1663 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1663.

Events

• February
  • The Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (Academy of the Humanities) is founded in Paris.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Katherine Philips' translation of Pierre Corneille's Pompée is produced successfully at the Theatre Royal, Dublin (Smock Alley Theatre) in Ireland, as the first rhymed version of a French tragedy in English and the first English play written by a woman to be performed on a professional stage. It is published in Dublin and London later in the year.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • London printer John Twyn is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn for producing the anonymous A Treatise of the Execution of Justice, justifying civil rebellion.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• February 24 – John Milton marries his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, 31 years his junior, at St Mary Aldermary in the City of London.
• May 7 – The King's Company inaugurates its new theatre, the first Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, with a revival of Fletcher's The Humorous Lieutenant.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Cassell's Chronology">Template:Cite book</ref> The play succeeds and runs for twelve nights in a row, unusual under the repertory system of the time.

• August – The Playhouse to Be Let, an anthology of work by Sir William Davenant, is performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• December 1 – John Dryden marries Elizabeth, sister of Sir Robert Howard.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Dryden and John Aubrey become Fellows of the Royal Society in the same year.
• unknown dates
  • In the Electorate of Bavaria, a legal deposit law requires copies of all newly printed books to be deposited in the Bavarian State Library in Munich.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • In England, Roger L'Estrange is appointed Surveyor of the Imprimery and Printing Presses<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite SBDEL</ref> and licenser of the press.<ref name="Cassell's Chronology"/>
  • The Third Folio of Shakespeare's plays is published by Philip Chetwinde in London, adding Pericles and six plays of Shakespeare Apocrypha to the canon.
  • Publication takes place at Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the "Eliot Indian Bible" (Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God) makes it the first complete Bible published in the Americas. The translation by the English-born Puritan missionary John Eliot of the Geneva Bible from English into the Massachusett language (Natic or Wômpanâak) variety of the Algonquian languages is printed by Samuel Green.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

New books

Prose

• Molière – {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• John Spencer – Template:Proper name

Drama

• Anonymous – The Wandering Whores' Complaint for Want of Trading (published)
• Miguel de Barrios – {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – The General
• George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (after Jonson) – Sir Politic Would-Be
• Pedro Calderón de la Barca
  • {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}
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• Henry Cary – The Marriage Night
• Abraham Cowley – The Cutter of Coleman Street
• William Davenant
  • The Playhouse to Be Let (performed)
  • The Siege of Rhodes Part 2 (published)
• John Dryden – The Wild Gallant
• Andreas Gryphius
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  • Papinianus
• Edward Howard – The Usurper (first performance; published 1667)<ref>Retrieved 3 January 2017.</ref>
• James Howard – The English Monsieur
• Sir Robert Howard – The Committee
• "T. P." – A Witty Combat, or the Female Victor (once attributed to Thomas Porter)
• Thomas Porter – The Villain
• Richard Rhodes – Flora's Vagaries
• Sir Robert Stapylton
  • The Stepmother
  • The Slighted Maid<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Sir Samuel Tuke – The Adventures of Five Hours (adapted from Antonio Coello's {{#invoke:Lang|lang}})

Poetry

• Abraham Cowley – Verses Upon Several Occasions
• Sir William Davenant – Poem, to the King’s most sacred Majesty

Births

• February 12 – Cotton Mather, New England Puritan author and minister (died 1728)
• March 6 – Francis Atterbury, English man of letters and bishop (died 1732
• March 22 – August Hermann Francke, German theologian (died 1727)
• May 20 – William Bradford, American printer (died 1752)
• Unknown dates
  • William King, English poet (died 1712)
  • George Stepney, English poet (died 1707)
• Probable year of birth – Delarivier Manley, English novelist, playwright and pamphleteer (died 1724)

Deaths

• April 5 – John Norton, English religious writer (born 1606)
• April 17 – David Questiers, Dutch poet (born 1623)
• July 14 – Elizabeth Egerton, countess of Bridgwater, English essayist (childbirth, born 1626)
• October 31 – Théophile Raynaud, French theologian (born 1583)
• December 5 – Severo Bonini, Italian music writer (born 1582)
• Unknown date – Claude de Bourdeille, comte de Montrésor, French memoirist (born c. 1606)