1702 in literature

• 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) Drama • 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 Governour 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 Poetry • Matsuo Bashō (posthumously) – Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North) ==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==