1747 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1747 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
begins work on his dictionaryDictionaryA dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
of the English languageEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... - David GarrickDavid GarrickDavid Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
becomes one of the managers of Drury Lane TheatreTheatre Royal, Drury LaneThe Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
New books
- William BlackstoneWilliam BlackstoneSir William Blackstone KC SL was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the Commentaries on the Laws of England. Born into a middle class family in London, Blackstone was educated at Charterhouse School before matriculating at Pembroke...
- The Pantheon (attrib) - Thomas CarteThomas CarteThomas Carte was an English historian.-Life:Carte was born near Clifton upon Dunsmore...
- A General History of England - William DunkinWilliam DunkinWilliam Dunkin, D.D. , was an Irish poet.-Life:William Dunkin was born in Dublin in around 1709. His parents died when he was young and he was left in early life to the charge of Trinity College, Dublin, by an aunt who left her property to the college with the condition that it should provide for...
- Boetia - Thomas EdwardThomas Edwards (critic)Thomas Edwards was an English critic and poet. He is best known for a controversy with William Warburton.-Life:His father and grandfather had been barristers, and Edwards, after a private education, entered Lincoln's Inn, where he took chambers in 1721. All his four brothers and four sisters died...
- A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear - Henry FieldingHenry FieldingHenry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
, as "John Trott Plaid" - The Jacobite's Journal (periodical) - Sarah FieldingSarah FieldingSarah Fielding was a British author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding. She was the author of The Governess, or The Little Female Academy , which was the first novel in English written especially for children , and had earlier achieved success with her novel The Adventures of David Simple...
- Familiar Letters Between the Principal Characters in David Simple (in defense against unauthorized continuations) - Samuel FooteSamuel FooteSamuel Foote was a British dramatist, actor and theatre manager from Cornwall.-Early life:Born into a well-to-do family, Foote was baptized in Truro, Cornwall on 27 January 1720. His father, John Foote, held several public positions, including mayor of Truro, Member of Parliament representing...
- The Roman and English Comedy Consider'd - Philip FrancisPhilip Francis (translator)Philip Francis was an Anglo-Irish clergyman and writer, now remembered as a translator of Horace.-Life:He was son of Dr. John Francis, rector of St. Mary's, Dublin , and dean of Lismore, and was born about 1708. He was sent to Trinity College, Dublin, taking the degree of B.A...
- A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace - Hannah GlasseHannah GlasseHannah Glasse was an English cookery writer of the 18th century. She is best known for her cookbook, The Art of Cookery, first published in 1747...
- The Art of Cookery - Madame de Graffigny - Letters from a Peruvian WomanLetters from a Peruvian WomanLetters from a Peruvian Woman is a 1747 epistolary novel by Françoise de Graffigny. It tells the story of Zilia, a young Incan princess, who is abducted from the Temple of the Sun by the Spanish during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire...
- Thomas GrayThomas GrayThomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...
- Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College - Henry Home, Lord KamesHenry Home, Lord KamesHenry Home, Lord Kames was a Scottish advocate, judge, philosopher, writer and agricultural improver. A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, a founder member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, and active in the Select Society, his protégés included James Boswell, David Hume and...
- Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities - Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
- The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language - Charlotte LennoxCharlotte LennoxCharlotte Lennox was an English author and poet. She is most famous now as the author of The Female Quixote and for her association with Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, and Samuel Richardson, but she had a long career and wrote poetry, prose, and drama.-Life:Charlotte Lennox was born in Gibraltar...
- Poems - David MalletDavid Mallet (writer)David Mallet was a Scottish dramatist.He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and went to London in 1723 to work as a private tutor...
- Amyntor and Theodora - William MasonWilliam Mason (poet)William Mason was an English poet, editor and gardener.He was born in Hull and educated at Hull Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1754 and held a number of posts in the church....
- Musaeus: A monody to the memory of Pope (an imitation of Milton'sJohn MiltonJohn Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
LycidasLycidas"Lycidas" is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, entitled Justa Edouardo King Naufrago, dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a collegemate of Milton's at Cambridge who drowned when his ship sank in the Irish Sea off the...
) - William Memoth, the younger - The Letters of Pliny the Consul
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - Six Town Eclogues
- Josiah Ralph - A Miscellany
- Samuel RichardsonSamuel RichardsonSamuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded , Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and The History of Sir Charles Grandison...
- ClarissaClarissaClarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, published in 1748. It tells the tragic story of a heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family, and is the longest real novelA completed work that has been released by a publisher in...
vol. i - ii - William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
- The Works of Shakespear (edited by William WarburtonWilliam WarburtonWilliam Warburton was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759.-Life:He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an...
) - 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,...
- Reproof - Joseph SpenceJoseph Spence (author)Joseph Spence was a historian, literary scholar and anecdotist, most famous for his collection of anecdotes that are an invaluable resource for historians of 18th century English literature .- Early life :Spence was born on 28 April 1699, at Kingsclere, Hampshire, the son of Joseph Joseph Spence...
- Polymetis - Laurence SterneLaurence SterneLaurence Sterne was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...
- The Case of Elijah and the Widow of Zerephath - VoltaireVoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
- ZadigZadigZadig ou la Destinée, is a famous novel and work of philosophical fiction written by Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. It tells the story of Zadig, a philosopher in ancient Babylonia... - Horace Walpole - A Letter to the Whigs
- Joseph WartonJoseph WartonJoseph Warton was an English academic and literary critic.He was born in Dunsfold, Surrey, England, but his family soon moved to Hampshire, where his father, the Reverend Thomas Warton, became vicar of Basingstoke. There, a few years later, Joseph's younger brother, the more famous Thomas Warton,...
- Ranelagh House - Thomas WartonThomas WartonThomas Warton was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England...
- The Pleasures of Melancholy
New drama
- John CunninghamJohn Cunningham (poet and dramatist)John Cunningham , whose parents came from Scotland, was an Irish pastoral poet and dramatist, who gained in his time some popularity. He started to write in the age of twelve, and at the age of 17 he wrote the play Love in a Mist...
- Love in a Mist - Benjamin Hoadly the younger - The Suspicious Husband
- Edward Moore - The Foundling
Births
- January 11 : François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-LiancourtFrançois Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-LiancourtFrançois Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt was a French social reformer.-Early life:...
(died 1827) - January 15 : John AikinJohn AikinJohn Aikin was an English doctor and writer.-Life:He was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, son of Dr. John Aikin, Unitarian divine, and received his elementary education at the Nonconformist academy at Warrington, where his father was a tutor. He studied medicine at the...
, English doctor and writer (died 1822) - December 12 : Anna SewardAnna SewardAnna Seward was an English Romantic poet, often called the Swan of Lichfield.-Life:Seward was the elder daughter of Thomas Seward , prebendary of Lichfield and Salisbury, and author...
, English writer (died 1809)
Deaths
- January 16 : Barthold Heinrich BrockesBarthold Heinrich BrockesBarthold Heinrich Brockes was a German poet.He was born at Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. He studied jurisprudence at Halle, and after extensive travels in Italy, France and the Netherlands, settled in Hamburg in 1704...
(born 1680) - November 17 : Alain-René Le Sage, French novelist and playwright (born 1668)
- Leonard WelstedLeonard WelstedLeonard Welsted was an English poet and "dunce" in Alexander Pope's writings . Welsted was an accomplished writer who composed in a relaxed, light hearted vein...
- Joseph TrappJoseph TrappJoseph Trapp was an English clergyman, academic, poet and pamphleteer. His production as a younger man of occasional verse and dramas led to his appointment as the first Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1708. Later his High Church opinions established him in preferment and position...