1677 in literature

• January 1 – Jean Racine's tragedy Phèdre is first performed, at the Hôtel de Bourgogne (theatre) in Paris.
• February
• Nathaniel Lee's blank verse tragedy The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great is performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, with Mrs. Charlotte Melmoth as Roxana.{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Birley |authorlink=Robert Birley |title=Sunk without Trace: some forgotten masterpieces reconsidered |url=https://archive.org/details/sunkwithouttrace0000birl |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=Rupert Hart-Davis |year=1962}}
• Thomas Killigrew, ineffective after four years as Master of the Revels, is replaced by his son Charles.{{cite book|author=Western Reserve University|title=Western Reserve University Bulletin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GMrOAAAAMAAJ|year=1931|publisher=Western Reserve University|page=14}}
• September – Edward Ravenscroft's tragicomedy King Edgar and Alfreda, on the subject of King Edgar of England.{{cite book|author=Pierre Danchin|title=The Prologues and Epilogues of the Restoration, 1660-1700: A Complete Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kANaAAAAMAAJ|year=1981|publisher=Publications Université Nancy II|isbn=978-2-86480-162-7|page=76}} Thomas Rymer's less successful play on the same subject is published in 1678.{{cite book|title=The Encyclopedia Americana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pxhZAAAAYAAJ|year=1999|publisher=Grolier Incorporated|isbn=978-0-7172-0131-0}}
• date unknown
• Roger Morrice begins his Entring Book, a manual diary describing society in the period 1677 to 1691.
• Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh's Grammatica Latino-Hibernica nunc compendiata, the first printed grammar of the Irish language (in Latin), is published by the Congregation of Propaganda Fide in Rome in the year of his death.{{cite book |editor=Moody, T. W. |title=A New History of Ireland. 8: A Chronology of Irish History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-19-821744-2 |display-editors=etal}}

• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – Treatise of the Art of War
• Edward Cocker – Cocker's Arithmetick
• Christian Knorr von Rosenroth – Kabbala Denudata (publication starts)
• John Mason – Major Mason's Brief History of the Pequot War
• John Milton – The History of Britain
• Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford – A Philosophical Essay of Music
• Eirenaeus Philalethes – An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Vision.
• Baruch Spinoza – Opera Posthuma (with first known publication of his Ethics)
• Fabian Stedman – Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing

• John Banks – The Rival Kings (adapted from la Calprenède's Cassandre)
• Aphra Behn
• The Rover{{cite journal |last1=Copeland |first1=Nancy |title=Review of The Theatre of Aphra Behn |journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology |volume=102 |issue=3 |pages=442–444 |date=2003 |jstor=27712366 }}
• The Counterfeit Bridegroom
• The Debauchee (adapted from Richard Brome's A Mad Couple Well-Match'd)
• Thomas Betterton – The Counterfeit Bridegroom
• William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle – The Humorous Lovers and The Triumphant Widow published
• John Crowne – The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian, Parts 1 and 2
• Charles Davenant – Circe (a "semi-opera" with music by John Banister)
• Thomas d'Urfey – A Fond Husband
• John Leanerd – The Country Innocence
• Nathaniel Lee – The Rival Queens
• Thomas Otway
• The Cheats of Scapin (adapted from Molière's Fourberies de Scapin)
• Titus and Berenice (adapted from Racine's Bérénice)
• Samuel Pordage – The Siege of Babylon
• Thomas Porter – The French Conjuror
• Jean Racine – Phèdre
• Edward Ravenscroft
• King Edgar and Alfreda
• Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a Schoolboy, Bravo a Merchant and Magician
• Thomas Rymer – Edgar, or the English Monarch
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca
• Amar después de la muerte o El Tuzaní de la Alpujarra
• Parte I de autos sacramentales, alegóricos e historiales

• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – On the Death of Abraham Cowley

• August 23 – Marie Anne Doublet, French scholar, writer and salonnière (died 1771)
• August 25 – Jean-Joseph Languet de Gergy, French theologian (died 1753)
• Unknown date – Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw, English ballad writer (born 1727)
• Probable date – George Farquhar, Irish-born dramatist (died 1707)

• February 21 – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (born 1632)
• May 24 – Anders Bording, Danish poet and journalist (born 1619)
• June 18 – Johann Franck, German poet, hymnist and politician (born 1618)
• June 24 – Dudley North, English poet, writer and politician (born 1602)
• July 9 – Angelus Silesius (Johann Scheffler), German poet and mystic (born 1624)
• September 5 – Henry Oldenburg, German-born theologian and natural philosopher (born c. 1619)
• September 11 – James Harrington, English political theorist (born 1611)
• October 14 – Francis Glisson, English medical writer and physician (born 1597)
• December 24 – Jacques de Coras, French poet (born 1630)

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