1670 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
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Aphra Behn painted by Mary Beale, c.1670

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1670.

« Il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose sans que j'en susse rien »

For more than forty years I've been speaking prose without knowing anything about it

—Monsieur Jourdain, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

Events

• January – Françoise-Marguerite, daughter of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, marries the Comte de Grignan.
• August 18 – John Dryden is appointed as historiographer royal in England.
• September 20 – Production of Mrs Aphra Behn's first play, The Forced Marriage, at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London by the Duke's Company, with Thomas Betterton in the lead.
• October 14 – Première of Molière's comedy Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by his troupe (with himself in the title rôle) before the French royal court at the Château de Chambord with incidental music by Jean-Baptiste Lully.
• November 21 – Première of Racine's tragedy Berenice by the Comédiens du Roi at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris.
• First printed edition of Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love (written in the late 14th century), edited by Serenus de Cressy, the earliest known surviving book written in English by a woman.

New books

• Charles Cotton – Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque
• Madame de La Fayette – Zayde
• Fulke Greville – The Remains of Sir Fulke Greville Lord Brooke
• Honcho Tsugan (Japanese classic text)
• Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon – The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England
• Julian of Norwich – Revelations of Divine Love
• Gilles Ménage – Dictionnaire étymologique (2nd edition)
• Blaise Pascal – Pensées (posthumously published)
• William Penn – The Great Cause of Liberty of Conscience
• John Ray – English Proverbs
• Thomas Tenison – The Creed of Mr. Hobbes Examined
• Izaak Walton – Life of George Herbert
• Leonard Willan – The Exact Politician, or Complete Statesman
• María de Ágreda - Mística ciudad de Dios y vida de la Virgen manifestada por ella misma
• Diego Saavedra Fajardo - República literaria

New drama

• Aphra Behn – The Forced Marriage
• Thomas Betterton – The Amorous Widow, or the Wanton Wife (adapted from Molière)
• John Caryll – Sir Salomon, or the Cautious Coxcomb
• John Dryden – The Conquest of Granada
• Edward Howard – The Women's Conquest
• Molière – Le Bourgeois gentilhomme
• Jean Racine – Bérénice
• Thomas Shadwell – The Humorists
• Juan Bautista Diamante - Parte I de comedias

New poetry

• Francisco de Quevedo (ed. Pedro de Alderete) - Las tres musas últimas castellanas

Births

• January 2 – Thomas Yalden, English poet, translator and clergyman (died 1736)
• January 24 – William Congreve, English dramatist (died 1729)
• April 23 – Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos, English historian and travel writer (died 1735)
• November 15 – Bernard Mandeville, Dutch-born English satirist and philosopher (died 1733)
• November 30 – John Toland, Irish controversalist (died 1722)
• December 14 – Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French historian (died 1742)
• Approximate date – Laurence Echard, English historian (died 1730

Deaths

• March 10 – Ludovicus a S. Carolo, French Carmelite scholar, writer and bibliographer (born 1608)
• June 14 – François Annat, French Jesuit theologian (born 1590)
• August 7 – Ignacio de Arbieto, Peruvian philosopher and historian (born 1585)
• October 27 – Vavasor Powell, Welsh Puritan writer and preacher (born 1617)
• November 15 – John Amos Comenius (Jan Amos Komenský), Czech teacher and author (born 1592)
• December 11 – Thomas Adams, English scholar and theologian (born 1633)