1677 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1677.

• January 1 – Jean Racine's tragedy Phèdre is first performed, at the Hôtel de Bourgogne (theatre) in Paris.
• February
  • Nathaniel Lee's blank verse tragedy The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great is performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, with Mrs. Charlotte Melmoth as Roxana.^[1]
  • Thomas Killigrew, ineffective after four years as Master of the Revels, is replaced by his son Charles.^[2]
• September – Edward Ravenscroft's tragicomedy King Edgar and Alfreda, on the subject of King Edgar of England.^[3] Thomas Rymer's less successful play on the same subject is published in 1678.^[4]
• date unknown
  • Roger Morrice begins his Entring Book, a manual diary describing society in the period 1677 to 1691.
  • Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh's Grammatica Latino-Hibernica nunc compendiata, the first printed grammar of the Irish language (in Latin), is published by the Congregation of Propaganda Fide in Rome in the year of his death.^[5]

• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – Treatise of the Art of War
• Edward Cocker – Cocker's Arithmetick
• Christian Knorr von Rosenroth – Kabbala Denudata (publication starts)
• John Mason – Major Mason's Brief History of the Pequot War
• John Milton – The History of Britain
• Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford – A Philosophical Essay of Music
• Eirenaeus Philalethes – An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Vision.
• Baruch Spinoza – Opera Posthuma (with first known publication of his Ethics)
• Fabian Stedman – Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing

• John Banks – The Rival Kings (adapted from la Calprenède's Cassandre)
• Aphra Behn
  • The Rover^[6]
  • The Counterfeit Bridegroom
  • The Debauchee (adapted from Richard Brome's A Mad Couple Well-Match'd)
• Thomas Betterton – The Counterfeit Bridegroom
• William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle – The Humorous Lovers and The Triumphant Widow published
• John Crowne – The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian, Parts 1 and 2
• Charles Davenant – Circe (a "semi-opera" with music by John Banister)
• Thomas d'Urfey – A Fond Husband
• John Leanerd – The Country Innocence
• Nathaniel Lee – The Rival Queens
• Thomas Otway
  • The Cheats of Scapin (adapted from Molière's Fourberies de Scapin)
  • Titus and Berenice (adapted from Racine's Bérénice)
• Samuel Pordage – The Siege of Babylon
• Thomas Porter – The French Conjuror
• Jean Racine – Phèdre
• Edward Ravenscroft
  • King Edgar and Alfreda
  • Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a Schoolboy, Bravo a Merchant and Magician
• Thomas Rymer – Edgar, or the English Monarch
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca
  • Amar después de la muerte o El Tuzaní de la Alpujarra
  • Parte I de autos sacramentales, alegóricos e historiales

• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – On the Death of Abraham Cowley

• August 23 – Marie Anne Doublet, French scholar, writer and salonnière (died 1771)
• August 25 – Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy, French theologian (died 1753)
• Unknown date – Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw, English ballad writer (born 1727)
• Probable date – George Farquhar, Irish-born dramatist (died 1707)

• February 21 – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (born 1632)
• May 24 – Anders Bording, Danish poet and journalist (born 1619)
• June 18 – Johann Franck, German poet, hymnist and politician (born 1618)
• June 24 – Dudley North, English poet, writer and politician (born 1602)
• July 9 – Angelus Silesius (Johann Scheffler), German poet and mystic (born 1624)
• September 5 – Henry Oldenburg, German-born theologian and natural philosopher (born c. 1619)
• September 11 – James Harrington, English political theorist (born 1611)
• October 14 – Francis Glisson, English medical writer and physician (born 1597)
• December 24 – Jacques de Coras, French poet (born 1630)