1677 in literature

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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.^[1]
- Thomas Killigrew, ineffective after four years as Master of the Revels, is replaced by his son Charles.^[2]
September – Edward Ravenscroft's tragicomedy King Edgar and Alfreda, on the subject of King Edgar of England.^[3] Thomas Rymer's less successful play on the same subject is published in 1678.^[4]
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.^[5]

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

John Banks – The Rival Kings (adapted from la Calprenède's Cassandre)
Aphra Behn
- The Rover^[6]
- 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

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)

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)

^ Birley, Robert (1962). Sunk without Trace: some forgotten masterpieces reconsidered. London: Rupert Hart-Davis.
^ Western Reserve University (1931). Western Reserve University Bulletin. Western Reserve University. p. 14.
^ Pierre Danchin (1981). The Prologues and Epilogues of the Restoration, 1660-1700: A Complete Edition. Publications Université Nancy II. p. 76. ISBN 978-2-86480-162-7.
^ The Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Incorporated. 1999. ISBN 978-0-7172-0131-0.
^ Moody, T. W.; et al., eds. (1989). A New History of Ireland. 8: A Chronology of Irish History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821744-2.
^ Copeland, Nancy (2003). "Review of The Theatre of Aphra Behn". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 102 (3): 442–444. JSTOR 27712366.