1728 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1728.

Events

January 28 – On the night of Esther Johnson's death, Jonathan Swift begins writing The Death of Mrs. Johnson.
January 29 – John Rich, manager of the theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London, mounts the first production of The Beggar's Opera, a ballad opera by John Gay. Its great success makes "Rich gay and Gay rich". By the summer, it has been imitated in Thomas Walker's The Quaker's Opera; and William Hogarth begins painting scenes from it.
May – Jonathan Swift and Thomas Sheridan launch The Intelligencer.
October 12 – The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal is founded by Daniel Defoe and Henry Baker.
unknown dates
*The utenzi Utendi wa Tambuka is written by Mwengo, son of Athumani, one of the earliest known examples of Swahili literature.
*Construction of the Biblioteca Joanina at the University of Coimbra, begun in 1717, is completed.

Penelope Aubin – The Life and Adventures of the Young Count Albertus
Peter Browne – The Procedure, Extent, and Limits of Human Understanding
"Captain George Carleton" – Memoirs of an English Officer
Ephraim Chambers – Cyclopaedia, or, A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences
John Dennis – Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock
James Gibbs – A Book of Architecture
Eliza Haywood – The Agreeable Caledonian
Francis Hutcheson – An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections
John Oldmixon
*The Arts of Logick and Rhetorick
*An Essay on Criticism
Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie – The Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, 1436–1565
Christopher Pitt – An Essay on Virgil's Aeneid
Antoine François Prévost – Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité qui s’est retiré du monde
Elizabeth Singer Rowe – Friendship in Death
Richard Savage – Nature in Perfection
George Sewell – Posthumous Works of Dr. George Sewell
Jonathan Swift – A Short View of the State of Ireland
William Wycherley – The Posthumous Works of William Wycherley, edited by Lewis Theobald
Edward Young – ''A Vindication of Providence''