1721 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1721 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- Around this time ("first" is debated), inoculationInoculationInoculation is the placement of something that will grow or reproduce, and is most commonly used in respect of the introduction of a serum, vaccine, or antigenic substance into the body of a human or animal, especially to produce or boost immunity to a specific disease...
for smallpoxSmallpoxSmallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
began in England. - John ClelandJohn ClelandJohn Cleland was an English novelist most famous and infamous as the author of Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure....
becomes a pupil at Westminster SchoolWestminster SchoolThe Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
and is soon expelled for an unknown offense. - Francis AtterburyFrancis AtterburyFrancis Atterbury was an English man of letters, politician and bishop.-Early life:He was born at Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, where his father was rector. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he became a tutor...
is arrested for plotting against the Hanoverian monarchy and being a "JacobiteJacobitismJacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
". - The South Sea Bubble burst, with many losses of fortune, including John GayJohn GayJohn Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
, and there are increasing suspicions of complicity by Robert WalpoleRobert WalpoleRobert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC , known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
's government.
New books
- Joseph AddisonJoseph AddisonJoseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...
- The Works of Joseph Addison - Penelope AubinPenelope AubinPenelope Aubin was an English novelist and translator.-Works:* The Stuarts : A Pindarique Ode * The Extasy: A Pindarick Ode to Her Majesty The Queen...
- The Strange Adventures of the Count de Vinevil and His Family- - The Life of Madam de Beaumont
- Nathan BaileyNathan BaileyNathan Bailey was an English philologist and lexicographer.-Life:Bailey was a Seventh Day Baptist, admitted 1691 to a congregation in Whitechapel, London. He was probably excluded from the congregation by 1718. Later he had a school at Stepney...
- A Universal EtymologicalEtymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
Dictionary - George BerkeleyGeorge BerkeleyGeorge Berkeley , also known as Bishop Berkeley , was an Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism"...
- An Essay Towards Preventing the Ruine of Great Britain - Richard BlackmoreRichard BlackmoreSir Richard Blackmore , English poet and physician, is remembered primarily as the object of satire and as an example of a dull poet. He was, however, a respected physician and religious writer....
- A New Version of the Psalms of David - Shaftesbury - Letters from the Late Earl of Shaftesbury, to Robert Molesworth
- Charles GildonCharles GildonCharles Gildon , was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist, short story author, and critic. He provided the source for many lives of Restoration figures, although he appears to have propagated or...
- The Laws of Poetry - Eliza HaywoodEliza HaywoodEliza Haywood , born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. Since the 1980s, Eliza Haywood’s literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest...
- Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier (transl.) - MontesquieuCharles de Secondat, baron de MontesquieuCharles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu , generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Enlightenment...
- Lettres persanes (Persian LettersPersian LettersPersian Letters is a literary work by Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, recounting the experiences of two Persian noblemen, Usbek and Rica, who are traveling through France.-Plot summary:...
) - Alexander Pennecuik - An Ancient Prophecy Concerning Stock-Jobbing, and the Conduct of the Directors of the South-Sea-Company
- Matthew PriorMatthew PriorMatthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...
- Colin's Mistakes - John StrypeJohn StrypeJohn Strype was an English historian and biographer. He was a cousin of Robert Knox, a famous sailor.Born in Houndsditch, London, he was the son of John Strype, or van Stryp, a member of a Huguenot family whom, in order to escape religious persecution within Brabant, had settled in East London...
- Ecclesiastical Memorials - Emanuel SwedenborgEmanuel Swedenborgwas a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He has been termed a Christian mystic by some sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica online version, and the Encyclopedia of Religion , which starts its article with the description that he was a "Swedish scientist and mystic." Others...
- Prodromus principiorum rerum naturalium - Jonathan SwiftJonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
- The Bubble- - A Letter to a Young Gentlleman, Lately Enter'd into Holy Orders
- Thomas TickellThomas TickellThomas Tickell was a minor English poet and man of letters.-Life:The son of a clergyman, he was born at Bridekirk near Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was educated at St Bees School 1695-1701, and in 1701 entered the Queen's College, Oxford, taking his M.A. degree in 1709...
- Kensington Garden - Robert WodrowRobert WodrowRobert Wodrow , Scottish historian, was born at Glasgow, being a son of James Wodrow, professor of divinity.-Biography:Ordered as in the text above:...
- The History of the Sufferings of the Church of ScotlandChurch of ScotlandThe Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
New drama
- Colley CibberColley CibberColley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
- The Refusal - Eliza HaywoodEliza HaywoodEliza Haywood , born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. Since the 1980s, Eliza Haywood’s literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest...
- The Fair Captive - John MottleyJohn MottleyJohn Mottley was an English writer, known as a dramatist, biographer, and compiler of jokes.-Life:He was the son of Colonel Thomas Mottley, a Jacobite adherent of James II in his exile, who entered the service of Louis XIV, and was killed at the battle of Turin in 1706; his mother was Dionisia,...
- Antiochus - Thomas Odell - The Chimera
- Edward YoungEdward YoungEdward Young was an English poet, best remembered for Night Thoughts.-Early life:He was the son of Edward Young, later Dean of Salisbury, and was born at his father's rectory at Upham, near Winchester, where he was baptized on 3 July 1683. He was educated at Winchester College, and matriculated...
- The Revenge
Births
- March 19 - Tobias SmollettTobias SmollettTobias George Smollett was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens.-Life:Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton,...
, Scottish physician and author (died 1771) - November 9 - Mark AkensideMark AkensideMark Akenside was an English poet and physician.Akenside was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the son of a butcher. He was slightly lame all his life from a wound he received as a child from his father's cleaver...
, poet (died 1770) - December 27 - François HemsterhuisFrançois HemsterhuisFrançois Hemsterhuis was a Dutch writer on aesthetics and moral philosophy.The son of Tiberius Hemsterhuis, he was born at Franeker in the Netherlands. He was educated at the University of Leiden, where he studied Plato...
, moral philosopher (died 1790) - date unknown
- William CollinsWilliam Collins (poet)William Collins was an English poet. Second in influence only to Thomas Gray, he was an important poet of the middle decades of the 18th century...
, poet (died 1759) - Johann SilberschlagJohann SilberschlagJohann Esaias Silberschlag was a German Lutheran theologian and natural scientist from Aschersleben, Principality of Halberstadt....
, theologian (died 1791)
- William Collins
Deaths
- January 3 - Juan Núñez de la PeñaJuan Núñez de la PeñaJuan Núñez de la Peña was a Spanish historian. Born in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, he studied Latin and the humanities in the college of San Agustín de La Laguna and was subsequently ordained priest...
, historian (born 1641) - August 13 - Jacques LelongJacques LelongJacques Lelong , French bibliographer, was born at Paris.He joined the Order of the Knights of St. John of Malta at the age of ten, but later joined the Oratorians....
, French bibliographer (born 1665) - September 18 - Matthew PriorMatthew PriorMatthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...
, British poet and diplomat (born 1664) - December 12 - Alexander SelkirkAlexander SelkirkAlexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway when he was marooned on an uninhabited island. It is probable that his travels provided the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe....
, the model for Robinson CrusoeRobinson CrusoeRobinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
(born 1676) - date unknown
- Charlwood LawtonCharlwood LawtonCharlwood Lawton was a radical lawyer turned Jacobite, notable for his critiques of the Whig administration. Author of A short State of our Condition, with Relation to the present Parliament ....
, Jacobite author - Antoine WatteauAntoine WatteauJean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement...
, French painter
- Charlwood Lawton