1691 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1691.

Events

• March 17 – The Athenian Mercury begins twice-weekly publication in London. ^[1]
• May 5 – Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle becomes a member of the Académie française. ^[2]

New books

Prose

• Adrien Baillet – La vie de monsieur Descartes ^[3]
• Barbara Blaugdone – An Account of the Travels, Sufferings & Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone. Given forth as a testimony to the Lord's power, and for the encouragement of Friends ^[4]
• Gerard Langbaine – An Account of the English Dramatic Poets
• Maximilien Misson – Nouveau voyage d'Italie
• Sir Dudley North – Discourses upon Trade
• The Kingdom of Ireland
• Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz – Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz

Drama

• Anonymous – The Braggadocio, or Bawd Turn'd Puritan
• John Bancroft – Edward III, with the Fall of Mortimer, Earl of March
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca – Céfalo y Pocris
• David-Augustin de Brueys & Jean Palaprat – Le Muet
• John Dryden – King Arthur, or the British Worthy (a "semi-opera" with music by Henry Purcell)
• Thomas d'Urfey – Love for Money
• Joseph Harris – The Mistakes ^[5]
• William Mountfort – Greenwich Park
• Archibald Pitcairne and others – The Phanaticks (first published as The Assembly, or Scotch Reformation, posthumously as "by a Scots Gentleman", 1722) ^[6]
• Jean Racine – Athalie ^[7]
• John Smith (probable author – issued anonymously) – Win Her and Take Her, or Old Fools will be Medling: a comedy ^[8]
• Thomas Southerne – The Wives Excuse
• John Wilson – Belphegor, or the Marriage of the Devil published

Births

• February 3 – George Lillo, English dramatist and actor (died 1739) ^[9]
• February 27 – Edward Cave, English printer and publisher (died 1754)
• April 9 – Johann Matthias Gesner, German classicist (died 1761)
• October 18 – John Leland, English theologian (died 1766)

Deaths

• June 26 – John Flavel, English Presbyterian religious writer (born 1627)
• July 30 – Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and critic (born 1639)
• October 8 – Thomas Barlow, English religious writer and bishop (born 1609)
• October 10 – Isaac de Benserade, French poet (born 1613)
• December 8 – Richard Baxter, English Puritan religious leader and writer (born 1615)
• Probable year of death – Samuel Pordage, English poet and cleric (born 1633)

References

1. Adrian Johns (15 May 2009). The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making. University of Chicago Press. p. 536. ISBN   978-0-226-40123-2.
2. Anthony Levi (1994). Guide to French literature: beginnings to 1789. St. James Press. p. 293. ISBN   978-1-55862-159-6.
3. Professor of History Anthony Grafton; William R. Newman; Anthony Grafton; Jed Z Buchwald (2001). Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe. MIT Press. p. 340. ISBN   978-0-262-14075-1.
4. Helen Ostovich; Elizabeth Sauer; Melissa Smith (2004). Reading Early Modern Women: An Anthology of Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1550-1700. Psychology Press. p. 183. ISBN   978-0-415-96646-7.
5. "Bibliography". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Vol. 8, The Age of Dryden. 1907–1921. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
6. Pitcairne, Archibald (2012). MacQueen, John (ed.). The Phanaticks. Woodbridge: Scottish Text Society. ISBN   978-1-89797-635-7.
7. Jean Racine (2001). Britannicus; Phaedra; Athaliah. Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN   978-0-19-283827-8.
8. "Underhill, Cave" in Dictionary of National Biography.
9. George Lillo (1979). The plays of George Lillo. Garland Pub. p. xxviii. ISBN   978-0-8240-3601-0.