1708 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1708.

Events

 * July 14 – Joseph Trapp becomes the first Oxford Professor of Poetry.
 * unknown date – Edward Lhuyd becomes a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Prose

 * Joseph Addison – The Present State of the War (pro-Marlborough tract)
 * Francis Atterbury – Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions
 * Joseph Bingham – Origines Ecclesiasticae, or Antiquities of the Christian Church, vol. 1
 * Laurent Bordelon – Mital; ou Aventures incroyables
 * Elizabeth Burnet – A Method of Devotion
 * Jeremy Collier – An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Chiefly of England, vol. 1
 * Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury – A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (opposing radical Protestantism)
 * Edmund Curll – The Charitable Surgeon
 * Anne Dacier (Anne Lefèvre) – Homer's Odyssey (prose, first translation into French)
 * John Downes – Roscius Anglicanus (historical review of the stage)
 * John Fisher, Cardinal Bishop of Rochester (executed 1535) – Funeral Sermon for Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby (originally delivered 1509; published with an anonymous preface by Thomas Baker)
 * John Gay – Wine
 * Charles Gildon
 * Libertas Triumphans (re Battle of Oudenarde)
 * The New Metamorphosis (fiction)
 * John Harris – Lexicon Technicum: Or, A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (2nd edition)
 * Aaron Hill & Nahum Tate – The Celebrated Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses, for the Armour of Achilles (from Ovid)
 * Benjamin Hoadly – The Unhappiness of the Present Establishment, and the Unhappiness of Absolute Monarchy
 * Anne de La Roche-Guilhem – La Foire de Beaucaire
 * François Leguat – Voyage et avantures de François Leguat et de ses compagnons, en deux isles désertes des Indes orientales (A new voyage to the East-Indies)
 * John Locke (died 1704) – Some Familiar Letters
 * Simon Ockley – The Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Aegypt by the Saracens (vol. 1 of History of the Saracens)
 * John Oldmixon – The British Empire in America
 * Jonathan Swift
 * Predictions for the Year 1708
 * The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions (together with part of the "Bickerstaff Papers")
 * An Argument against Abolishing Christianity

Drama

 * Thomas Baker – The Fine Lady's Airs (first performed December 18)
 * Charles Goring – Irene
 * Peter Anthony Motteux – Love's Triumph (opera)
 * Nicholas Rowe – The Royal Convert
 * William Taverner – The Disappointment
 * Lewis Theobald – The Persian Princess

Poetry

 * Richard Blackmore – The Kit-Cats
 * Ebenezer Cooke – The Sot-Weed Factor (poem)
 * Elijah Fenton – Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems
 * William King – The Art of Cookery (poem)
 * Matthew Prior – Poems on Several Occasions (see also 1707)

Births

 * April 23 – Friedrich von Hagedorn, German poet (died 1754)
 * July 8 – Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon, French dramatist (died 1775)
 * August 29 – Olof von Dalin, Swedish poet (died 1763)
 * September 2 – André le Breton, French publisher (died 1779)
 * October 16 – Albrecht von Haller, Swiss biologist and poet (died 1777)
 * unknown dates
 * Richard Dawes, English classical scholar (died 1766)
 * Thomas Seward, English poet (died 1790)

Deaths

 * January 1 – Johannes Kelpius, German polymath (born 1673)
 * March 4 – Thomas Ward, English Catholic writer (born 1652)
 * March 5 – Charles Le Gobien, French Jesuit writer (born 1653)
 * March 15 – William Walsh, English poet and critic (born 1662)
 * October 11 – Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German philosopher (born 1651)
 * October 21
 * Kata Szidónia Petrőczy, Hungarian Baroque writer (born 1659)
 * Christian Weise, German dramatist and poet (born 1642)
 * October 22 – Hermann Witsius, Dutch theologian (born 1636)
 * November 15 – Gregory Hascard, English religious writer and cleric (year of birth unknown)
 * unknown date – Nikolai Spathari (Nicolae Milescu), Moldavian travel writer and diplomat (born 1636)