1666 in literature

Events

• June 4 – Molière's comedy of manners Le Misanthrope is premièred at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris by the King's Players.
• July – Aphra Behn goes to Antwerp to work as a government spy.
• August 6 – Molière's comedy Le Médecin malgré lui is premièred at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris by the King's Players with Molière himself playing the title character, Sganarelle.
• September 2 – Samuel Pepys begins recording details of the Great Fire of London in his diary. The destruction of Old St Paul's Cathedral in the conflagration also destroys the stock of many London publishers, which is stored in the crypt. This probably includes unsold copies of the Third Folio of Shakespeare's works.

  New books

Prose

• Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux – Satires du Sieur D....
• Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne –
• *A Description of a New World Called the Blazing-World
• *Observations upon Experimental Philosophy
• John Bunyan – Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
• Thomas Hobbes – De principiis et ratiocinatione geometrarum
• Gottfried Leibniz – De Arte Combinatoria

  Drama

• James Howard – The English Monsieur
• William Killigrew – The Siege of Urbin
• Molière
• *Le Médecin malgré lui
• *Le Misanthrope
• Juan de Zabaleta – El emperador Commodo

  Births

• March 21 – Ogyū Sorai, Japanese Confucian philosopher
• July 10 – John Ernest Grabe, German-born English theologian
• August 13
• *René Massuet, French patrologist
• *William Wotton, English theologian, classicist and translator
• November 12 – Mary Astell, English feminist writer
• Unknown dates
• *Josiah Burchett, English writer on history and Admiralty official
• *Mary Pix, English novelist and dramatist
• Probable year of birth – John Harris, English encyclopedist

  Deaths

• June 30 – Alexander Brome, English humorous poet and translator
• August 24 – Dom Francisco Manuel de Mello, Portuguese writer
• October 29 – James Shirley, English dramatist
• November – Jeremias de Dekker, Dutch poet
• Unknown dates
• *Gysbert Japiks, Frisian writer
• *Song Yingxing, Chinese encyclopedist