1696 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1696 in literature involved some significant events.
Events
- Vincenzo da Filicaja becomes governor of VolterraVolterraVolterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri, to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy.-History:...
. - The Kit-Kat Club is founded in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. - Theatre Royal, Drury LaneTheatre Royal, Drury LaneThe Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
stages The Female Wits, an anti-feminist satire targeting Mary PixMary PixMary Pix was an English novelist and playwright. Church records indicate that she lived in London, marrying George Pix, a merchant tailor from Hawkhurst, Kent in 1684. Baptismal records reveal that she had two sons, George and William...
, Mary Delarivière Manley, and Catherine TrotterCatherine Trotter CockburnCatharine Trotter Cockburn was a novelist, dramatist, and philosopher.-Life:Born to Scottish parents living in London,Trotter was raised Protestant but converted to Roman Catholicism at an early age...
, three significant women dramatists of the era. The play is a hit, and runs for three nights straight (unusual in the repertory system of the day).
New books
- John AubreyJohn AubreyJohn Aubrey FRS, was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives...
- Miscellanies - Philip AyresPhilip Ayres (poet)Philip Ayres , the author of numerous books and pamphlets, flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth century; was born at Cottingham, and educated at Westminster, and St. John's College, Oxford. He became tutor in the family of Montagu Garrard Drake, of Agmondesham, Bucks, and lived in the...
- The Revengeful Mistress - Aphra BehnAphra BehnAphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
- The Histories and Novels of the Late Ingenious Mrs. Behn (posthumous) - Charles Leslie - The Snake in the Grass
- Mary PixMary PixMary Pix was an English novelist and playwright. Church records indicate that she lived in London, marrying George Pix, a merchant tailor from Hawkhurst, Kent in 1684. Baptismal records reveal that she had two sons, George and William...
- The Inhumane Cardinal; or, Innocence Betray'd (novel) - John SucklingJohn Suckling (poet)Sir John Suckling was an English poet and one prominent figure among those renowned for careless gaiety, wit, and all the accomplishments of a Cavalier poet; and also the inventor of the card game Cribbage...
- The Works of Sir John Suckling - John TillotsonJohn TillotsonJohn Tillotson was an Archbishop of Canterbury .-Curate and rector:Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. He entered as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1647, graduated in 1650 and was made fellow of his college in 1651...
- The Works of John Tillotson
New drama
- Anonymous - Bonduca, or The British Heroine (adapted from FletcherJohn Fletcher (playwright)John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
's BonducaBonducaBonduca is a Jacobean tragi-comedy in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, generally judged by scholars to be the work of John Fletcher alone. It was acted by the King's Men c. 1613, and published in 1647 in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio....
) - Anonymous - The Cornish Comedy
- Anonymous ("W. M.") - The Female Wits, or the Triumverate of Poets at Rehearsal
- John BanksJohn Banks (playwright)John Banks was an English playwright of the Restoration era. His works concentrated on historical dramas, and his plays were twice suppressed because of their implications, or supposed implications, for the contemporaneous political situation....
- Cyrus the Great, or The Tragedy of Love - Aphra BehnAphra BehnAphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
- The Younger Brother, or The Amorous Jilt - Colley CibberColley CibberColley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
- Love's Last Shift, or Virtue Rewarded - Thomas DoggettThomas DoggettThomas Doggett was an Irish actor.Doggett was born in Dublin, and made his first stage appearance in London in 1691 as Nincompoop in Thomas D'Urfey's Love for Money. In this part, and as Solon in the same author's Marriage-Hater Matched, he became popular...
- The Country Wake - Thomas D'UrfeyThomas d'UrfeyThomas D'Urfey was an English writer and wit. He composed plays, songs, and poetry, in addition to writing jokes. He was an important innovator and contributor in the evolution of the Ballad opera....
- The Comical History of Don Quixote. The Third Part - George Granville, 1st Baron LansdowneGeorge Granville, 1st Baron LansdowneGeorge Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne PC was an English poet, playwright, and politician who served as a Privy Counsellor from 1712.-Early life:...
- The She-Gallants - Joseph HarrisJoseph HarrisJoseph Vikram "Joe" Harris is an Indian-born Canadian cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-hand off-break bowler....
- The City Bride; or, The Merry Cuckold (adapted from A Cure for a CuckoldA Cure for a CuckoldA Cure for a Cuckold is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Webster and William Rowley. The play was first published in 1661, though composed some four decades earlier.-Date and performance:...
) - Charles HopkinsCharles HopkinsCharles Hopkins may refer to:*Charles F. Hopkins, Union Civil War solder and winner of the Medal of Honor*Charles Jerome Hopkins*Charles Hopkins , first husband of Eliza Poe...
- Neglected Virtue; or, The Unhappy Conquerour - Mary Delarivière Manley
- The Lost Lover, or The Jealous Husband
- The Royal Mischief
- Peter Anthony MotteuxPeter Anthony MotteuxPeter Anthony Motteux , born Pierre Antoine Motteux, was an English author, playwright, and translator...
- Love's a Jest
- She Ventures and He Wins
- Mary PixMary PixMary Pix was an English novelist and playwright. Church records indicate that she lived in London, marrying George Pix, a merchant tailor from Hawkhurst, Kent in 1684. Baptismal records reveal that she had two sons, George and William...
- The Spanish Wives- Ibrahim, the Thirteenth Emperour of the Turks
- Edward RavenscroftEdward RavenscroftEdward Ravenscroft , English dramatist, belonged to an ancient Flintshire family.He was entered at the Middle Temple, but devoted his attention mainly to literature. Among his pieces are...
- The Anatomist, or the Sham Doctor - Thomas SoutherneThomas SoutherneThomas Southerne , Irish dramatist, was born at Oxmantown, near Dublin, in 1660, and entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1676. Two years later he was entered at the Middle Temple, London....
- Oroonoko (adapted from Aphra BehnAphra BehnAphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
's novel OroonokoOroonokoOroonoko is a short work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn , published in 1688, concerning the love of its hero, an enslaved African in Surinam in the 1660s, and the author's own experiences in the new South American colony....
) - John VanbrughJohn VanbrughSir John Vanbrugh – 26 March 1726) was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites...
- The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger (a sequel to Colley CibberColley CibberColley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
's Love's Last ShiftLove's Last ShiftLove's Last Shift, or The Fool in Fashion is an English Restoration comedy by Colley Cibber from 1696.The play is regarded as an early herald of a shift in audience tastes away from the intellectualism and sexual frankness of Restoration comedy and towards the conservative certainties and gender...
)
Poetry
- Nicholas BradyNicholas BradyNicholas Brady , Anglican divine and poet, was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland. He received his education at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford; he graduated from Trinity College, Dublin....
and Nahum TateNahum TateNahum Tate was an Irish poet, hymnist, and lyricist, who became England's poet laureate in 1692.-Life:Nahum Teate came from a family of Puritan clergymen...
- New Version of the Psalms of DavidTate and BradyTate and Brady refers to the collaboration of Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady, which produced one famous work, New Version of the Psalms of David . This work was a metrical version of the Psalms, and largely ousted the old version of T. Sternhold and J. Hopkins... - John DrydenJohn DrydenJohn Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
- An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell (died 1695) - John OldmixonJohn OldmixonJohn Oldmixon was an English historian.He was a son of John Oldmixon of Oldmixon, Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. His first writings were poetry and dramas, among them being Amores Britannici; Epistles historical and gallant ; and a tragedy, The Governor of Cyprus...
- Poems on Several Occasions - Elizabeth RoweElizabeth Rowe-Life:She was the eldest daughter of Elizabeth Portnell and Walter Singer, a dissenting minister. Born in Ilchester, Somerset, England, she began writing at the age of twelve and when she was nineteen, began a correspondence with John Dunton, bookseller and founder of the Athenian Society.Between...
- Poems on Several Occasions - Nahum Tate - Miscellanea Sacra; or, Poems on Divine & Moral Subjects
Non-fiction
- Richard BaxterRichard BaxterRichard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...
- Reliquiae Baxterianae (posthumous) - Gerard Croese - The General History of the Quakers (translation
- An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex (anonymous)
- Mary Delarivière Manley - Letters Written by Mrs. Manley
- William PennWilliam PennWilliam Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
- Primitive Christianity Revived in the Faith and Practice of the People called Quakers - John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and NormanbyJohn Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and NormanbyJohn Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, KG, PC , was a poet and notable Tory politician of the late Stuart period, who served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord President of the Council.-Career:...
- The Character of Charles II, King of England - John TolandJohn TolandJohn Toland was a rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment...
- Christianity Not Mysterious - William WhistonWilliam WhistonWilliam Whiston was an English theologian, historian, and mathematician. He is probably best known for his translation of the Antiquities of the Jews and other works by Josephus, his A New Theory of the Earth, and his Arianism...
- A New Theory of the Earth
Births
- July 14 - William OldysWilliam OldysWilliam Oldys was an English antiquarian and bibliographer.The illegitimate son of Dr William Oldys, chancellor of Lincoln, London was probably his place of birth. His father had held the office of advocate of the admiralty, but lost it in 1693 because he would not prosecute as traitors and...
, antiquarian and bibliographer (died 1761) - October 13 - John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, memoirist (died 1743)
- date unknown - Matthew GreenMatthew Green (poet)Matthew Green was a British poet born of Nonconformist parents. For many years he held a post in the custom house. The few anecdotes that have been preserved show him to have been as witty as his poems would lead one to expect: on one occasion, when the government was about to cut off funds that...
, poet (died 1737)
Deaths
- March 18 - Bonaventura BaronBonaventura BaronBonaventura Baron was a distinguished Irish Franciscan theologian, philosopher, teacher and writer of Latin prose and verse.-Biography:He was born at Clonmel in County Tipperary, and died at Rome...
, theologian, philosopher, teacher and writer of Latin prose and verse (born 1610) - April 27 - Simon FoucherSimon FoucherSimon Foucher was a French polemic philosopher. His philosophical standpoint was one of Academic skepticism: he did not agree with dogmatism, but didn't resort to Pyrrhonism, either.-Life:...
, polemic philosopher (born 1644) - May 10 - Jean de La BruyèreJean de La BruyèreJean de La Bruyère was a French essayist and moralist.-Ancestry:He was born in Paris, not, as was once thought, at Dourdan in 1645...
, French essayist (born 1645) - November 26 - Gregório de MattosGregório de MattosGregório de Mattos e Guerra was the most famous Colonial Brazilian Baroque poet. Although he wrote many lyrical and religious poems, he was more well-known by his satirical ones, winning because of them the nickname "Boca do Inferno" .He is the patron of the 16th chair of the Brazilian Academy of...
, poet (born 1636) - date unknown
- Jón MagnússonJón Magnússon (author)Jón Magnússon was an Icelandic Lutheran pastor and author of the Píslarsaga , which recounts the physical and mental torments he believed he had suffered as a result of witchcraft.-Early life:...
, Lutheran writer (born c.1610) - Gesshū SōkoGesshū SōkoGesshū Sōko was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and a member of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. He studied under teachers of the lesser known, and more strictly monastic, Obaku School of Zen and contributed to a reformation of Sōtō monastic codes...
, Zen Buddhist teacher and poet (born 1618) - Antoine VarillasAntoine VarillasAntoine Varillas was a French historian, best known for his history of heresy.-Life:He was born in Guéret and made a troubled way as a man of letters in Paris. He worked as a historian for Gaston, Duke of Orléans. Then through an introductions from Pierre Dupuy he was able to have library access,...
, historian (born 1626)
- Jón Magnússon