1702 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1702.

Events

• March 8 (O.S.) – Accession of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, upon the death of her brother-in-law William III.
• March 11 (O.S.) – The first regular English national newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published for the first time^[1] in Fleet Street in the City of London; it covers only foreign news.
• October – Jonathan Swift returns to Ireland in the company of Esther Johnson.
• Ballet master John Weaver presents the burlesque Tavern Bilkers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, the first English pantomime, although it is not a success.
• The first book is printed using the Romain du Roi Roman typeface devised for use by the Imprimerie nationale in France, Médailles sur les principaux événements du règne de Louis le Grand.
• Castle Howard in Yorkshire, England, is completed to the design of playwright John Vanbrugh and architect Nicholas Hawksmoor.^[2]

New books

• Thomas Brown, et al. – Letters From the Dead to the Living
• Edmund Calamy – An Abridgement of Mr Baxter's History of His Life and Times
• Daniel Defoe
  • An Enquiry into Occasional Conformity
  • The Mock-Mourners (on the death of William III)
  • A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty
  • Reformation of Manners
  • The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (anonymous; December)
  • The Spanish Descent
• John Dennis – The Monument
• Laurence Echard – A General Ecclesiastical History
• George Farquhar – Love and Business
• Edmund Gibson – Synodus Anglicana (on the convocation)
• Charles Gildon (?) – A Comparison Between the Two Stages (on the "War of the Theatres")
• Examen Miscellaneum
• Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon – The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (aka "Clarendon's History")
• George Keith – The Standard of the Quakers Examined
• John Kersey – A New English Dictionary; or, a complete collection of the most proper and significant words, commonly used in the language
• Cotton Mather – Magnalia Christi Americana
• Matthew Prior – To a Young Gentleman in Love
• John Toland – Paradoxes of State
• Catherine Trotter Cockburn – A Defence of the Essay of Human Understanding (re John Locke)

New drama

• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – Altemira, posthumously published
• William Burnaby – The Modish Husband
• Susanna Centlivre – The Beau's Duel
• Colley Cibber – She Wou'd and She Wou'd Not
• John Dennis – The Comical Gallant
• George Farquhar
  • The Inconstant
  • The Twin-Rivals
• Bevil Higgons – The Generous Conqueror
• Nicholas Rowe – Tamerlane
• Sir Charles Sedley – The Tyrant King of Crete

Poetry

• Matsuo Bashō (posthumously) – Oku no Hosomichi ("Narrow road to the interior")^[3]

Births

• June 26 – Philip Doddridge, English religious and writer and hymnist (died 1751)
• Unknown date – Margareta Momma, Swedish journalist and publisher (died 1772)

Deaths

• January 1 – Samuel Green, American printer (born c. 1614)
• January 17 – Roger Morrice, English journalist and diarist (born 1628)
• February 17 – Peder Syv, Danish philologist, folklorist and priest (born 1631)
• April 22 – François Charpentier, French archeologist and writer (born 1620)
• May 17 (bur.) – Richard Sault, English mathematician, editor and translator (unknown year of birth)
• May 27 – Dominique Bouhours, French literary critic (born 1628)
• November – John Pomfret, English poet (born 1667)

References