1688 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1688. Events February – John Locke returns to England in the escort of Princess Mary, the same year that the first abstract of his seminal An Essay Concerning Human Understanding appears in Leclerc's Bibliotheque universelle, although the work itself is not published until the following year. December – John Dryden refuses to swear allegiance to the new monarchy after the Glorious Revolution and is dismissed as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. He is the only laureate not to die in office until the initiation of fixed-term appointments with Andrew Motion in 1999. unknown date – The fourth, first illustrated edition of John Milton's Paradise Lost is published by Jacob Tonson in London. The illustrators include John Baptist Medina. New books Prose David Abercromby – Ars explorandi medicas facultates plantarum ex solo sapore Etienne Baluze – Marca hispanica Aphra Behn: The History of the Nun, or the Fair Vow-Breaker Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave The Fair Jilt: or, the Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda Biblia de la București (Bucharest Bible, first complete translation into Romanian) Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle – Digression sur les anciens et les modernes Jean de La Bruyère – Les Caractères Ihara Saikaku (井原 西鶴) The Eternal Storehouse of Japan Tales of Samurai Honor Henry More – Divine Dialogues George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax The Anatomy of an Equivalent The Lady's New-Years Gift: or, Advice to a Daughter (anonymous)