1700 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1700.

Events

 * February 1 – Richard Bentley becomes Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
 * Early March - William Congreve's comedy The Way of the World is first performed at the New Theatre, Lincoln's Inn Fields in London.
 * May 5 – Within days of John Dryden's death on May 1, his last written work, The Secular Masque, is performed as part of Vanbrugh's version of The Pilgrim.

Fiction

 * Aphra Behn (died 1689) – Histories, Novels, and Translations (fiction and nonfiction)
 * Tom Brown – Amusements Serious and Comical
 * Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras – Mémoires de Monsieur d'Artagnan
 * Peter Anthony Motteux, editor – The History of the Renown'd Don-Quixote de la Mancha, translated by several hands, Volume 1 (Volumes 2–4 published in 1712 in the third edition)

Drama

 * Anonymous – Caledonia, or the Pedlar Turned Merchant
 * Abel Boyer – Achilles; or, Iphigenia in Aulis: a tragedy
 * William Burnaby – The Reformed Wife
 * Susannah Centlivre – The Perjur'd Husband; or, The Adventures of Venice: A tragedy
 * Colley Cibber – The Tragical History of King Richard III
 * William Congreve – The Way of the World, a comedy performed in March
 * John Dennis – Iphigenia: A tragedy, performed in December 1699
 * George Farquhar – The Constant Couple
 * Charles Gildon – Measure for Measure
 * Charles Hopkins – Friendship Improv'd; or, The Female Warriour: A tragedy, performed November 7, 1699
 * Francis Manning – The Generous Choice
 * John Oldmixon – The Grove, or Love's Paradise published ("semi-opera", music by Henry Purcell)
 * William Philips – St. Stephen's Green
 * Mary Pix – The Beau Defeated
 * Nicholas Rowe – The Ambitious Stepmother
 * Thomas Southerne – The Fate of Capua: A tragedy, performed about April
 * John Vanbrugh – The Pilgrim: A comedy, anonymous; performed in April

Poetry
See 1700 in poetry
 * Richard Blackmore – A Satyr Against Wit
 * Thomas Brown – A Description of Mr. Dryden's Funeral, verse
 * Samuel Cobb – Poetae Britannici
 * Daniel Defoe – The Pacificator
 * Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz – Fama y obras póstumas del Fénix de México
 * William King – The Transactioneer With Some of his Philosophical Fancies (satire of Philosophical Transactions)
 * John Pomfret – Reason
 * John Tutchin – The Foreigners, published anonymously (verse satire on William III's Dutch ministers; Daniel Defoe replied in The True-Born Englishman in 1701))
 * Ned Ward – The Reformer

Non-fiction

 * Mary Astell – Some Reflections upon Marriage
 * James Brome – Travels over England, Scotland, and Wales
 * Jeremy Collier – A Second Defence of the Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage &c (See 1698 in literature)
 * Eugenia (authorship unknown) – The Female Advocate: Or, a plea for the just liberty of the tender sex, and particularly of married women...
 * Francis Moore – Vox Stellarum: An almanac for 1701 (first in a series of yearly "almanacs" of astrology)
 * Sir William Temple – Letters Written by Sir W. Temple, and Other Ministers of State, Both at Home and Abroad (putatively edited by Jonathan Swift)
 * Pavao Ritter Vitezović – Croatia Rediviva
 * Ned Ward – A Step to the Bath: With a character of the place, published anonymously
 * Anonymous; perhaps Daniel Defoe – Castration of Popish Ecclesiastics

Births

 * February 2 – Johann Christoph Gottsched, German philosopher (died 1766)
 * May 25 – Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, German theologian (died 1760)
 * September 11 – James Thomson, Scottish poet (died 1748)
 * November 25 – Kata Bethlen, Hungarian memoirist and correspondent (died 1759)

Deaths

 * January 7 – Raffaello Fabretti, Italian antiquary (born 1618)
 * March 14 – Henry Killigrew, English clergyman, poet and playwright (born 1613)
 * May 12
 * Joseph Athias, Spanish-born publisher of Hebrew Bible (born 1635)
 * John Dryden, English poet (born 1631)
 * July – Thomas Creech, English translator (born 1659; suicide)
 * August 6 – Johann Beer, Austrian author, court official and composer (born 1655; hunting accident)
 * August 8 – Joseph Moxon, English mathematician and lexicographer (born 1627)
 * August 22 – Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Mexican priest, poet, geographer, and historian (born 1645)
 * Unknown date – Charles Hopkins, Anglo-Irish poet and dramatist (born 1664)