1677 in literature

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

Events

 * 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.
 * Thomas Killigrew, ineffective after four years as Master of the Revels, is replaced by his son Charles.
 * September – Edward Ravenscroft's tragicomedy King Edgar and Alfreda, on the subject of King Edgar of England. Thomas Rymer's less successful play on the same subject is published in 1678.
 * 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.

Prose

 * 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

Drama

 * John Banks – The Rival Kings (adapted from la Calprenède's Cassandre)
 * Aphra Behn
 * The Rover
 * 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

Poetry

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

Births

 * 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)

Deaths

 * 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)