1677 in literature
# 1677 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1677.

## Events

* January 1 – Jean Racine's tragedy Phèdre is first performed, at the Hôtel de Bourgogne (theatre) in Paris.
* February
   * Nathaniel Lee's blank verse tragedy The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great is performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, with Mrs. Charlotte Melmoth as Roxana.
   * Thomas Killigrew, ineffective after four years as Master of the Revels, is replaced by his son Charles.
* September – Edward Ravenscroft's tragicomedy King Edgar and Alfreda, on the subject of King Edgar of England. Thomas Rymer's less successful play on the same subject is published in 1678.
* date unknown
   * Roger Morrice begins his Entring Book, a manual diary describing society in the period 1677 to 1691.
   * Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh's Grammatica Latino-Hibernica nunc compendiata, the first printed grammar of the Irish language (in Latin), is published by the Congregation of Propaganda Fide in Rome in the year of his death.

## New books

### Prose

* Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – Treatise of the Art of War
* Edward Cocker – Cocker's Arithmetick
* Christian Knorr von Rosenroth – Kabbala Denudata (publication starts)
* John Mason – Major Mason's Brief History of the Pequot War
* John Milton – The History of Britain
* Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford – A Philosophical Essay of Music
* Eirenaeus Philalethes – An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Vision.
* Baruch Spinoza – Opera Posthuma (with first known publication of his Ethics)
* Fabian Stedman – Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing

### Drama

* John Banks – The Rival Kings (adapted from la Calprenède's Cassandre)
* Aphra Behn
   * The Rover
   * The Counterfeit Bridegroom
   * The Debauchee (adapted from Richard Brome's A Mad Couple Well-Match'd)
* Thomas Betterton – The Counterfeit Bridegroom
* William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle – The Humorous Lovers and The Triumphant Widow published
* John Crowne – The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian, Parts 1 and 2
* Charles Davenant – Circe (a "semi-opera" with music by John Banister)
* Thomas d'Urfey – A Fond Husband
* John Leanerd – The Country Innocence
* Nathaniel Lee – The Rival Queens
* Thomas Otway
   * The Cheats of Scapin (adapted from Molière's Fourberies de Scapin)
   * Titus and Berenice (adapted from Racine's Bérénice)
* Samuel Pordage – The Siege of Babylon
* Thomas Porter – The French Conjuror
* Jean Racine – Phèdre
* Edward Ravenscroft
   * King Edgar and Alfreda
   * Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a Schoolboy, Bravo a Merchant and Magician
* Thomas Rymer – Edgar, or the English Monarch
* Pedro Calderon de la Barca
   * Amar después de la muerte o El Tuzaní de la Alpujarra
   * Parte I de autos sacramentales, alegóricos e historiales

### Poetry

* Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – On the Death of Abraham Cowley

## Births

* August 23 – Marie Anne Doublet, French scholar, writer and salonnière (died 1771)
* August 25 – Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy, French theologian (died 1753)
* Unknown date – Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw, English ballad writer (born 1727)
* Probable date – George Farquhar, Irish-born dramatist (died 1707)

## Deaths

* February 21 – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (born 1632)
* May 24 – Anders Bording, Danish poet and journalist (born 1619)
* June 18 – Johann Franck, German poet, hymnist and politician (born 1618)
* June 24 – Dudley North, English poet, writer and politician (born 1602)
* July 9 – Angelus Silesius (Johann Scheffler), German poet and mystic (born 1624)
* September 5 – Henry Oldenburg, German-born theologian and natural philosopher (born c. 1619)
* September 11 – James Harrington, English political theorist (born 1611)
* October 14 – Francis Glisson, English medical writer and physician (born 1597)
* December 24 – Jacques de Coras, French poet (born 1630)
