1703 in literature

Events from the year 1703 in literature.

Events

 * July 29–31 – Daniel Defoe is pilloried at Temple Bar, London, as part of a sentence for seditious libel, after publishing his satirical pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702). He is released from Newgate Prison in mid-November.
 * unknown date – Richard Mead is appointed physician at St Thomas's Hospital, London.

Prose

 * 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
 * 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 (satire on Defoe)
 * Thomas Hearne – Reliquiae Bodleianae
 * George Hickes – Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus
 * Benjamin Hoadly – The Reasonableness of Conformity to the Church of England
 * Louis-Armand de Lom d'Arce de Lahontan, Baron de Lahontan – New Voyages to North America
 * Bernard de Mandeville – Some Fables After the Easie and Familiar Method of Monsieur de la Fontaine
 * Leonty Magnitsky – Arithmetic (Арифметика)
 * Henry Maundrell – A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter A.D. 1697
 * Ned Ward – The Secret History of the Calves-head Clubb (against Republicanism)
 * Benjamin Whichcote – Moral and Religious Aphorisms

Drama

 * Thomas Baker – Tunbridge Walks
 * Charles Boyle – As You Find It
 * Marie-Anne Barbier – Cornélie, mère des Gracques
 * William Burnaby – Love Betrayed
 * Susanna Centlivre – Love's Contrivance
 * Chikamatsu Monzaemon – The Love Suicides at Sonezaki (曾根崎心中, Sonezaki Shinjū)
 * Thomas d'Urfey – The Old Mode and the New
 * Richard Estcourt – The Fair Example
 * Charles Gildon – The Patriot (adapted by Nathaniel Lee)
 * John Oldmixon – The Governour of Cyprus
 * Mary Pix – The Different Widows
 * Nicholas Rowe – The Fair Penitent (published)
 * Richard Steele – The Lying Lover
 * William Walker – Marry, or Do Worse
 * Richard Wilkinson – Vice Reclaimed

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
 * Pavao Ritter Vitezović – Plorantis Croatiae saecula duo (Two centuries of Croatia in mourning)
 * See also 1703 in poetry

Births

 * March 23 – Cajsa Warg, Swedish cookbook author (died 1769)
 * May 18 – İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi, Turkish Sufi philosopher (died 1780)
 * June 28 – John Wesley, English writer of sermons and hymns (died 1791)
 * October 5 – Jonathan Edwards, American theologian (died 1758)
 * November 26 – Theophilus Cibber, English playwright (died 1758)
 * unknown dates
 * Henry Brooke, Irish novelist and dramatist (died 1783)
 * Charles Clémencet, French historian (died 1778)
 * Thomas Cooke, English writer and translator (died 1756)
 * John Ranby, English surgeon and writer on surgery (died 1773)
 * Ando Shoeki (安藤 昌益), Japanese philosopher (died 1762)
 * Gilbert West, English poet and translator (died 1756)

Deaths

 * January 11 – Johann Georg Graevius, German critic (born 1632)
 * February 17 – Philippe Goibaud-Dubois, French translator (born 1626)
 * March 3 – Robert Hooke, English natural philosopher (born 1635)
 * March 5 – Gabrielle Suchon, French moral philosopher (born 1631)
 * April 20 – Lancelot Addison, English writer and cleric (born 1632)
 * May 8 – Vincent Alsop, English religious writer and wit (born c. 1630)
 * May 16 – Charles Perrault, French writer of fairy tales (born 1628)
 * May 26 – Samuel Pepys, English diarist (born 1633)
 * August 21 – Thomas Tryon, English self-help author (born 1634)
 * September 29 – Charles de Saint-Évremond, French essayist and literary critic (born 1631)
 * unknown date – Samuel Johnson, English pamphleteer (born 1649)