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.^[1]
• unknown date – Richard Mead is appointed physician at St Thomas's Hospital, London.^[2]

New books

Prose

• Joseph Addison – A Letter from Italy^[3]
• 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)^[4]
• 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)^[5]
  • Charles Clémencet, French historian (died 1778)^[6]
  • Thomas Cooke, English writer and translator (died 1756)^[7]
  • John Ranby, English surgeon and writer on surgery (died 1773)^[8]
  • Ando Shoeki (安藤 昌益), Japanese philosopher (died 1762)
  • Gilbert West, English poet and translator (died 1756)^[9]

Deaths

• January 11 – Johann Georg Graevius, German critic (born 1632)^[10]
• February 17 – Philippe Goibaud-Dubois, French translator (born 1626)
• March 3 – Robert Hooke, English natural philosopher (born 1635)^[11]
• 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)^[12]
• May 26 – Samuel Pepys, English diarist (born 1633)^[13]
• August 21 – Thomas Tryon, English self-help author (born 1634)^[14]
• September 29 – Charles de Saint-Évremond, French essayist and literary critic (born 1631)
• unknown date – Samuel Johnson, English pamphleteer (born 1649)