# 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.

## New books
### 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)