Events from the year 1672 in literature.
Events 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)Wendy Laura Belcher: "Of Saints and Kings", History Today, November 2016. 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)
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