1666 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1666. Events June 4 – Molière's comedy of manners Le Misanthrope is premièred at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal (rue Saint-Honoré) in Paris by the King's Players (Troupe du Roi). July – Aphra Behn goes to Antwerp to work as a government spy. August 6 – Molière's comedy Le Médecin malgré lui ("The doctor in spite of himself") is premièred at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris by the King's Players with Molière himself playing the title character, Sganarelle. September 2 – Samuel Pepys begins recording details of the Great Fire of London in his diary. The destruction of Old St Paul's Cathedral in the conflagration also destroys the stock of many London publishers, which is stored in the crypt. This probably includes unsold copies of the Third Folio of Shakespeare's works (1663). New books Prose Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux – Satires du Sieur D.... Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne – A Description of a New World Called the Blazing-World Observations upon Experimental Philosophy John Bunyan – Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners Thomas Hobbes – De principiis et ratiocinatione geometrarum Gottfried Leibniz – De Arte Combinatoria ('On the Art of Combination')