1668 in literature

The year 1668 in literature involved some significant literary events and new works.

Events

• Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler goes into its fourth edition.
• John Dryden signs a contract to produce three plays a year for the King’s Company.

New books

• Juan Caramuel - Primus calamus
• Meric Casaubon – Of Credulity and Incredulity
• Josiah Child – Brief Observations concerning Trade and the Interest of Money
• Jean Claude – Réponse au livre de P. Nouet sur l'eucharistie
• Jan Comenius – The Way of Light
• John Dryden – Essay of Dramatick Poesie
• Richard Duckworth and Fabian Stedman – Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing
• Richard Flecknoe – Sir William Davenant's Voyage to the Other World
• Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen – Simplicius Simplicissimus (first major novel in the German language, dated 1669 but probably published this year)
• Johannes Hevelius – Cometographia
• Peter Heylin – Cyprianus Anglicanus (biography of William Laud)^[1]
• Urban Hjärne – Stratonice (completed)^[2]
• Henry Neville – The Isle of Pines
• Francisco Santos - Periquillo el de las gallineras
• John Wilkins – An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language

New drama

• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery^[3]
  • Tryphon (performed)
  • Henry V (published)
  • Mustapha (published)
• Margaret Cavendish – Plays, Never Before Printed, Written by the Thrice Noble, Illustrious, and Excellent Princess, the Duchess of Newcastle (closet dramas)
• Sir William Davenant – The Man's the Master (a translation of Paul Scarron's Jodelet, ou le maître valet)
• John Dryden – An Evening's Love
• George Etherege – She Would if She Could
• Sir Robert Howard – The Great Favourite or the Duke of Lerma
• Molière
  • L'Avare (The Miser)
  • George Dandin ou le Mari confondu
• Sir Charles Sedley – The Mulberry-Garden
• Thomas Shadwell – The Sullen Lovers

Poetry

• Abraham Cowley – Poemata Latina (posthumous)
• Sir John Denham – Poems and Translations
• Georg Stiernhielm – Musæ Suethizantes^[2]

Births

• May 8 – Alain-René Lesage, French novelist and playwright (died 1747)
• September – Joseph Bingham, scholar (died 1723)
• November (baptised) – Thomas Woolston, deist writer (died 1731)
• November 11 – Johann Albert Fabricius (died 1736)
• December 21 – Herman Boerhaave, humanist (died 1738)

Deaths

• April 7 – Sir William Davenant, poet and playwright (born 1606)
• May 21 – Josephus Adjutus, theologian (born c.1602)
• August 9 – Jakob Balde, Latinist poet and academic (born 1604)
• November 17 – Joseph Alleine, Nonconformist writer (born 1634)
• December 11 – Marquise-Thérèse de Gorla, actress (born 1633)
• December 22 – Stephen Daye, first American printer (born 1594)
• December 23 – Martin Baučer, Slovene historian (born 1595)

References