# 1697 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1697.

## Events

* May 7 – The 13th century royal Tre Kronor ("Three Crowns") castle in Stockholm burns to the ground and a large portion of the royal library is destroyed.
* The actors of the Comédie-Italienne in Paris announce a performance of La fausse prude (The False Hypocrite), a play that ridicules King Louis XIV of France's wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, which causes the King to disband the company.
* George Farquhar arrives in London from Dublin.
* Thomas Corneille publishes his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses into French.
* Daniel Defoe's An Essay Upon Projects suggests insurance, an income tax and the education of women, among other public measures.
* First publication of the 13th century Heimskringla in Old Norse, with Swedish and Latin translations by Johan Peringskiöld in Stockholm

## New books
### Prose

* Mary Astell – A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II
* Pierre Bayle – Dictionnaire historique et critique (Historical and Critical Dictionary, first part, publication continued until 1702)
* Richard Blackmore – King Arthur
* Thomas Burnet – Remarks upon An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (on John Locke)
* William Congreve – The Birth of the Muse
* William Dampier – A New Voyage Round the World
* Daniel Defoe – An Essay Upon Projects
* John Dryden
** Alexander's Feast; or, The Power of Musique (ode)
** The Works of Virgil
* John Evelyn – Numismata: A discourse of medals
* Jane Lead – A Fountain of Gardens
* John Locke
** A Letter to the Right Reverend Edward Ld Bishop of Worcester
** Mr Locke's Reply to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Worcester's Answer to his Letter
** A Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity
* Charles Perrault (as Pierre Perrault Darmancourt) – Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec dez moralitez: Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose)
* John Phillips – Augustus Britannicus
* Humphrey Prideaux – The True Nature of Imposture Fully Display'd in the Life of Mahomet
* John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester – Familiar Letters
* William Wotton – Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (setting off the English "quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns")

### Drama

* Anonymous (A Young Lady) – The Unnatural Mother
* Colley Cibber – Woman's Wit
* William Congreve – The Mourning Bride
* John Dennis – A Plot and No Plot
* Thomas Dilke – The City Lady, or Folly Reclaimed
* Thomas D'Urfey
** Cinthia and Endimion (opera)
** The Intrigues at Versailles; or, A Jilt in all Humours
* James Drake – The Sham Lawyer
* Charles Gildon – The Roman Brides Revenge
* Charles Hopkins – Boadicea, Queen of Britain
* Peter Anthony Motteux – The Novelty, or Every Act a Play
* Mary Pix
** The Deceiver Deceiv'd
** The Innocent Mistress
* George Powell – The Imposture Defeated, or a Trick to Cheat the Devil
* Jacques Pradon – Scipion
* Elkanah Settle – The World in the Moon
* John Vanbrugh
** Aesop
** The Provoked Wife
** The Relapse (performed 1696, published 1697)

## Births

* April 1 - Abbé Prévost, French writer (died 1763)
* June 16 – Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, French historian, classicist and lexicographer (died 1781)
* December 27 – Sollom Emlyn, Irish legal writer (died 1754)

## Deaths

* February 5 – Hester Biddle (Esther Biddle), English Quaker writer (born c. 1629)
* March 1 – Francesco Redi, Tuscan physician, naturalist and poet (born 1626)
* June 7 – John Aubrey, English memoirist (born 1626)
* December 9 – Scipion Abeille, French surgeon and poet (year of birth unknown)
* Unknown date – Juan del Valle y Caviedes, Spanish Peruvian poet (born 1645)
* Probable year of death – Gilbert Clerke, English mathematician, natural philosopher and theologian (born 1626)