17th-century English male writers

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Sir Isaac Newton was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, author and inventor. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687, achieved the first great unification in physics and established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for formulating infinitesimal calculus, although he developed calculus years before Leibniz. Newton contributed to and refined the scientific method, and his work is considered the most influential in bringing forth modern science.

English philosopher and physician (1632-1704)

English philosopher and statesman (1561–1626)

English philosopher (1588–1679)

English poet and civil servant (1608–1674)

Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor

English poet and cleric (1572-1631)

17th-century English poet and playwright (1631–1700)

English playwright, poet, and actor (1572-1637)

English Christian writer and preacher (1628-1688)

English physician, physicist and natural philosopher (1544-1603)

Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest (1593-1633)

British botanist (1627–1705)

English diarist and administrator (1633–1703)

British pirate and explorer (1651-1715)

English scientist, philosopher, statistician and economist (1623-1687)

English scholar (1577–1640)

British writer (1670-1729)

English soldier, explorer, writer (1580–1631)

English founder of Quakers (1624–1691)

English poet and politician (1621–1678)

English Jacobean playwright (1579–1625)

Anglo-Dutch writer and physician (1670-1733)

English dramatist (1578-1634)

16th/17th-century English dramatist, poet, and translator

poet and satirist (1612–1680)

English architect and dramatist (1664–1726)

English Baptist theologian and author (1603–1683)

English playwright (1584–1616)

(1551–1623) English antiquarian

English playwright and poet

English poet and cleric (1591–1674)

English poet, and peer of the realm (1647-1680)

English dramatist and pamphleteer

English author, editor and translator (1553–1616)

English playwright, poet and dramatist (c.1553/4-1606)

English mathematician, doctor and astrologer

British writer (1618–1667)

English playwright (1583–1640)

English poet and playwright

English philosopher (1614–1687)

Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and Author of "City upon a Hill" (1588-1649)

English lawyer and judge; (c.1552-1634)

English economist (1571–1641)

English composer, poet and physician

English poet

English jurist and scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution, and of Jewish law (1584-1654)

English author and biographer (1593-1683)

British poet laureate (1671–1757)

English Caroline dramatist and poet

English soldier and poet (1583–1648)

English poet and cleric (c.1613 – 1649)

English politician and historian (1609–1674)

English poet

English Separatist leader in Leiden, Holland and in Plymouth Colony (1590-1657)

English writer and poet (1617-1658)

English cartographer and historian (1551/52-1629)

English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era (1550-1604)

Poet and historian