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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1680.

Events

  • February – Thomas Otway's blank verse tragedy The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage is premiered in London.
  • The spring/summer production of Nathaniel Lee's Theodosius at Dorset Garden features Henry Purcell's earliest theatre music.
  • August 8 – The Comédie-Française is founded by decree of King Louis XIV to merge the two Parisian acting troupes of the time, those of the Guénégaud Theatre and the Hôtel de Bourgogne.
  • unknown dates
  • The poem-book Leabhar Cloinne Aodha Buidhe is transcribed by Ruairí Ó hUiginn of Sligo at the command of Cormac Ó Neill.
  • Innerpeffray Library, the oldest known (and surviving) public (lending) library in Scotland, is established.

New books

Prose

  • John Bunyan – The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
  • Gilbert Burnet – Some Passages of the Life and Death of...John Earl of Rochester
  • Sor Juana Inéz de la Cruz – Neptuno alegórico
  • Pedro Cubero – Peregrinación del mundo
  • Pu Songling – Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (in manuscript only)
  • Sir Robert Filmer – Patriarcha published (written 1642)

Drama

  • Aphra Behn – The Revenge
  • Pedro Calderón de la Barca – Hado y Divisa de Leonido y Marfisa
  • John Crowne – The Misery of Civil War, adapted from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2 and Part 3
  • Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle – Aspar
  • Nathaniel Lee
  • Lucius Junius Brutus
  • The Princess of Cleve
  • Theodosius
  • Lewis Maidwell – The Loving Enemies
  • Thomas Otway
  • The History and Fall of Caius Marius published
  • The Orphan
  • The Soldier's Fortune
  • Jacques Pradon – Statira
  • Elkanah Settle
  • Fatal Love
  • The Female Prelate
  • Nahum Tate – The Loyal General
  • William Whitaker – The Conspiracy

Births

  • January 23 – Joseph Ames, English author (died 1759)
  • September 22 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (died 1747)
  • Unknown dates
  • Nicola Coleti, Italian historian and priest (died 1765)
  • Lady Elizabeth Germain, English philanthropist and correspondent (died 1769)
  • Probable year of birth
  • Ephraim Chambers, English encyclopedist (died 1740)
  • Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna, Irish poet in Gaelic (died 1756)
  • Nezim Frakulla, Albanian poet (died 1760)

Deaths

  • January 20 – Ann, Lady Fanshawe, English memoirist (born 1625)
  • March 14 – René Le Bossu, French critic (born 1631)
  • March 17 – François de La Rochefoucauld, French dramatist and writer of maxims (born 1613)
  • March 27 – William Maurice, Welsh antiquary (born c.1620)
  • June 18 – Samuel Butler, English satirical poet (born 1612)
  • July 3 – John Martyn, English publisher and bookseller
  • July 26 – John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet (born 1647)
  • November – Carr Scrope, English poet (born 1649)
  • December 4 – Thomas Bartholin, Danish scientist and theologian (born 1616)
  • unknown date – François de Grenaille, French dramatist and translator (born 1616)

References