1702 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1702.

• 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,^[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.
• 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.^[2]
  • 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.^[3]
  • Castle Howard in Yorkshire, England, is completed to the design of playwright John Vanbrugh and architect Nicholas Hawksmoor.^[4]

• 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)

• William Burnaby – The Modish Husband
• Susanna Centlivre –
  • The Beau's Duel
  • The Stolen Heiress
• Colley Cibber – She Would and She Would Not
• John Dennis – The Comical Gallant
• George Farquhar
  • The Inconstant
  • The Twin Rivals
• Charles Gildon – The Patriot
• Bevil Higgons – The Generous Conqueror (printed, performed in 1701)
• Francis Manning – All for the Better
• John Oldmixon – The Governor of Cyprus
• Nicholas Rowe
  • The Fair Penitent (adaptation of Massinger and Field's The Fair Penitent, performed, printed in 1703)
  • Tamerlane (printed, performed in 1701)
• Sir Charles Sedley – The Tyrant King of Crete
• John Vanbrugh – The False Friend

• Matsuo Bashō (posthumously) – Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North)^[5]

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

• 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)^[6]