1702 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 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, begins publication, 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. unknown dates Ballet master John Weaver presents the burlesque Tavern Bilkers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, the first English pantomime. It is not a success. The first book set in the Romain du Roi Roman type, devised for use by the Imprimerie nationale in France: Médailles sur les principaux événements du règne de Louis le Grand, is printed. Castle Howard in Yorkshire, England, is completed to the design of playwright John Vanbrugh and architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. New books Prose Louise de Bossigny, comtesse d'Auneuil – La Tiranie des fées détruite (The Tyranny of the Fairies Destroyed) 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 (1702–1704, written in the 1640s and late 1660s. Also known as 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)