1684 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1684.

Events

• June 25 – The death of Robert Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow, gives rise to establishment of the Leighton Library at Dunblane, the oldest surviving public subscription (lending) library in Scotland.
• July 25 – The English novelist and dramatist Mary Griffith marries merchant George Pix.
• November 11 – The English dramatist Nathaniel Lee is admitted to Bedlam Hospital for the insane.^[1]
• unknown dates
  • The Protestant Academy of Saumur is closed down by King Louis XIV of France.^[2]
  • John Banks' historical play The Island Queens, or the Death of Mary Queen of Scotland is banned from the stage; it is produced as The Albion Queens twenty years later (1704).
  • Pierre Bayle begins his journal of literary criticism, Nouvelles de la république des lettres.

New books

Fiction

• Aphra Behn – Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister
• John Bunyan – The Pilgrim's Progress, Second Part
• Giovanni Paolo Marana – Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy
• Ihara Saikaku – The Great Mirror of Beauties

Drama

• Jean de La Chapelle – Ajax
• John Horne – Fortune's Task, or the Fickle Fair One^[3]
• John Lacy – Sir Hercules Buffoon^[3]
• Simon Neale – The Mistaken Beauty (adapted from Corneille)
• John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (possible author) – Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery
• Thomas Southerne – The Disappointment, or the Mother of Fashion^[3]
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca
  • Los cabellos de Absalón
  • Guárdate del agua mansa

Poetry

• Aphra Behn – Poems upon Several Occasions^[4]
• Pavao Ritter Vitezović – Odiljenje sigetsko (Farewell at Sziget)

Non-fiction

• Jakob Abbadie – Traité de la vérité de la religion chrétienne
• Dorcas Dole – Once More a Warning to Thee, O England, but more particularly to the inhabitants of the city of Bristol (by a Quaker)
• Edward Phillips – Enchiridion linguae latinae
• Christian Knorr von Rosenroth – Kabbala Denudata (publication completed)
• Christopher Sandius – Bibliotheca antitrinitariorum
• George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax – The Character of a Trimmer
• Antonio de Solís y Rivadeneyra – Historia de la conquista de México

Births

• February 21 – Justus van Effen, Dutch journalist writing also in French (died 1735)
• October 16 – Peter Walkden, English diarist (died 1769)
• December 3 – Ludvig Holberg, Danish/Norwegian essayist, philosopher and playwright (died 1754)

Deaths

• April 1 – Roger Williams, English-born American theologian (born 1603)
• October 1 – Pierre Corneille, French dramatist (born 1606)^[5]
• December 7 – John Oldham, English satirical poet and translator (born 1653)
• Unknown date – Francisco de Avellaneda, Spanish dramatist and poet (born c. 1625)

Notes and References

1. Book: Arnold . Catharine . Bedlam: London and Its Mad . 2009 . Simon and Schuster . 9781847390004 . 110 . en.
2. Book: Bernard Bolingbroke Woodward. William Leist Readwin Cates. Encyclopaedia of Chronology: Historical and Biographical. 1872. Lee and Shepard. 1250–.
3. Book: Sylvia Stoler Wagonheim. The Annals of English Drama 975-1700. 21 August 2013. Routledge. 978-1-134-67634-7. 188.
4. Book: Wright . Gillian . Producing Women's Poetry, 1600–1730: Text and Paratext, Manuscript and Print . 2013 . Cambridge University Press . 9781107355668 . 247 . en.
5. Book: John Flower. Historical Dictionary of French Literature. 17 January 2013. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-7945-4. 150.