# 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.

## New books
### 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)