1710 in literature

The year 1710 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• After Thomas Betterton's death in April, the great Shakespearean roles he had dominated for a generation were divided up among fellow actors Barton Booth, Robert Wilks, and John Mills. (Mills got Macbeth.)
• Colley Cibber becomes manager of Drury Lane theatre.
• Antoine Houdar de la Motte is elected to the Académie française.

New books

• Joseph Addison - The Whig Examiner (periodical)
• George Berkeley - Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
• Lady Mary Chudleigh - Essays Upon Several Occasions
• Colley Cibber - The Secret History of Arlus and Odolphus (roman á clef)
• Anthony Collins - A Vindication of the Divine Attributes
• Shaftesbury - Soliloquy
• Daniel Defoe - An Essay Upon Public Credit (on the balance of trade)
• George Farquhar - Barcellona
• George Hickes - Collection of Controversial Letters
• John Leland - The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary
• Gottfried Leibniz - Théodicée (Theodicy)
• Delarivière Manley - Memoirs of Europe (satire)
• Cotton Mather - Bonifacius: Essays To Do Good
• Ambrose Philips - Pastorals (igniting the argument with Alexander Pope)
• Jonathan Swift - Journal to Stella begun (not officially published until over a century after his death)
  • - A Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick
• Christian Wolff - Anfangsgründe aller mathematischen Wissenschaften
• Various - The Examiner - Remarks upon Papers and Occurrences (periodical)
  • - The Medley (a miscellany by Arthur Manwaring and other whigs)

New drama

• William Congreve - Semele, an "unacted opera"
• Aaron Hill - Elfrid
• Charles Johnson - The Force of Friendship

Births

• April 13 - Jonathan Carver, explorer and writer (died 1780)
• April 26, Thomas Reid, Scottish philosophical writer (died 1796)
• October 24 - Alban Butler, hagiographer (died 1773)
• November 8 - Sarah Fielding, novelist (died 1768)
• November 13 - Charles Simon Favart, dramatist (died 1792)
• November 27 - Robert Lowth, poet and grammarian
• date unknown
  • George Alexander Stevens, dramatist and poet
  • Floyer Sydenham, classical scholar
  • Thomas Arne, composer

Deaths

• February 16 - Esprit Fléchier, preacher and memoirist (born 1632)
• April 28 - Thomas Betterton, actor (born c.1635)
• date unknown
  • Henry Aldrich, theologian and philosopher (born 1647)
  • George Bull, theologian
  • Jean Donneau de Visé, journalist and historian (born 1638)
  • Louise de la Vallière, later the subject of a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père (born 1644)
  • Lady Mary Chudleigh, author
• probable
  • Marcus Meibomius, Biblical and classical scholar