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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1663.

Events

  • February
  • The Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (Academy of the Humanities) is founded in Paris.
  • Katherine Philips' translation of Pierre Corneille's Pompée is produced successfully at the Theatre Royal, Dublin (Smock Alley Theatre) in Ireland, as the first rhymed version of a French tragedy in English and the first English play written by a woman to be performed on a professional stage. It is published in Dublin and London later in the year.
  • London printer John Twyn is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn for producing the anonymous A Treatise of the Execution of Justice, justifying civil rebellion.
  • February 24 – John Milton marries his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, 31 years his junior, at St Mary Aldermary in the City of London.
  • May 7 – The King's Company inaugurates its new theatre, the first Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, with a revival of Fletcher's The Humorous Lieutenant. The play succeeds and runs for twelve nights in a row, unusual under the repertory system of the time.
  • August – The Playhouse to Be Let, an anthology of work by Sir William Davenant, is performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London.
  • December 1 – John Dryden marries Elizabeth, sister of Sir Robert Howard. Dryden and John Aubrey become Fellows of the Royal Society in the same year.
  • unknown dates
  • In the Electorate of Bavaria, a legal deposit law requires copies of all newly printed books to be deposited in the Bavarian State Library in Munich.
  • In England, Roger L'Estrange is appointed Surveyor of the Imprimery and Printing Presses and licenser of the press.

New books

Prose

  • Molière – '
  • John Spencer – '

Drama

  • Anonymous – The Wandering Whores' Complaint for Want of Trading (published)
  • Miguel de Barrios – '
  • Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – The General
  • George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (after Jonson) – Sir Politic Would-Be
  • Pedro Calderón de la Barca
  • '
  • '
  • Henry Cary – The Marriage Night
  • Abraham Cowley – The Cutter of Coleman Street
  • William Davenant
  • The Playhouse to Be Let (performed)
  • The Siege of Rhodes Part 2 (published)
  • John Dryden – The Wild Gallant
  • Andreas Gryphius
  • ,
  • Papinianus
  • Edward Howard – The Usurper (first performance; published 1667)
  • James Howard – The English Monsieur
  • Sir Robert Howard – The Committee
  • "T. P." – A Witty Combat, or the Female Victor (once attributed to Thomas Porter)
  • Thomas Porter – The Villain
  • Richard Rhodes – Flora's Vagaries
  • Sir Robert Stapylton
  • The Stepmother
  • The Slighted Maid
  • Sir Samuel Tuke – The Adventures of Five Hours (adapted from Antonio Coello's ')

Poetry

  • Abraham Cowley – Verses Upon Several Occasions
  • Sir William Davenant – Poem, to the King’s most sacred Majesty

Births

  • February 12 – Cotton Mather, New England Puritan author and minister (died 1728)
  • March 6 – Francis Atterbury, English man of letters and bishop (died 1732
  • March 22 – August Hermann Francke, German theologian (died 1727)
  • May 20 – William Bradford, American printer (died 1752)
  • Unknown dates
  • William King, English poet (died 1712)
  • George Stepney, English poet (died 1707)
  • Probable year of birth – Delarivier Manley, English novelist, playwright and pamphleteer (died 1724)

Deaths

  • April 5 – John Norton, English religious writer (born 1606)
  • April 17 – David Questiers, Dutch poet (born 1623)
  • July 14 – Elizabeth Egerton, countess of Bridgwater, English essayist (childbirth, born 1626)
  • October 31 – Théophile Raynaud, French theologian (born 1583)
  • December 5 – Severo Bonini, Italian music writer (born 1582)
  • Unknown date – Claude de Bourdeille, comte de Montrésor, French memoirist (born c. 1606)

References