1726 in literature

Overview of the events of 1726 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1726.

Events

February – Lavinia Fenton makes her stage debut as Monimia in Thomas Otway's The Orphan at the Haymarket Theatre in London.
April 5 – Publication takes place in London of Lewis Theobald's Shakespeare Restored, or A Specimen of the Many Errors As Well Committed as Unamended by Mr Pope in his Late Edition of this Poet; Designed Not only to correct the said Edition, but to restore the True Reading of Shakespeare in all the Editions ever yet published.^[1]
May 10 – Voltaire leaves France for a three-year stay in Britain.^[2]
May 25 – Britain's first circulating library is opened in Edinburgh by the poet and bookseller Allan Ramsay.^[3]^[4]
July – Françoise-Louise de Warens converts to Catholicism to receive a church pension, and annuls her marriage.^[5]
October 28 – Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels is published in London, anonymously in two volumes, as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. It sells out in a week.^[2]
unknown dates
- The Teatro Valle opens in Rome.
- The Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China (古今圖書集成), an immense Chinese encyclopedia, is printed using copper-based movable type printing.

Penelope Aubin – The Life and Adventures of the Lady Lucy (novel)
Jane Barker – The Lining of the Patch-Work Screen (sequel to 1723's A Patch-Work Screen)
William Rufus Chetwood – The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Robert Boyle (fiction, sometimes attributed to Daniel Defoe)
Eliza Haywood
- The City Jilt
- The Mercenary Lover
Jonathan Swift
- Gulliver's Travels
- Cadenus and Vanessa

John Balguy – A letter to a Deist concerning the Beauty and Excellency of Moral Virtue, and the Support and Improvement which it receives from the Christian Religion
Joseph Butler – Fifteen Sermons
Anthony Collins – The Scheme of Literal Prophecy
Corporate authorship – The Craftsman (periodical associated with Henry St. John)
Daniel Defoe
- The Political History of the Devil
- A System of Magick
John Dennis – The Stage Defended (reply to Law, below)
José Francisco de Isla – Papeles critico-apologéticos
William Law
- The Absolute Unlawfulness of the Stage
- A Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection
Samuel Penhallow – History of the Wars of New-England with the Eastern Indians
William Penn
- Fruits of a Father's Love
- A Collection of the Works of William Penn
- (with William Pulteney) – The Discovery
Martín Sarmiento – Reflexiones sobre el Diccionario de la lengua castellana que compuso la Real Academia en el año de 1726
George Shelvocke – A Voyage Round the World by Way of the Great South Sea
Joseph Spence – An Essay on Popes' Odyssey
Lewis Theobald – Shakespeare Restored
Diego de Torres Villarroel – El ermitaño y Torres

^ Peter Seary; Associate Professor Department of English New College Peter Seary (1990). Lewis Theobald and the Editing of Shakespeare. Clarendon Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-19-812965-3.
^ ^a ^b Roger Pearson (15 December 2010). Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom. A&C Black. pp. 84–. ISBN 978-1-4088-2080-3.
^ Altick, Richard D. (1957). The English Common Reader. University of Chicago Press.
^ "Chronology of Scottish History". A Timeline of Scottish History. Rampant Scotland. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
^ Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (18 February 2014). Mémoire à M. Boudet: Nouvelle édition augmentée. Arvensa editions. p. 8. ISBN 979-10-273-0033-4.
^ Karantha, K. Shivarama (1997). Yakṣagāna. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. p. 172. ISBN 81-7017-357-4.
^ Alexander Chalmers (1816). The General Biographical Dictionary. J. Nichols. p. 369.