1703 in literature

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The year 1703 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• July 29, July 30, July 31 - Daniel Defoe is pilloried for seditious libel.

New books

• Bernard de Mandeville - Some Fables After the Easie and Familiar Method of Monsieur de la Fontaine
• Benjamin Whichcote - Moral and Religious Aphorisms

New drama

• Thomas Baker - Tunbridge Walks
• William Burnaby - Love Betray'd
• Susanna Centlivre - The Stolen Heiress
• Thomas d'Urfey - The Old Mode & the New
• Richard Estcourt - The Fair Example
• Charles Gildon - The Patriot (adapt. Nathaniel Lee)
• John Oldmixon - The Governour of Cyprus
• Mary Pix - The Different Widows
• Nicholas Rowe - The Fair Penitent
• Richard Steele - The Tender Husband

Poetry

• Lady Mary Chudleigh - Poems on Several Occasions
• William Congreve
  • A Hymn to Harmony
  • The Tears of Amaryllis for Amyntas
• Sarah Fyge Egerton - Poems on Several Occasions
• See also 1703 in poetry

Non-fiction

• Joseph Addison - A Letter from Italy
• Abel Boyer - The History of the Reign of Queen Anne
• Gilbert Burnet - A Third Collection of Several Tracts and Discourses
• Edmund Calamy - A Defence of Moderate Non-Conformity
• Jeremy Collier - Mr Collier's Dissuasive from the Play-House
• Thomas Hearne - Reliquiae Bodleianae
• Benjamin Hoadly - The Reasonableness of Conformity to the Church of England
• William Dampier - A Voyage to New Holland, &c. in the Year 1699
• Daniel Defoe
  • A Brief Explanation of a Late Pamphlet, entitled, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters
  • A Dialogue Between a Dissenter and the Observator
  • A Hymn to the Funeral Sermon
  • Hymn to the Pillory
  • More Reformation: A satyr upon himself
  • The Shortest Way to Peace and Union
  • A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True-Born English-man
• John Dunton - The Shortest Way with Whores and Rogues (sat. of Defoe)
• Ned Ward - The Secret History of the Calves-head Clubb (vs. Republicanism)

Births

• March 23 - Cajsa Warg, Swedish cookbook author (died 1769)
• June 28 - John Wesley, writer of sermons and hymns (died 1791)
• October 5 - Jonathan Edwards, theologian (died 1758)
• November 26 - Theophilus Cibber, playwright (died 1758)
• date unknown
  • Henry Brooke, novelist and dramatist (died 1783)
  • Charles Clémencet, historian (died 1778)
  • Thomas Cooke, translator of Hesiod (died 1756)
  • İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi, Sufi philosopher (died 1780)
  • Ando Shoeki, philosopher (died 1762)
  • Gilbert West, poet (died 1756)

Deaths

• January 11 - Johann Georg Graevius, critic (born 1632)
• March 3 - Robert Hooke, natural philosopher (born 1635)
• March 5 - Gabrielle Suchon, moral philosopher (born 1631)
• April 20 - Lancelot Addison, father of Joseph Addison (born 1632)
• May 8 - Vincent Alsop, religious writer and wit (born c.1630)
• May 16 - Charles Perrault, French writer of fairy tales (born 1628)
• May 26 - Samuel Pepys, diarist (born 1633)
• November 19 - the original "Man in the Iron Mask"
• date unknown - Samuel Johnson, pamphleteer (born 1649)
• probable - John Crowne, dramatist