1678 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1678.

Events

• February - English dramatist Thomas Otway, perhaps escaping from an unhappy love affair with his leading actress, obtains a commission in an English regiment serving in the Franco-Dutch War, and is sent in July to Flanders.
• February 18 - The first part of English nonconformist John Bunyan's Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress (partly written while he was imprisoned for unlicensed preaching) is published in London.
• March - Publication in Paris of the novel La Princesse de Clèves, presumed to be by Madame de La Fayette, set in 1558–59 and an early example of a psychological novel.
• November - English printer Joseph Moxon becomes the first tradesman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

New books

• Manuel Ambrosio de Filguera - Si sea lícito hacer los autos sacramentales en las iglesias
• Jacob Boehme - Mysterium Magnum, oder Erkärung über das Erste Buch Mosis (Amsterdam & Frankfurt; contains a portrait of Boehme by N. van Werd)
• John Bunyan - The Pilgrim's Progress
• Ralph Cudworth - The True Intellectual System of the Universe
• Madame de La Fayette (published anonymously) - La Princesse de Clèves
• Sir Thomas Herbert - Threnodia Carolina
• Thomas Hobbes - Decameron Physiologicum
• Josiah King - The Examination and Trial of Old Father Christmas Together with his Clearing by the Jury
• The Mowing-Devil: or, Strange News out of Hartford-Shire (a woodcut showing what is alleged to be the first crop circle)
• The Works of Geber, Englished by Richard Russell.
• Thomas Rymer - The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered

New drama

• John Banks - The Destruction of Troy
• Aphra Behn - Sir Patient Fancy
• William Chamberlain - Wits Led by the Nose, or a Poet's Revenge published
• John Dryden
  • All for Love
  • The Kind Keeper
• Thomas d'Urfey
  • Trick for Trick
  • Squire Old-Sapp, or the Night Adventurers
• Edward Howard - The Man of Newmarket
• John Learned
  • The Counterfeits
  • The Rambling Justice
• Thomas Otway - Friendship in Fashion
• Samuel Pordage - The Siege of Babylon
• Edward Ravenscroft - The English Lawyer (adapted from George Ruggle's Latin play Ignoramus)
  • Titus Andronicus, or the Rape of Lavinia (adapted from Shakespeare's play)
• Thomas Shadwell
  • The History of Timon of Athens the Man-Hater
  • A True Widow
• Nahum Tate - Brutus of Alba

Poetry

• Anne Bradstreet - Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning (posthumously published)
• Samuel Butler - Hudibras, Part 3
• Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter - Själens aandelige Sangoffer ("The Souls Spiritual Offering of Song")

Births

• January 10 – Paul Gabriel Antoine, French theologian (died 1743)
• July – Thomas Hearne, editor of medieval manuscripts (died 1735)
• December 14 – Daniel Neal, English historian (died 1743)
• Unknown dates
  • Thomas Sherlock, English religious writer and bishop (died 1761)
  • William Wogan, Welsh religious writer in English (died 1758)
• Probable year of birth – George Farquhar, dramatist (died 1707)

Deaths

• January 16 – Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé, French writer and salonnière (born 1599)
• April 12 – Sir Thomas Stanley, English poet, writer and translator (born 1625)
• May 4 – Abraham Woodhead, English Catholic writer (born 1609)
• May 14 or 15 – Anna Maria van Schurman, Dutch poet and scholar (born 1607)
• August 16 – Andrew Marvell, English poet and politician (born 1621)
• August 17 – Guillaume Herincx, Netherlandish theologian (born 1621)
• November 21 – Robert Thoroton, English antiquary (born 1623)
• Unknown dates
  • Theophilus Gale, English theologian (born 1628)
  • Jean de Launoy, French historian (born 1603)
• Probable year of birth – Richard Flecknoe English dramatist and poet (born c. 1600)

In literature

• The action of Walter Scott's novel Peveril of the Peak (1823) centres on the Popish Plot beginning in this year.