1693 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1693.

Events

• February 27–March 17 – John Dunton publishes The Ladies' Mercury in London, the first periodical specifically for women.
• March – William Congreve's first play, the comedy The Old Bachelor, is performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.^[1]
• May – William Bradford prints the first book in New York, George Keith's New-England's Spirit of Persecution Transmitted to Pennsylvania.^[2][3]
• July 29 – Anthony Wood is condemned in the vice-chancellor's court of the University of Oxford for certain libels against Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon; he is fined, banished from the university until he recants, and the offending pages are burned.
• October – Congreve's comedy The Double Dealer is first performed at Drury Lane.^[1][4]
• Joseph Addison addresses an early poem to John Dryden.
• John Banks' historical play The Innocent Usurper, about Lady Jane Grey, is banned from the stage.
• Swedish scholar Petter Salan publishes in Upsala Fortissimorum pugilum Egilli et Asmundi historiam antqvo gothico sermone exaratam, the first printed edition of the 14th century Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana.
• Venetian sea-captain Julije Balović compiles Pratichae Schrivaneschae including a 5-language multilingual glossary.

New books

Fiction

• The Genuine Remains of Dr. Thomas Barlow (posthumous)
• Li Yu (李漁, probable author) – The Carnal Prayer Mat (written 1657)
• The Third Part of the Pilgrim's Progress (anonymous)
• Catherine Trotter (or Catherine Trotter Cockburn) – Olinda's Adventures; or, The Amours of a Young Lady
• Sir Thomas Urquhart and Peter Anthony Motteux – first complete English translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel
• Vertue rewarded, or The Irish princess^[5]

Drama

• John Bancroft – Henry the Second, King of England; With the death of Rosamond
• William Congreve
  • The Old Bachelor
  • The Double Dealer
• Thomas D'Urfey – The Richmond Heiress, or A Woman Once in the Right
• Henry Higden – The Wary Widow, or Sir Noisy Parrot
• George Powell – A Very Good Wife (adapted from Richard Brome's The City Wit and The Court Beggar)
• Elkanah Settle – The New Athenian Comedy (published)
• Thomas Southerne – The Maid's Last Prayer, or Any Rather Than Fail

Poetry

• John Dryden – Examen Poeticum: Being the Third Part of Miscellany Poems (anthology)

Non-fiction

• John Dennis – The Impartial Critick
• John Dryden – A Discourse Concerning the Origin and Progress of Satire
• John Evelyn – The Compleat Gard'ner
• August Hermann Francke – Manuductio ad lectionem Scripturae Sacrae
• Robert Gould – The Corruption of the Times by Money
• John Locke – Some Thoughts Concerning Education^[4][6]
• Cotton Mather – Wonders of the Invisible World
• William Penn – An Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe by the Establishment of a European Dyet, Parliament or Estates^[4]
• Thomas Rymer – A Short View of Tragedy
• Gabrielle Suchon – Traité de la morale et de la politique (On Morality and Politics)
• Samuel Wesley – The Life of Our Blessed Lord

Births

• May 10 – John Fox, English biographer (died 1763)
• Unknown dates
  • Fray Casimiro Diaz, O.S.A., Spanish Augustinian friar and historian (died 1746)
  • Arthur Young, English religious writer and cleric (1759)
• Probable year of birth – Eliza Haywood, English dramatist, journalist and novelist (died 1756)

Deaths

• April 9 – Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French memoirist (born 1618)
• May 25 – Madame de La Fayette, French writer (born 1634)
• May 27 – John Spencer, English scholar and cleric (born 1630)
• August (end) – Charles Blount, English deist author (suicide, born 1654)
• September 9 – Ihara Saikaku, Japanese poet and author of "floating world" fiction (born 1642)

References