1690 in literature
# 1690 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1690.

## 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

### Prose

* Nicholas Barbon – A Discourse of Trade
* Pierre Bayle (attributed) – Avis important aux réfugiés
* Sir Thomas Browne (posthumously) – A Letter to a Friend
* Antoine Furetière (posthumously) – Dictionnaire universel
* John Locke
   * An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (dated this year but published 1689)
   * Two Treatises of Government
* Samuel Pepys – Memoires of the Navy
* Baro Urbigerus – Aphorismi Urbigerani

### Drama

* John Bancroft – King Edward III, with the Fall of Mortimer, Earl of March
* Aphra Behn (posthumously) – The Widow Ranter
* 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
* John Crowne – The English Friar
* John Dryden
   * Amphitryon, or the Two Sosias
   * Don Sebastian
* William Mountfort – The Successful Strangers
* 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
   * New Poems
* See also 1690 in poetry
* Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza – Obras líricas y cómicas, divinas y humanas

## Births

* February 3 – Richard Rawlinson, English antiquary and cleric (died 1755)
* September 12 – Peter Dens, Netherlandish theologian (died 1775)
* 1689/90 – Susanna Highmore, English poet (died 1750)

## Deaths

* March 21 – Henry Teonge, English diarist and cleric (born 1621)
* May 5 – Theodore Haak, German-born English translator and natural philosopher (born 1605)
* May 12 – John Rushworth, English author of Historical Collections (born c. 1612)
* October 3 – Robert Barclay, Scottish Quaker writer (born c. 1648)
* October 25 – Cornelius Hazart, Dutch Jesuit controversialist (born 1617)
* Unknown date – Franciscus Plante, Dutch poet (born 1613)
* Probable year of death – Jeremias Felbinger, German writer, teacher and lexicographer (born 1616)
