1672 in literature

• January 25 – London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, is destroyed by fire. The King's Company moves to the theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields, which the rival Duke's Company left the previous year. • June – Thomas Killigrew mounts another all-female production of his ''The Parson's Wedding'' with the King's Company. (The first occurred in 1664.) Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster and Dryden's The Maiden Queen are also staged with all-women casts and new prologues by Dryden for the productions. • September 13 – John Bunyan is released after twelve years' imprisonment for preaching without a licence. • December – John Dryden's play Marriage à la Mode is first performed in London by the King's Company. • The Mercure de France is first published, under the title Mercure galant. ==New books==

Prose • Nicolás Antonio – Bibliotheca Hispana Nova • Nicolas Denys – Description Géographique et Historique des Costes de l’Amérique Septentrionale (Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America) • Richard Cumberland – De legibus naturae (On natural laws) • Melchor Fuster – Conceptos predicables • Gadla Walatta Petros (Ethiopian hagiography in Ge'ez language) • Nathaniel Hodges – Loimologia • James Janeway – A Token for Children, Part 2 • John Milton – Art of Logic • Pierre Nicole – A Discourse Against Plays and Romances • César Vichard de Saint-Réal – Dom Carlos Drama • Anonymous – Emilia (adapted from the Costanza di Rosamondo of Aurelio Aureli) • Anonymous – The Illustrious Slaves • Pedro Calderon de la Barca • Eco y Narciso • El hijo del sol, Faetón • La niña de Gómez Arias • Thomas Corneille – Ariane • John Dryden • The Assignation • Marriage à la mode (first performed; published the following year) • John Lacy (published) • The Dumb Lady, or The Farrier Made Physician • The Old Troop, or Monsier Ragou • Molière – Les Femmes Savantes • Henry Nevil Payne – The Morning Ramble • Jean Racine – Bajazet • Edward Ravenscroft – The Citizen Turned Gentleman • Thomas Shadwell • Epsom Wells • The Miser • George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and others – The Rehearsal (published) Poetry • Miguel de Barrios – El coro de las musas ==Births==

• January 18 – Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer, (died 1731) • March – Sir Richard Steele, Irish dramatist, satirist and politician (died 1729) • May 1 – Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet and politician (died 1719) • August 2 – Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss paleontologist, historian and travel writer (died 1733) • October 27 – Maria Gustava Gyllenstierna, Swedish writer (died 1737) ==Deaths==

• June 14 – Matthew Wren, English scholar and cleric (born 1629) • June 20 – Alonso Andrada, Spanish biographer and ascetic writer (born 1590) • September 12 – Tanneguy Le Fèvre, French classicist (born 1615) • September 16 – Anne Bradstreet, pioneering American female author (born c. 1612) • November 21 – Robert Creighton, Scottish classicist, politician and bishop (born 1593) • December 27 – Jacques Rohault, French philosopher (born 1618) ==References==