1703 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1703.

Events

• July 29-July 31 - Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory in London as part of his punishment for the crime of seditious libel, after publishing his politically satirical pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702) (he is released from Newgate Prison in mid-November).

New books

• Bernard de Mandeville - Some Fables After the Easie and Familiar Method of Monsieur de la Fontaine
• Leonty Magnitsky - Arithmetic (Арифметика)
• Benjamin Whichcote - Moral and Religious Aphorisms

New drama

• Thomas Baker - Tunbridge Walks
• William Burnaby - Love Betray'd
• Susanna Centlivre - The Stolen Heiress
• Chikamatsu Monzaemon - The Love Suicides at Sonezaki (曾根崎心中, Sonezaki Shinjū)
• Thomas d'Urfey - The Old Mode & the New
• Richard Estcourt - The Fair Example
• Charles Gildon - The Patriot (adapt. Nathaniel Lee)
• John Oldmixon - The Governour of Cyprus
• Mary Pix - The Different Widows
• Nicholas Rowe - The Fair Penitent
• Richard Steele - The Tender Husband

Poetry

• Lady Mary Chudleigh - Poems on Several Occasions
• William Congreve
  • A Hymn to Harmony
  • The Tears of Amaryllis for Amyntas
• Sarah Fyge Egerton - Poems on Several Occasions
• See also 1703 in poetry

Non-fiction

• Joseph Addison - A Letter from Italy
• Abel Boyer - The History of the Reign of Queen Anne
• Gilbert Burnet - A Third Collection of Several Tracts and Discourses
• Edmund Calamy - A Defence of Moderate Non-Conformity
• Jeremy Collier - Mr Collier's Dissuasive from the Play-House
• Thomas Hearne - Reliquiae Bodleianae
• George Hickes - Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus
• Benjamin Hoadly - The Reasonableness of Conformity to the Church of England
• William Dampier - A Voyage to New Holland, &c. in the Year 1699
• Daniel Defoe
  • A Brief Explanation of a Late Pamphlet, entitled, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters
  • A Dialogue Between a Dissenter and the Observator
  • A Hymn to the Funeral Sermon
  • Hymn to the Pillory
  • More Reformation: A satyr upon himself
  • The Shortest Way to Peace and Union
  • A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True-Born English-man
• John Dunton - The Shortest Way with Whores and Rogues (sat. of Defoe)
• Ned Ward - The Secret History of the Calves-head Clubb (vs. Republicanism)

Births

• March 23 – Cajsa Warg, Swedish cookbook author (died 1769)
• May 18 – İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi, Turkish Sufi philosopher (died 1780)
• June 28 – John Wesley, English writer of sermons and hymns (died 1791)
• October 5 – Jonathan Edwards, American theologian (died 1758)
• November 26 – Theophilus Cibber, English playwright (died 1758)
• Unknown dates
  • Samuel Boyse, Irish poet (died 1749)
  • Henry Brooke, Irish novelist and dramatist (died 1783)
  • Charles Clémencet, French historian (died 1778)
  • Thomas Cooke, English writer and translator (died 1756)
  • Ando Shoeki, Japanese philosopher (died 1762)
  • Gilbert West, English poet and translator (died 1756)

Deaths

• January 11 – Johann Georg Graevius, German critic (born 1632)
• February 17 – Philippe Goibaud-Dubois, French translator (born 1626)
• March 3 – Robert Hooke, English natural philosopher (born 1635)
• March 5 – Gabrielle Suchon, French moral philosopher (born 1631)
• April 20 – Lancelot Addison, English writer and cleric (born 1632)
• May 8 – Vincent Alsop, English religious writer and wit (born c. 1630)
• May 16 – Charles Perrault, French writer of fairy tales (born 1628)
• May 26 – Samuel Pepys, English diarist (born 1633)
• September 29 – Charles de Saint-Évremond, French essayist and literary critic (born 1631)
• Unknown date – Samuel Johnson, English pamphleteer (born 1649)
• Probable year of death – John Crowne, Nova Scotia-born English dramatist (born 1641)