1690 in literature

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The year 1690 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• December 10 - Playwright Henry Nevil Payne is tortured for his role in the "Montgomery Plot" to restore James II to the throne — the last time a political prisoner is subjected to torture in Britain.
• Colley Cibber becomes an actor with the Drury Lane company.

New books

• Nicholas Barbon - A Discourse of Trade.
• Pierre Bayle (attr.) - Avis important aux refugies.
• Sir Thomas Browne - A Letter to a Friend (published posthumously).
• John Locke - An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
• Samuel Pepys - Memoires of the Navy.
• Baro Urbigerus - Aphorismi Urbigerani

New drama

• John Bancroft - King Edward III, with the Fall of Mortimer, Earl of March
• Aphra Behn - The Widow Ranter (published posthumously)
• Thomas Betterton - The Prophetess, or The History of Dioclesian (adapted from Fletcher and Massinger's The Prophetess; with music by Henry Purcell)
• Edmé Boursault - Esope à la ville
• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery - Mr. Anthony published
• John Crowne - The English Friar, or the Town Sparks
• John Dryden
  • Amphitryon, or the Two Sosias
  • Don Sebastian
• George Powell
  • Alphonso, King of Naples
  • The Treacherous Brothers
• Elkanah Settle - Distress'd Innocence, or The Princess of Persia
• Thomas Shadwell - The Scourers
• Thomas Southerne - Sir Anthony Love
• "W. C." - The Rape Reveng'd, or the Spanish Revolution (adapted from William Rowley's All's Lost by Lust)

Poetry

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Births

• February 3 - Richard Rawlinson, collector of manuscripts and curiosities (died 1755)
• September 12 - Peter Dens, Belgian Catholic theologian (died 1775)

Deaths

• May 12 - John Rushworth, author of Historical Collections (born c. 1612)
• October 3 - Robert Barclay, Quaker writer (born c. 1648)
• date unknown - Franciscus Plante, poet (born 1613)