1701 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1701.

Events

January
*Matthew Prior, English poet, enters Parliament as the member for East Grinstead.
*George Granville's The Jew of Venice, an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, receives its première at Lincoln's Inn Fields, with Thomas Betterton as Bassanio. It is so popular it displaces the original from the stage for the next four decades.
July 9 – St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, makes a grant for work on Marsh's Library, newly established by Narcissus Marsh as the first public library in Ireland with refugee French Huguenot scholar Élie Bouhéreau as its first librarian.
September 7 – The Treaty of Den Haag is the catalyst for the War of the Spanish Succession, which will continue and have frequent discussion in literature until 1713.
unknown date – Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome is established by the Dominican Order.

Daniel Defoe, The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England
John Dennis, The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry
Richard Steele, The Christian Hero
Jonathan Swift, A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions Between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome
William Temple, Miscellanea: the Third Part
John Toland, The Art of Governing by Partys
Benjamin Whichcote, Several Discourses, posthumously published in four volumes, from this year to 1707

Lady Mary Chudleigh, The Ladies Defiance: Or, the Bride-woman's Counsellor Answer'd
Jeremy Collier, The Great Historical, Geographical, Genealogical and Poetical Dictionary, translated from Louis Moreri, Le Grand Dictionnaire historique
Daniel Defoe, The True-Born Englishman
Peter Anthony Motteux - A Poem in Praise of Tea
John Norris, An Essay Towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World
John Philips, The Sylvan Dream
Pavao Ritter Vitezović, Stemmatografia, an illustrated heraldic essay written mostly in verse