Melancholy – Robert Burton
• Women Beware Women – Thomas Middleton
• El vergonzoso en palacio – Tirso de Molina
• The Countess of Montgomery's Urania – Lady Mary Wroth

1623

• The Heir (play) – Thomas May
• The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh – Francis Bacon
• The French Disease – Richard Brome
• The Beggar's Bush – John Fletcher
• El tejedor de Segovia – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón
• The Changeling – Thomas Middleton and William Rowley text

1623

• L'Adone by Giambattista Marino
• Love, honour and power (play) – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• The Duchess of Malfi – John Webster
• First Folio – William Shakespeare

1624

• Circe (poem) bu Lope de Vega
• Nero Caesar, or Monarchie Depraved – Edmund Bolton
• The Sun's Darling – John Ford

1625

• De jure belli ac pacis by Hugo Grotius
• Complete Essays – Francis Bacon
• Les Bergeries – Racan

1626

• El Buscón – Francisco de Quevedo

1627

• England's schim (play) – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• The Bataile of Agincourt – Michael Drayton
• First Steps up Parnassus – Michael Drayton

1628

• Microcosmographie – John Earle

1629

• The Roman Actor (play) – Philip Massinger
• La Dama Duende (play) – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• The Tragedy of Albovine (play) – William D'Avenant

1630

• The Conceited Pedlar – Thomas Randolph

1631

• The punishment without vengeance (play) – Lope de Vega

1632

• L'Allegro – John Milton
• La Dorotea – Lope de Vega
• The Fatal Dowry (play) – Nathan Field and Philip Massinger
• Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei
• The Muses' Looking-Glass by Thomas Randolph

1633

• A New Way to Pay Old Debts (play) – Philip Massinger
• Love's Sacrifice (play) – John Ford
• The Gamester (play) – James Shirley
• The Temple (poetry) – George Herbert

1634

• Tottenham Court (play) – Thomas Nabbes

1636

• Life is a dream (play) – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Le Cid (play) – Pierre Corneille

1637

• La Vega del Parnaso (Parnasos' river bank) – Lope de Vega
• Discourse on the Method – René Descartes

1638

• Two New Sciences by Galileo Galilei
• Alcione (play) – Pierre du Ryer

1639

• Argalus and Parthenia (play) – Henry Glapthorne
• The City Match – Jasper Mayne

1640

• Horace (play) – Pierre Corneille
• The Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in North America
• Joseph's partly-coloured Coat – Thomas Fuller

1641

• Meditations on First Philosophy – René Descartes
• Episcopacy by Divine Right – Joseph Hall
• The Cardinall (play) – James Shirley (first extant edition, 1652)
• A Joviall Crew (play) – Richard Brome (first extant edition, 1652)

1642

• September: Playhouses closed in England by government order.
• Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne
• Saul (play) by Pierre du Ryer

1644

• Principles of Philosophy – René Descartes
• Areopagitica by John Milton

1646

• Andronicus or the Unfortunate Politician – Thomas Fuller
• Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors – Sir Thomas Browne

1647

• Philosophical Poems – Henry More

1648

• The Amorous War – Jasper Mayne
• Hesperides by Robert Herrick (poet)
• Padmavati – Alaol (in Bengali)

1649

• Eikon Basilike – John Gauden

1650

• Silex scintillans – Henry Vaughan

1651

• El alcalde de Zalamea – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Leviathan – Thomas Hobbes
• Reliquiae Wottonianiae – Sir Henry Wotton (posthumous)
• Jeune Alcidiane – Marin le Roy de Gomberville

1652

• Brief Character of the Low Countries – Owen Feltham
• Theophilia or Love's Sacrifice (poetry) – Edward Benlowes
• The Cardinall (play) – James Shirley

1653

• A History of New England – Edward Johnson
• The Compleat Angler – Izaak Walton
• Poems and Fancies – Margaret Cavendish
• The Princess Cloria – Percy Herbert, 2nd Baron Powis

1654

• Lucifer (play) – Joost van den Vondel
• Parlhenissa, a novel – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery

1655

• L'Étourdi ou les Contretemps first play by Molière

1656

• El gran teatro del mundo (World's great theatre) (play) – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Nature's Pictures – Margaret Cavendish
• Oceana by James Harrington

1657

• Guárdate del agua mansa (Keep out from silent waters) – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Katharina von Georgien (play) by Andreas Gryphius

1658

• Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial – Sir Thomas Browne
• The Garden of Cyrus -Sir Thomas Browne

1659

• Sati Mayna O Lorchandrani – Alaol (in Bengali)
• Lucasta – Richard Lovelace (posthumous)
• Pharonnida – William Chamberlayne

1660

• Tohfa – Alaol (in Bengali)

1661

• Elementa jurisprudentiae universalis libri duo by Samuel von Pufendorf

1662

• A new edition of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England (this edition remains the officially authorised book to the present day).

1664

• La Thébaïde (play) – Jean Racine

1665

• Alexandre le Grand (Alexander the Great) (play) – Jean Racine
• Memoires of François Bassompierre (posthumous)
• Saptapaykar – Alaol (in Bengali)

1666

• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan

1667

• Paradise Lost by John Milton
• Andromaque by Jean Racine
• Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders 1666 – John Dryden
• Secret Love (play) – John Dryden

1668

• Le Tartuffe – Molière
• The Miser – Molière
• Simplicius Simplicissimus – Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen
• Cyprianus Anglicanus – Peter Heylin
• Essay of Dramatick Poesie – John Dryden
• Observations upon Experimental Philosophy – Margaret Cavendish

1669

• Saifulmuluk O Badiujjamal – Alaol (in Bengali)

1670

• Pensées by Blaise Pascal
• The Conquest of Granada – John Dryden

1671

• Madame de Sévigné writes her first letter
• Samson Agonistes – John Milton
• The Rehearsal (play) – George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham performed
• Sikandarnama – Alaol (in Bengali)

1672

• Bajacet (play) by Jean Racine
• Marriage à la mode by John Dryden
• The Rehearsal (play) by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham published

1674

• Iphigénie (play) by Jean Racine
• The Tragedy of Nero, Emperour of Rome (play) – Nathaniel Lee

1675

• The Country Wife by William Wycherley
• Gerania; a New Discovery of a Little Sort of People, anciently discoursed of, called Pygmies by Joshua Barnes

1676

• The Man of Mode (play) – George Etherege
• English-Adventures by a Person of Honor – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery

1677

• Phèdre – Jean Racine
• Treatise of the Art of War – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery

1678

• All for Love – John Dryden
• The True Intellectual System of the Universe – Ralph Cudworth
• The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
• Threnodia Carolina – Sir Thomas Herbert

1679

• Anima Mundi – Charles Blount

1680

• The Life and Death of Mr Badman – John Bunyan

1681

• Miscellaneous Poems by Andrew Marvell (posthumous)
• Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden

1682

• The Life of an Amorous Man (好色一代男, Kōshoku Ichidai Otoko) by Ihara Saikaku

1685

• Five Women Who Loved Love (好色五人女, Kōshoku Gonin Onna) by Ihara Saikaku

1686

• The Life of an Amorous Woman (好色一代女, Kōshoku Ichidai Onna) by Ihara Saikaku

1687

• Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica - Isaac Newton
• The Hind and the Panther – John Dryden
• The Hind and the Panther Transversed to the Story of the Country and the City Mouse – Matthew Prior
• Bellamira, or The Mistress (play) – Sir Charles Sedley
• The Great Mirror of Male Love (The Encyclopedia of Male Love) (男色大鑑, Nanshoku Okagami) by Ihara Saikaku

1688

• The Eternal Storehouse of Japan (日本永代蔵, Nippon Eitaigura) by Ihara Saikaku

1689

• The Massacre of Paris (play) – Nathaniel Lee
• Table Talk – John Selden (posthumous)

1690

• Amphitryon, or the Two Socias – John Dryden
• An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – John Locke
• Memoires of the Navy by Samuel Pepys

1691

• Athalie (play) – Jean Racine

1692

• Reckonings that Carry Men Through the World or This Scheming World (世間胸算用, Seken Munazan'yō) by Ihara Saikaku

1693

• The Impartial Critick – John Dennis

1694

• The Fatal Marriage (play) – Thomas Southerne

1696

• Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon starts writings his Memoirs

1697

• A New Voyage Round the World – William Dampier

1698

• The Campaigners (play) – Thomas D'Urfey

1699

• Dialogues of the Dead – William King and Charles Boyle

Translations

• The Bible - translated into Italian by Giovanni Diodati
• Don Quixote - translated into Italian by Lorenzo Franciosini
• Euclid's Elements - translated into Chinese by Xu Guangqi
• Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by Ibn Tufail – translated into Latin by Edward Pococke the Younger, translated into Dutch by Johannes Bouwmeester, and translated into English by George Ashwell
• The works of Tacitus - translated into Italian by Adriano Politi

Births

• 1600 – Marin le Roy de Gomberville
• 1601 – Baltasar Gracián
• 1602 – Jean-Jacques Boissard
• 1603 – Pierre Corneille
• 1605 – Thomas Browne
• 1607 – Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla
• 1608 – Padre António Vieira/ John Milton
• 1609 – Jean Rotrou
• 1611 – William Cartwright; Thomas Urquhart
• 1613 – John Cleveland
• 1615 – Tanneguy Lefebvre
• 1617 – Ralph Cudworth
• 1620 – Lucy Hutchinson
• 1621 – Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen
• 1622 – Molière
• 1623 – Blaise Pascal
• 1625 – Thomas Corneille
• 1626 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné
• 1627 – John Flavel
• 1628 – Miguel de Molinos
• 1630 – Isaac Barrow
• 1631 – John Dryden
• 1632 – John Locke
• 1632 – Baruch Spinoza
• 1633 – Samuel Pepys
• 1639 – Thomas Ellwood
• 1640 – Aphra Behn
• 1642 – Isaac Newton
• 1643 – Gilbert Burnet
• 1644 – Matsuo Bashō
• 1646 – Gottfried Leibniz
• 1648 – Robert Barclay
• 1651 – William Dampier
• 1652 – Thomas Otway
• 1657 – Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle
• 1667 – Jonathan Swift
• 1668 – Alain-René Lesage
• 1675 – Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
• 1681 – Robert Keith
• 1685 – George Berkeley
• 1689 – Samuel Richardson
• 1694 – Voltaire
• 1698 – Metastasio

Deaths

• 1600 – Richard Hooker (theologian)
• 1605 – John Stow
• 1607 – Sir Edward Dyer
• 1612 – Juan de la Cueva; Robert Armin
• 1615 – Mateo Alemán
• 1616 – William Shakespeare; Miguel de Cervantes; Francis Beaumont; Richard Hakluyt
• 1621 – Guillaume du Vair
• 1623 – William Camden
• 1624 – Stephen Gosson
• 1625 – John Fletcher; Thomas Lodge
• 1626 – Lancelot Andrewes; Samuel Purchas
• 1627 – Luis de Góngora
• 1631 – Michael Drayton; Guillén de Castro y Bellvis
• 1633 – Abraham Fraunce
• 1634 – George Chapman
• 1635 – Lope de Vega; Thomas Randolph; Richard Corbet; John Hall (son-in-law of Shakespeare)
• 1638 – Robert Aytoun
• 1639 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón
• 1640 – Philip Massinger; Robert Burton
• 1641 – Augustine Baker
• 1643 – William Cartwright
• 1644 – Luis Vélez de Guevara; Francis Quarles
• 1645 – Francisco de Quevedo; William Lithgow
• 1647 – Francis Meres
• 1648 – Tirso de Molina; Alonso de Castillo Solórzano; George Abbot; Vincent Voiture
• 1650 – René Descartes
• 1658 – Baltasar Gracián; Pierre du Ryer
• 1660 – Thomas Urquhart
• 1661 – María de Zayas y Sotomayor
• 1662 – François le Métel de Boisrobert
• 1667 – Georges de Scudéry
• 1672 – Anne Bradstreet; Tanneguy Lefebvre
• 1673 – Molière
• 1674 – Marin le Roy de Gomberville
• 1676 – Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen
• 1678 – Andrew Marvell
• 1679 – Thomas Hobbes
• 1681 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• 1682 – Thomas Browne
• 1685 – Thomas Otway
• 1688 – John Bunyan; Ralph Cudworth
• 1689 – Aphra Behn
• 1691 – Richard Baxter; John Flavel
• 1696 – Miguel de Molinos; Madame de Sévigné