1690 in literature

• December 10 – Playwright Henry Nevil Payne is tortured for his role in the Montgomery Plot to restore James II to the throne — the last time a political prisoner is subjected to torture in Britain. • Colley Cibber becomes an actor with the Drury Lane company. ==New books==

Prose • Nicholas Barbon – A Discourse of Trade • Pierre Bayle (attributed) – Avis important aux réfugiés • Sir Thomas Browne (posthumously) – A Letter to a Friend • Antoine Furetière (posthumously) – Dictionnaire universel • John Locke • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (dated this year but published 1689) • Two Treatises of Government • Samuel Pepys – Memoires of the Navy • Baro Urbigerus – Aphorismi Urbigerani Drama • John Bancroft – King Edward III, with the Fall of Mortimer, Earl of March • Aphra Behn (posthumously) – The Widow Ranter • Thomas Betterton – The Prophetess, or The History of Dioclesian (adapted from Fletcher and Massinger's The Prophetess, with music by Henry Purcell) • Edmé Boursault – Esope à la ville • Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – Mr. Anthony • John Crowne – The English Friar • John Dryden • Amphitryon, or the Two Sosias • Don Sebastian • William Mountfort – The Successful Strangers • George Powell • Alphonso, King of Naples • The Treacherous Brothers • Elkanah Settle – ''Distress'd Innocence, or The Princess of Persia'' • Thomas Shadwell – The Scourers • Thomas Southerne – Sir Anthony Love • "W. C." – ''The Rape Reveng'd, or the Spanish Revolution'' (adapted from William Rowley's ''All's Lost by Lust'') Poetry • Thomas D'Urfey: • ''Collin's Walk Through London and Westminster'' • New Poems • See also 1690 in poetry • Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza – Obras líricas y cómicas, divinas y humanas ==Births==

• February 3 – Richard Rawlinson, English antiquary and cleric (died 1755) • September 12 – Peter Dens, Netherlandish theologian (died 1775) • 1689/90 – Susanna Highmore, English poet (died 1750) ==Deaths==

• March 21 – Henry Teonge, English diarist and cleric (born 1621) • May 5 – Theodore Haak, German-born English translator and natural philosopher (born 1605) • May 12 – John Rushworth, English author of Historical Collections (born c. 1612) • October 3 – Robert Barclay, Scottish Quaker writer (born c. 1648) • October 25 – Cornelius Hazart, Dutch Jesuit controversialist (born 1617) • Unknown date – Franciscus Plante, Dutch poet (born 1613) • Probable year of death – Jeremias Felbinger, German writer, teacher and lexicographer (born 1616) ==References==