1690 in literature

The year 1690 in literature involved some significant literary events and new works.

Events

• December 10 – Playwright Henry Nevil Payne is tortured for his role in the Montgomery Plot to restore James II to the throne — the last time a political prisoner is subjected to torture in Britain.
• Colley Cibber becomes an actor with the Drury Lane company.

New books

• Nicholas Barbon – A Discourse of Trade.
• Pierre Bayle (attr.) – Avis important aux refugies.
• Sir Thomas Browne – A Letter to a Friend (published posthumously).
• John Locke – An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (dated this year but published in 1689).
• Samuel Pepys – Memoires of the Navy.
• Baro Urbigerus – Aphorismi Urbigerani.

New drama

• John Bancroft – King Edward III, with the Fall of Mortimer, Earl of March
• Aphra Behn – The Widow Ranter (published posthumously)
• Thomas Betterton – The Prophetess, or The History of Dioclesian (adapted from Fletcher and Massinger's The Prophetess; with music by Henry Purcell)
• Edmé Boursault – Esope à la ville
• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – Mr. Anthony published
• John Crowne – The English Friar, or the Town Sparks
• John Dryden
  • Amphitryon, or the Two Sosias
  • Don Sebastian
• George Powell
  • Alphonso, King of Naples
  • The Treacherous Brothers
• Elkanah Settle – Distress'd Innocence, or The Princess of Persia
• Thomas Shadwell – The Scourers
• Thomas Southerne – Sir Anthony Love
• "W. C." – The Rape Reveng'd, or the Spanish Revolution (adapted from William Rowley's All's Lost by Lust)

Poetry

• Thomas D'Urfey:
  • Collin's Walk Through London and Westminster^[1]
  • New Poems
• See also 1690 in poetry

Births

• February 3 – Richard Rawlinson, collector of manuscripts and curiosities (died 1755)
• September 12 – Peter Dens, Belgian Catholic theologian (died 1775)

Deaths

• May 12 – John Rushworth, author of Historical Collections (born c.1612)
• October 3 – Robert Barclay, Quaker writer (born c.1648)
• October 25 – Cornelius Hazart, Dutch Jesuit controversialist (born 1617)
• date unknown – Franciscus Plante, Dutch poet (born 1613)
• probable – Jeremias Felbinger, German Socinian writer, teacher and lexicographer (born 1616)

References