1689 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1689.

Events

• May 26 – Matsuo Bashō begins the journey described in Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow road to the interior).
• Thomas Shadwell becomes Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal in England.^[1]
• Jonathan Swift becomes secretary to Sir William Temple.^[2]

New books

Prose

• Richard Cox – Hibernia Anglicana
• George Hickes – Institutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et Moeso-Gothicae
• John Locke
  • Two Treatises of Government
  • A Letter Concerning Toleration
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (dated 1690)
• John Selden (posthumously) – Table Talk
• Johann Weikhard von Valvasor – The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (Die Ehre deß Hertzogthums Crain)

Drama

• Aphra Behn – The Widow Ranter
• James Carlisle – The Fortune Hunters, or Two Fools Well Met^[3]
• John Crowne – The English Friar, or the Town Sparks
• James Farewell – The Irish Hudibras
• Sor Juana – Amor es más labertino (Love the Greater Labyrinth)
• Nathaniel Lee – The Massacre of Paris
• Thomas Shadwell - Bury Fair

Births

• January 18 – Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, French satirist (died 1755)
• May 26 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, poet and letter-writer (died 1762)
• July 9 – Alexis Piron, French epigrammatist (died 1773)
• August 19 – Samuel Richardson, English novelist (died 1761)

Deaths

• January – William Chamberlayne, English poet and playwright (born c. 1619)
• February 21 – Isaac Vossius, Dutch-born collector of manuscripts (born 1618)
• April 16 – Aphra Behn, English dramatist, poet and novelist (born 1640)
• August 21 – William Cleland, Scottish soldier and poet (killed in battle, born c. 1661)
• November 13 – Philipp von Zesen, German poet and hymn-writer (born 1619)
• December 13 – Zbigniew Morsztyn, Polish poet (born c. 1628)
• Unknown date – Pjetër Bogdani, Albanian-language author (born c. 1630)

References