1726 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
... 1716 ^. 1717 ^. 1718 ^. 1719 ^. 1720 ^. 1721 ^. 1722 ... 1723 1724 1725 -1726- 1727 1728 1729 ... 1730 ^. 1731 ^. 1732 ^. 1733 ^. 1734 ^. 1735 ^. 1736 ... In poetry: 1723 1724 1725 -1726- 1727 1728 1729

Art ^. Archaeology ^. Architecture ^. Literature ^. Music ^. Philosophy ^. Science +...

The year 1726 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

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 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.
May 1 - Voltaire arrives for a 3 year stay in England.
October 26 - Publication in London (anonymously in two volumes) of Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels 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 within a week.
Teatro Valle opens in Rome.
Françoise-Louise de Warens converts to Catholicism to receive a church pension and annuls her marriage.
The Gujin Tushu Jicheng, an immense Chinese encyclopedia, is printed using copper-based movable type printing.

Anonymous - Gulliver Decyphered
Corporate authorship - The Craftsman (periodical associated with Henry St. John)
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 attrib. Daniel Defoe)
Eliza Haywood
- The City Jilt
- The Mercenary Lover
Jonathan Swift
- Gulliver's Travels
- Cadenus and Vanessa
Lewis Theobald - Shakespeare Restored
José Francisco de Isla - Papeles critico-apologéticos
Diego de Torres Villarroel - El ermitaño y Torres
Martín Sarmiento - Reflexiones sobre el Diccionario de la lengua castellana que compuso la Real Academia en el año de 1726

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
Daniel Defoe
- The Political History of the Devil
- A System of Magick
John Dennis - The Stage Defended (reply to Law, below)
William Law
- The Absolute Unlawfulness of the Stage
- A Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection
William Penn
- Fruits of a Father's Love
- A Collection of the Works of William Penn
- (with William Pulteney) - The Discovery
Joseph Spence - An Essay on Pope's Odyssey (concerning a translation of Homer's Odyssey by Alexander Pope)

April 7 – Charles Burney, English music historian and father of Fanny Burney (died 1814)
June 14 – Thomas Pennant, Welsh naturalist and writer (died 1798)
September 2 – John Howard, English philanthropist and writer (died 1790)
September 25 – Angelo Maria Bandini, Italian author and librarian (died 1800)
September 26 – John H. D. Anderson, Scottish natural philosopher (died 1796)

March 26 – Sir John Vanbrugh, English dramatist and architect (born 1664)
April 5 – Ludwig Babenstuber, German theologian and philosopher (born 1660)
April 26 – Jeremy Collier, English theologian and critic (born 1650)
May 20 – Nicholas Brady, Irish poet (born 1659)
July 5 – Domenico Viva, Italian theologian (born 1648)
July 6 – Humfrey Wanley, English librarian and palaeographer (born 1672)
December 2 – Samuel Penhallow, English historian (born 1665)
December 11 – Jacques Bouillart, French Benedictine historian (born 1669)
Unknown dates
- Charles Shadwell, English dramatist (unknown year of birth)
- Daniel Whitby, English theologian (born 1638)