1696 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1696.

Events

*January – Colley Cibber's play '' Love's Last Shift'' is first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.
*March 5 – William Penn marries his second wife, Hannah Callowhill.
*September – The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, stages ''The Female Wits'', an anti-feminist satire targeting Mary Pix, Delarivier Manley and Catherine Trotter, the 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).
*November 21 – John Vanbrugh's first play, the comedy '' The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger'', a sequel to ''Love's Last Shift'', is first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, with Cibber in the cast.
*''unknown date''
**The Tuscan poet Vincenzo da Filicaja becomes governor of Volterra.
**Chapbook peddlers in England are required to hold a licence.

New books

Fiction

* John Aubrey – ''Miscellanies''
* Philip Ayres – ''The Revengeful Mistress''
*Aphra Behn (died 1689) – ''The Histories and Novels of the Late Ingenious Mrs. Behn''
* Charles Leslie – ''The Snake in the Grass''
* Mary Pix – ''The Inhumane Cardinal; or, Innocence Betray'd'' (novel)
* John Suckling – ''The Works of Sir John Suckling''
* John Tillotson – ''The Works of John Tillotson''

Drama

* John Banks – ''Cyrus the Great, or The Tragedy of Love''
*Aphra Behn – '' The Younger Brother''
* Colley Cibber – '' Love's Last Shift''
* Thomas Dilke – '' The City Lady''
* Thomas Doggett – ''The Country Wake''
* Thomas D'Urfey – ''The Comical History of Don Quixote. The Third Part''
* George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne – ''The She-Gallants''
* Joseph Harris – ''The City Bride; or, The Merry Cuckold'' (adapted from ''A Cure for a Cuckold'')
* Charles Hopkins – ''Neglected Virtue''
* Delarivier Manley
**'' The Lost Lover, or The Jealous Husband''
**''The Royal Mischief''
* Peter Anthony Motteux
**''Love's a Jest''
**'' She Ventures and He Wins''
* Mary Pix
**''The Spanish Wives''
**''Ibrahim, the Thirteenth Emperour of the Turks''
* Edward Ravenscroft – ''The Anatomist, or the Sham Doctor''
* Thomas Southerne – ''Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave: a tragedy'' (adapted from Aphra Behn's novel '' Oroonoko'' - published)
*John Vanbrugh – '' The Relapse''

Poetry

* Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate – '' New Version of the Psalms of David''
* John Dryden – ''An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell'' (died 1695)
* John Oldmixon – ''Poems on Several Occasions''
* Elizabeth Singer Rowe – ''Poems on Several Occasions''
* Nahum Tate – ''Miscellanea Sacra; or, Poems on Divine & Moral Subjects''

Non-fiction

* Richard Baxter – ''Reliquiae Baxterianae'' (posthumous)
* John Bellers – ''Proposals for Raising a College of Industry of All Useful Trades and Husbandry''
*Gerard Croese – ''The General History of the Quakers'' (translation)
* Judith Drake (attributed) – ''An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex'' (anonymous)
* Delarivier Manley – ''Letters Written by Mrs. Manley''
* William Penn – ''Primitive Christianity Revived in the Faith and Practice of the People called Quakers''
* John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby – ''The Character of Charles II, King of England''
* John Toland – '' Christianity not Mysterious''
* William Whiston – ''A New Theory of the Earth''

Births

* July 14 – William Oldys, English antiquary, bibliographer and poet (died 1761)
* September 25 – Madame du Deffand, French literary hostess (died 1780)
* October 13 – John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, English memoirist and courtier (died 1743)
*''Unknown date'' – Matthew Green, English writer of light verse and customs official (died 1737)

Deaths

*January 3 – Mary Mollineux, English Quaker poet (born c.1651)
*March 14 – Jean Domat, French jurist (born 1625)
* March 18 – Bonaventura Baron, Irish theologian, philosopher and writer in Latin (born 1610)
* April 17 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, French author (born 1626)
*April 27 – Simon Foucher, French polemic philosopher (born 1644)
*May 10 – Jean de La Bruyère, French essayist (born 1645)
* June 9 – Antoine Varillas, French historian (born 1626)
* August 9 – Wacław Potocki, Polish nobleman (Szlachta), moralist, Baroque poet and writer (born 1621)
* September 8 – Henry Birkhead, English academic, lawyer, Latin poet and founder of the Oxford Chair of Poetry (born 1617)
* November 26 – Gregório de Matos, Brazilian Baroque poet (born 1636)
* December 31 – Samuel Annesley, English Puritan minister noted for his sermons (born c.1620)John A Newton ‘ Samuel Annesley 1620-1696)’ Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society v.XLV 1985-6 pp 29-45 p.37
*''Unknown dates''
** Jón Magnússon, Icelandic writer (born c. 1610)
**Gesshū Sōko (月舟宗胡), Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher, poet and calligrapher (born 1618)

References

{{Year in literature article categories

Years of the 17th century in literature