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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 (volume 1)
  • 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)

References