1747 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1747.

Events

• March 31 – Laurence Sterne preaches the Good Friday sermon at St Helen Stonegate; The Case of Elijah and the Widow of Zerephath is later printed and published.^[1]
• April 9 – David Garrick becomes joint patentee and manager of the Drury Lane Theatre in London.^[2]
• June 21 – Licensing Act transfers responsibility for pre-production censorship of plays in Britain from the Master of the Revels to the Lord Chamberlain and restricts serious drama to the patent theatres.
• December 1 – Samuel Richardson's two-volume epistolary novel Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady ("by the Editor of Pamela") begins publication in London from his own print shop, dated 1748.^[3]
• unknown date – The Załuski Library in Warsaw is opened to the public.^[4]

New books

Prose

• William Blackstone (attributed) – The Pantheon
• Thomas Carte – A General History of England
• Juan de Iriarte – Discurso sobre la imperfección de los diccionarios^[5]
• Diego de Torres Villarroel – Desengaños razonables para sacudir el polvo del espanto
• Denis Diderot – La Promenade du sceptique (completed; not published until 1830)
• William Dunkin – Boetia
• Thomas Edward – A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear
• Henry Fielding, as "John Trott Plaid" – The Jacobite's Journal (periodical)
• Sarah Fielding – Familiar Letters Between the Principal Characters in David Simple (a defense against unauthorized continuations)
• Samuel Foote – The Roman and English Comedy Consider'd
• Hannah Glasse, as "A Lady" – The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy^[6]
• Madame de Graffigny – Letters from a Peruvian Woman
• Henry Home, Lord Kames – Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities
• Samuel Johnson – The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language
• Charlotte Lennox – Poems
• David Mallet – Amyntor and Theodora
• William Mason – Musaeus: A monody to the memory of Pope (an imitation of Milton's Lycidas)
• William Memoth, the younger – The Letters of Pliny the Consul
• Josiah Ralph – A Miscellany
• Samuel Richardson – Clarissa vol. i–ii
• William Shakespeare – The Works of Shakespear (edited by William Warburton)
• Tobias Smollett – Reproof
• Joseph Spence – Polymetis^[7]
• Voltaire – Zadig (in original form as Memnon)
• Horace Walpole – A Letter to the Whigs
• Joseph Warton – Ranelagh House
• Thomas Warton – The Pleasures of Melancholy

Drama

• John Cunningham – Love in a Mist
• Samuel Foote – The Diversions of the Morning or, A Dish of Chocolate^[8]
• David Garrick – Miss in Her Teens
• Christian Fürchtegott Gellert – Die zärtlichen Schwestern (The Affectionate Sisters)^[9]
• Carlo Goldoni – The Venetian Twins (I due gemelli veneziani)^[10]
• Benjamin Hoadly – The Suspicious Husband^[11]
• Edward Moore – The Foundling
• Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shōraku and Namiki Senryū I – Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (義経千本桜, Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees, original version for bunraku puppet theatre)

Poetry

See main article: article.

• Philip Francis – A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – Six Town Eclogues

Births

• January 11 – François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, French economics writer (died 1827)
• January 12 – Susanna Blamire, English dialect poet and songwriter (died 1794)^[12]
• January 15 – John Aikin, English biographer, activist and physician (died 1822)^[13]
• January 26 – Samuel Parr, English schoolmaster and writer, "the Whig Johnson" (died 1825)
• January – William Seward, English man of letters (died 1799)
• February 19 – John "Walking" Stewart, English traveller and philosopher (died 1822)
• March 10 – Iolo Morganwg, Welsh antiquarian, bookseller, poet and literary forger (died 1826)^[14]
• September 30 – John Mastin, English memoirist, local historian and cleric (died 1829)
• December 12 – Anna Seward, English poet (died 1809)^[15]
• Unknown date
  • John Edwards (1747–1792), Welsh poet (died 1792)^[16]
  • Thomas Scott, English cleric and religious writer (died 1821)

Deaths

• January 16 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes German poet (born 1680)^[17]
• May 28 – Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, essayist (born 1715)^[18]
• August
  • Charles Fleetwood, manager of Drury Lane Theatre (year of birth unknown)^[19]
  • Leonard Welsted, English poet (born 1688)^[20]
• September 7 – Michel Maittaire, French classical scholar, bibliographer and grammarian (born 1668)^[21]
• November 17 – Alain-René Le Sage, French novelist and playwright (born 1668)^[22]
• November 21 – Robert Mylne, Scottish antiquarian and writer (born 1643)^[23]
• November 22 – Joseph Trapp, poet, controversialist and translator (born 1679)
• December 23 – Étienne-François Avisse, French dramatist (born 1694)^[24]

Notes and References

1. http://www.sthelensyork.org.uk/goodhumour.html St Helen Stonegate: Laurence Sterne and the Good Humour Club
2. Book: Dougald MacMillan. Drury Lane Calendar, 1747-1776. 1938. Clarendon Press. xi.
3. Book: Tom Keymer. Richardson's 'Clarissa' and the Eighteenth-Century Reader. 24 June 2004. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-60440-6. 22.
4. Book: James Edward Thomas. Barry Elsey. International Biography of Adult Education. 1985. Department of Adult Education, University of Nottingham. 978-1-85041-001-0. 670.
5. Book: Guillermo Díaz-Plaja. Guillermo Díaz-Plaja. Historia general de las literaturas hispánicas: Siglos XVIII y XIX. 2 v. 1967. Editorial Vergara. 60. es.
6. Web site: Prince. Rose. Hannah Glasse: The original domestic goddess. https://web.archive.org/web/20100607081749/http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/hannah-glasse-the-original-domestic-goddess-405277.html. dead. June 7, 2010. The Independent. 22 March 2015. 24 June 2006.
7. Book: Timothy Webb. English Romantic Hellenism, 1700-1824. 1982. Manchester University Press. 978-0-7190-0772-9. 80.
8. Book: Allardyce Nicoll. The Garrick Stage: Theatres and Audience in the Eighteenth Century. 1981. Manchester University Press. 978-0-7190-0858-0. 5.
9. Book: Rudolf Neuhäuser. Towards the Romantic Age: Essays on Sentimental and Preromantic Literature in Russia. 14 October 2013. Springer. 978-94-017-4699-1. 44.
10. Book: Judith Chaffee. Oliver Crick. The Routledge Companion to Commedia dell'Arte. 20 November 2014. Routledge. 978-1-317-61337-4. 331.
11. Book: Edward A. Langhans. Kalman A. Burnim. Philip H. Highfill. A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800.. Southern Illinois University Press. 1982. 187.
12. Book: Henry Lonsdale. William Wardsworth, Susanna Blamire, Thomas Tickell, Jane Christian Blamire, the Loshes of Woodside, Dr. Thomas Addison, Hugh Lee Pattison. 1873. George Routledge & sons. 46.
13. Book: Mrs. Barbauld (Anna Letitia). The Poems of Anna Letitia Barbauld. 1 January 1994. University of Georgia Press. 978-0-8203-1528-7. 43.
14. Web site: Iolo Morganwg, 1747-1826. Archives Wales. National Library of Wales. 8 October 2021.
15. Book: Paula R. Feldman. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era: An Anthology. 19 January 2001. JHU Press. 978-0-8018-6640-1. 647.
16. Web site: Edwards, John (Siôn Ceiriog; 1747-1792), bard and orator. Griffith John Williams. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 30 June 2020.
17. Book: German Baroque Writers, 1661-1730. Gale Research. 1996. 62.
18. Book: Peter Martin Fine. Vauvenargues and La Rochefoucauld. 1974. Manchester University Press. 978-0-7190-0588-6. 1.
19. Web site: Milling . J. . Goodman, Cardell (b. 1653) . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . online . 2004 . Oxford University Press . 10.1093/ref:odnb/10974 . 24 March 2015.
20. James Sambrook: The life of the English poet Leonard Welsted (1688 – 1747) : the culture and politics of Britain's eighteenth-century literary wars, Lewiston [u.a.] : Edwin Mellen Press, 2014,
21. Maittaire, Michael.
22. Book: Charles F. Partington. The British Cyclopedia of Biography. 1838. 188.
23. Mylne, Robert (1643?-1747).
24. Book: Nouvelle biographie générale: depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nous jours. Firmin-Didot frères. 1861. 871. fr.