1681 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1681. Events Nahum Tate's play The History of King Lear, adapted from Shakespeare's King Lear with a happy ending is first published and first performed at the Duke's Theatre, London, with Thomas Betterton as Lear and Elizabeth Barry as Cordelia. It is so well received that it supplants Shakespeare's original in every performance given until 1838. The Impartial Protestant Mercury is launched in London, one of several periodicals of the century with similar names. New books Prose Thomas Burnet – Telluris Theoria Sacra, or Sacred Theory of the Earth (Part 1 in Latin, Part 2 in 1689; in English 1684 and 1690) Chikkupadhyaya – Kamalachala Mahatmya Robert Knox – An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon Anne Lefèvre – Anacreon and Sappho (translation) Hiob Ludolf – Historia Aethiopica William Penn – True Spiritual Liberty John Pordage – Treatise of Eternal Nature with Her Seven Essential Forms