17th century in literature

Events and trends

• 1605–1615 – Miguel de Cervantes writes the two parts of Don Quixote.
• 1616: April – Death of both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes.
• 1630-1651: William Bradford writes Of Plymouth Plantation, journals that are considered the most authoritative account of the Pilgrims and their government.
• 1660–1669 – Samuel Pepys writes his diary which not only covers his life but also the daily and historic events in London during his time.
• 1667–68 – Marianna Alcoforado writes her Letters of a Portuguese Nun.
• 1671–1696 – Madame de Sévigné writes her famous letters.
• Metaphysical poets - a term made by Samuel Johnson for a group of 17th century English poets.
• German literature of the Baroque period

New books and plays

• Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare
• England's Helicon – including work by Edmund Spenser, Michael Drayton, Thomas Lodge, Philip Sidney and others
• Old Fortunatus – Thomas Dekker
• The Spanish Moor's Tragedy – Thomas Dekker, John Marston, and William Haughton
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare
• Cynthia's Revels – Ben Jonson
• Disputationes Metaphysicae by Francisco Suárez first published
• Satiromastix – Thomas Dekker
• Rymes by Lope de Vega
• Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
• Antonio and Mellida – John Marston
• Mirum in Modum – John Davies of Hereford
• Satiromastix – Thomas Dekker and John Marston
• A Survey of Cornwall – Richard Carew
• The True Law of Free Monarchies by King James VI and I
• Ane Godlie Dreame by Elizabeth Melville published in Edinburgh
• Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
• Othello by William Shakespeare
• The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
• All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare
• The Honest Whore – Thomas Dekker
• The Malcontent – John Marston
• Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
• The Dutch Courtesan – John Marston
• The Tragedy of Philotas – Samuel Daniel
• The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare
• Don Quixote, Part I – Miguel de Cervantes
• Epistle concerning the Excellencies of the English Tongue – Richard Carew
• Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
• A Woman Killed with Kindness – Thomas Heywood
• Bussy D'Ambois – George Chapman
• Michaelmas Terme – Thomas Middleton
• The Knight of the Burning Pestle – Francis Beaumont
• The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt – Thomas Dekker and John Webster
• The Legend of Great Cromwell – Michael Drayton
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre by William Shakespeare
• The Revenger's Tragedy by Thomas Middleton
• Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
• A Nest of Ninnies – Robert Armin
• Humour out of Breathe – John Day
• The Belman of London – Thomas Dekker
• The Merry Devil of Edmonton – anonymous; has been attributed to William Shakespeare, Michael Drayton and others.
• The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
• Jerusalem Conquered by Lope de Vega
• Fourre Birds of Noahs Arke – Thomas Dekker
• Sidereus Nuncius by Galileo Galilei
• Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
• The Faithful Shepherdess – John Fletcher
• Fuente Ovejuna – Lope de Vega
• The Authorized Version of the Bible
• The Tempest by William Shakespeare
• Catiline his Conspiracy – Ben Jonson
• The Roaring Girle – Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton
• Four Soluloquies – Lope de Vega
• El comendador de Ocaña – Lope de Vega
• A Woman is a Weather-Cocke – Nathan Field
• Soledades – Luis de Góngora
• La dama boba – Lope de Vega
• The Dog in the Manger – Lope de Vega
• Henry VIII by William Shakespeare
• Tears on the Death of Moeliades – William Drummond of Hawthornden
• The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois – George Chapman
• Purchas, his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages – Samuel Purchas
• Bartholomew Fair – Ben Jonson
• La Lira by Giambattista Marino
• Fama fraternitatis Roseae Crucis oder Die Bruderschaft des Ordens der Rosenkreuzer – Johannes Valentinus Andreae
• Don Quixote, Part II – Miguel de Cervantes
• El caballero de Olmedo – Lope de Vega
• Confessio oder Bekenntnis der Societät und Bruderschaft Rosenkreuz – Johannes Valentinus Andreae
• Ben Jonson's Works
• The Whole Works of Homer – George Chapman
• Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz Anno 1459 – Johannes Valentinus Andreae
• Rollo, Duke of Normandy – John Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Philip Massinger, George Chapman
• Warenar by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
• A Faire Quarrell – Thomas Middleton and William Rowley
• History of Tythes – John Selden
• Amends for Ladies – Nathan Field
• A King and No King – Beaumont and Fletcher
• The Maid's Tragedy – Beaumont and Fletcher
• The Shoemaker's Holiday – Thomas Deloney
• The Custome of the Countrey – John Fletcher and Philip Massinger
• Reipublicae Christianopolitanae descriptio – Johannes Valentinus Andreae
• Philaster – Beaumont and Fletcher
• The Anatomy of Melancholy – Robert Burton
• Women Beware Women – Thomas Middleton
• El vergonzoso en palacio – Tirso de Molina
• The Countess of Montgomery's Urania – Lady Mary Wroth
• The Heir – Thomas May
• The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh – Francis Bacon
• The French Disease – Richard Brome
• The Beggar's Bush – John Fletcher
• El tejedor de Segovia – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón
• The Changeling – Thomas Middleton and William Rowley
• L'Adone by Giambattista Marino
• Love, honour and power – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• The Duchess of Malfi – John Webster
• First Folio – William Shakespeare
• Circe bu Lope de Vega
• Nero Caesar, or Monarchie Depraved – Edmund Bolton
• The Sun's Darling – John Ford
• De jure belli ac pacis by Hugo Grotius
• Complete Essays – Francis Bacon
• Les Bergeries – Racan
• El Buscón – Francisco de Quevedo
• England's schim – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• The Bataile of Agincourt – Michael Drayton
• First Steps up Parnassus – Michael Drayton
• Microcosmographie – John Earle
• The Roman Actor – Philip Massinger
• La Dama Duende – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• The Tragedy of Albovine – William D'Avenant
• The Conceited Pedlar – Thomas Randolph
• The punishment without vengeance – Lope de Vega
• L'Allegro – John Milton
• La Dorotea – Lope de Vega
• The Fatal Dowry – Nathan Field and Philip Massinger
• Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei
• The Muses' Looking-Glass by Thomas Randolph
• A New Way to Pay Old Debts – Philip Massinger
• Love's Sacrifice – John Ford
• The Gamester – James Shirley
• The Temple – George Herbert
• Tottenham Court – Thomas Nabbes
• Life is a dream – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Le Cid – Pierre Corneille
• La Vega del Parnaso – Lope de Vega
• Discourse on the Method – René Descartes
• Two New Sciences by Galileo Galilei
• Alcione – Pierre du Ryer
• Argalus and Parthenia – Henry Glapthorne
• The City Match – Jasper Mayne
• Horace – Pierre Corneille
• The Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in North America
• Joseph's coloured Coat – Thomas Fuller
• Meditations on First Philosophy – René Descartes
• Episcopacy by Divine Right – Joseph Hall
• The Cardinall – James Shirley
• A Joviall Crew – Richard Brome
• September: Playhouses closed in England by government order.
• Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne
• Saul by Pierre du Ryer
• Principles of Philosophy – René Descartes
• Areopagitica by John Milton
• Andronicus or the Unfortunate Politician – Thomas Fuller
• Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors – Sir Thomas Browne
• Philosophical Poems – Henry More
• The Amorous War – Jasper Mayne
• Hesperides by Robert Herrick (poet)Padmavati – Alaol
• Eikon Basilike – John Gauden
• Silex scintillans – Henry VaughanEl alcalde de Zalamea – Pedro Calderón de la BarcaLeviathan – Thomas HobbesReliquiae Wottonianiae – Sir Henry Wotton Jeune Alcidiane – Marin le Roy de Gomberville
• Brief Character of the Low Countries – Owen Feltham
• Theophilia or Love's Sacrifice – Edward Benlowes
• The Cardinall – James Shirley
• A History of New England – Edward Johnson
• The Compleat Angler – Izaak Walton
• Poems and Fancies – Margaret Cavendish
• The Princess Cloria – Percy Herbert, 2nd Baron Powis
• Lucifer – Joost van den Vondel
• Parlhenissa, a novel – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery
• L'Étourdi ou les Contretemps first play by MolièreEl gran teatro del mundo – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Nature's Pictures – Margaret Cavendish
• Oceana by James Harrington
• Guárdate del agua mansa – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Katharina von Georgien by Andreas Gryphius
• Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial – Sir Thomas Browne
• The Garden of Cyrus -Sir Thomas BrowneSati Mayna O Lorchandrani – Alaol
• Lucasta – Richard Lovelace
• Pharonnida – William ChamberlayneTohfa – Alaol
• Elementa jurisprudentiae universalis libri duo by Samuel von Pufendorf
• A new edition of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.
• La Thébaïde – Jean Racine
• Alexandre le Grand – Jean Racine
• Memoires of François Bassompierre Saptapaykar – Alaol
• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan
• Paradise Lost by John Milton
• Andromaque by Jean Racine
• Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders 1666 – John Dryden
• Secret Love – John Dryden
• Le Tartuffe – Molière
• The Miser – Molière
• Simplicius Simplicissimus – Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen
• Cyprianus Anglicanus – Peter Heylin
• Essay of Dramatick Poesie – John Dryden
• Observations upon Experimental Philosophy – Margaret CavendishSaifulmuluk O Badiujjamal – Alaol
• Pensées by Blaise Pascal
• The Conquest of Granada – John Dryden
• Madame de Sévigné writes her first letter
• Samson Agonistes – John Milton
• The Rehearsal (play) – George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham performedSikandarnama – Alaol
• Bajacet by Jean Racine
• Marriage à la mode by John Dryden
• The Rehearsal (play) by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham published
• Iphigénie by Jean Racine
• The Tragedy of Nero, Emperour of Rome – Nathaniel Lee
• The Country Wife by William Wycherley
• Gerania; a New Discovery of a Little Sort of People, anciently discoursed of, called Pygmies by Joshua Barnes
• The Man of Mode – George Etherege
• English-Adventures by a Person of Honor – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery
• Phèdre – Jean Racine
• Treatise of the Art of War – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery
• All for Love – John Dryden
• The True Intellectual System of the Universe – Ralph Cudworth
• The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
• Threnodia Carolina – Sir Thomas Herbert
• Anima Mundi – Charles Blount
• The Life and Death of Mr Badman – John Bunyan
• Miscellaneous Poems by Andrew Marvell
• Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden
• The Life of an Amorous Man by Ihara Saikaku
• Five Women Who Loved Love by Ihara Saikaku
• The Life of an Amorous Woman by Ihara SaikakuPhilosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica - Isaac Newton
• The Hind and the Panther – John Dryden
• The Hind and the Panther Transversed to the Story of the Country and the City Mouse – Matthew Prior
• Bellamira, or The Mistress – Sir Charles Sedley
• The Great Mirror of Male Love by Ihara Saikaku
• The Eternal Storehouse of Japan by Ihara Saikaku
• The Massacre of Paris – Nathaniel Lee
• Table Talk – John Selden
• Amphitryon, or the Two Socias – John Dryden
• An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – John Locke
• Memoires of the Navy by Samuel Pepys
• Athalie – Jean Racine
• Reckonings that Carry Men Through the World or This Scheming World by Ihara Saikaku
• The Impartial Critick – John Dennis
• The Fatal Marriage – Thomas Southerne
• Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon starts writings his Memoirs
• A New Voyage Round the World – William Dampier
• The Campaigners – Thomas D'Urfey
• Dialogues of the Dead – William King and Charles Boyle

Translations

• The Bible - translated into Italian by Giovanni Diodati
• Don Quixote - translated into Italian by Lorenzo Franciosini
• Euclid's Elements - translated into Chinese by Xu Guangqi
• Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by Ibn Tufail – translated into Latin by Edward Pococke the Younger, translated into Dutch by Johannes Bouwmeester, and translated into English by George Ashwell
• The works of Tacitus - translated into Italian by Adriano Politi

Births

• 1600 – Marin le Roy de Gomberville
• 1601 – Baltasar Gracián
• 1602 – Jean-Jacques Boissard
• 1603 – Pierre Corneille
• 1605 – Thomas Browne
• 1607 – Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla
• 1608 – Padre António Vieira/ John Milton
• 1609 – Jean Rotrou
• 1611 – William Cartwright; Thomas Urquhart
• 1613 – John Cleveland
• 1615 – Tanneguy Lefebvre
• 1617 – Ralph Cudworth
• 1620 – Lucy Hutchinson
• 1621 – Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen
• 1622 – Molière
• 1623 – Blaise Pascal
• 1625 – Thomas Corneille
• 1626 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné
• 1627 – John Flavel
• 1628 – Miguel de Molinos
• 1630 – Isaac Barrow
• 1631 – John Dryden
• 1632 – John Locke
• 1632 – Baruch Spinoza
• 1633 – Samuel Pepys
• 1639 – Thomas Ellwood
• 1640 – Aphra Behn
• 1642 – Isaac Newton
• 1643 – Gilbert Burnet
• 1644 – Matsuo Bashō
• 1646 – Gottfried Leibniz
• 1648 – Robert Barclay
• 1651 – William Dampier
• 1652 – Thomas Otway
• 1657 – Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle
• 1667 – Jonathan Swift
• 1668 – Alain-René Lesage
• 1675 – Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
• 1681 – Robert Keith
• 1685 – George Berkeley
• 1689 – Samuel Richardson
• 1694 – Voltaire
• 1698 – Metastasio

Deaths

• 1600 – Richard Hooker (theologian)
• 1605 – John Stow
• 1607 – Sir Edward Dyer
• 1612 – Juan de la Cueva; Robert Armin
• 1615 – Mateo Alemán
• 1616 – William Shakespeare; Miguel de Cervantes; Francis Beaumont; Richard Hakluyt
• 1621 – Guillaume du Vair
• 1623 – William Camden
• 1624 – Stephen Gosson
• 1625 – John Fletcher; Thomas Lodge
• 1626 – Lancelot Andrewes; Samuel Purchas
• 1627 – Luis de Góngora
• 1631 – Michael Drayton; Guillén de Castro y Bellvis
• 1633 – Abraham Fraunce
• 1634 – George Chapman
• 1635 – Lope de Vega; Thomas Randolph; Richard Corbet; John Hall
• 1638 – Robert Aytoun
• 1639 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón
• 1640 – Philip Massinger; Robert Burton
• 1641 – Augustine Baker
• 1643 – William Cartwright
• 1644 – Luis Vélez de Guevara; Francis Quarles
• 1645 – Francisco de Quevedo; William Lithgow
• 1647 – Francis Meres
• 1648 – Tirso de Molina; Alonso de Castillo Solórzano; George Abbot; Vincent Voiture
• 1650 – René Descartes
• 1658 – Baltasar Gracián; Pierre du Ryer
• 1660 – Thomas Urquhart
• 1661 – María de Zayas y Sotomayor
• 1662 – François le Métel de Boisrobert
• 1667 – Georges de Scudéry
• 1672 – Anne Bradstreet; Tanneguy Lefebvre
• 1673 – Molière
• 1674 – Marin le Roy de Gomberville
• 1676 – Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen
• 1678 – Andrew Marvell
• 1679 – Thomas Hobbes
• 1681 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• 1682 – Thomas Browne
• 1685 – Thomas Otway
• 1688 – John Bunyan; Ralph Cudworth
• 1689 – Aphra Behn
• 1691 – Richard Baxter; John Flavel
• 1696 – Miguel de Molinos; Madame de Sévigné