1671 in literature

Events

• February – Nell Gwyn retires from the stage and moves into a brick townhouse at 79 Pall Mall, London.
• November 9 – The Duke's Company open their new venue, the Dorset Garden Theatre.
• Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières is awarded the first prize given for poetry by the Académie française.
• Philosophus Autodidactus, the first Latin translation of Ibn Tufail's 12th century tale Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, prepared by Edward Pococke before 1660, is published for the first time.

  New books

Prose

• Edward Bagshaw – The Life and Death of Mr Vavasor Powell
• Edward Burrough : The Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation: Namely, that True Prophet, and Faithful Servant of God, and Sufferer for the Testimony of Jesus, Edward Burroughs...
• Johann Ferdinand Hertodt – Crocologia
• John Josselyn – New England's Rarities, discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that Country
• Gottfried Leibniz – Hypothesis Physica Nova
• Pierre Martin de La Martinière – Voyage des pays septentrionaux
• Arnoldus Montanus – De nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld of Beschryving van America
• Isaac Newton – Method of Fluxions
• Jane Sharp – The Midwives Book: or the Whole Art of Midwifry Discovered
• Marie-Catherine de Villedieu – Les Amours des Grands Hommes

  Children

• James Janeway – A Token for Children

  Drama

• Aphra Behn – The Amorous Prince
• Pierre Corneille – Tite et Bérénice
• John Crowne – Juliana, or the Princess of Poland
• John Dryden – The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery
• Edward Howard – The Six Days' Adventure, or the New Utopia
• Elizabeth Polwheele – The Frolicks
• Edward Ravenscroft – Mamamouchi
• Elkanah Settle – Cambyses
• George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham & others – The Rehearsal
• William Wycherley – Love in a Wood
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca – El santo rey don Fernando

  Poetry

• John Milton – Samson Agonistes

  Births

• April 6 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French dramatist and poet
• June 11 – Colley Cibber, English playwright and Poet Laureate
• September 7 – Antoine Danchet, French dramatist and poet
• Unknown date – Gustaf Adlerfelt, Swedish historian
• Unknown date, possibly 1672 – Sarah Dixon, English poet

  Deaths

• January 1 – Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont, French historian and cleric
• January 22 – Odorico Raynaldi, Italian historian
• February 22 – Adam Olearius, German librarian and scholar
• July 14 – Méric Casaubon, Swiss-born English classicist
• September 28 – Jean de Montigny, French philosopher and poet
• December 28 – Johann Friedrich Gronovius, German classicist