1673 in literature

Events

• February 10 – The première of Molière's comédie-ballet The Imaginary Invalid takes place in Paris. During the fourth performance, on February 17, the playwright, playing the title rôle, collapses on stage, dying soon after.
• Thomas Killigrew is appointed Master of the Revels in England, on the death of his predecessor, Sir Henry Herbert.
• In response to events of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, John Dryden's topical play Amboyna, about happenings in the East Indies, is reportedly "contrived and written in a month" – certainly one of the fastest acts of solo dramatic composition known. The play is premièred on stage in May.
• Elkanah Settle's tragedy The Empress of Morocco, premièred on July 3 at the Dorset Gardens Theatre in London by the Duke's Company, is published in quarto; in addition to its frontispiece illustration, the quarto contains five woodcuts depicting scenes in the play – the first English play text illustrated in this way. Settle's play also inspires a farce with the same title, probably by Thomas Duffet, performed by the King's Company and published the following year.
• Archpriest Petrovich Avvakum writes his Zhitie, as the first Russian autobiography.
• Antonio Magliabechi is appointed librarian to Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

  New books

Prose

• Bathsua Makin – An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen
• England's appeal from the Private Cabal at Whitehall to the Great Council of the Nation by a true Lover of his Country – pamphlet attributed to Sir William Coventry
• Francis Kirkman – The Unlucky Citizen
• John Ray – Observations topographical, moral, and physiological, made on a Journey through part of the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France
• Johannes Schefferus – Lapponia
• Shugi Washo
• Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet – Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands
• Thomas Traherne – Roman Forgeries

  Drama

• Aphra Behn – The Dutch Lover
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca – La vida es sueño
• Sir William Davenant – News from Plymouth, The Law Against Lovers, The Fair Favourite, and The Siege published posthumously
• John Dryden
• *Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants
• *Marriage à la Mode
• Thomas Duffet – The Spanish Rogue
• Molière – Le malade imaginaire
• Henry Nevil Payne – The Fatal Jealousy
• Edward Ravenscroft – The Careless Lovers
• Elkanah Settle – The Empress of Morocco

  Poetry

• Poems of Mr. John Milton
• Bernarda Ferreira de la Cerda – España libertada

  Births

• January 1 – Johannes Kelpius, German Pietist writer
• October 26 – Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian prince and man of letters
• Unknown dates
• *Antoine Banier, French historian and translator
• *George Lockhart, Scottish politician and writer
• *John Oldmixon, English historian

  Deaths

• February 17 – Molière, French playwright
• March – Joseph Caryl, English Biblical commentator and preacher
• March 15 – Salvator Rosa, Italian painter and poet
• May 4 – Richard Brathwait, English poet
• November 16 – Katarina Zrinska, Croatian poet
• December 15 – Margaret Cavendish, English writer and scientist
• Unknown date – Ingen, Chinese-born Buddhist poet