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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.
  • April 9 – David Garrick becomes joint patentee and manager of the Drury Lane Theatre in London.
  • 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.
  • unknown date – The Załuski Library in Warsaw is opened to the public.

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
  • 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
  • Madame de Graffigny – Lettres d'une Péruvienne
  • Henry Home, Lord Kames – Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities
  • Samuel Johnson – The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language
  • David Mallet – Amyntor and Theodora
  • 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
  • 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
  • David Garrick – Miss in Her Teens
  • Christian Fürchtegott Gellert – Die zärtlichen Schwestern (The Affectionate Sisters)
  • Carlo Goldoni – The Venetian Twins (I due gemelli veneziani)
  • Benjamin Hoadly – The Suspicious Husband
  • 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

  • Philip Francis – A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace
  • Charlotte Lennox – Poems
  • William Mason – Musaeus: A monody to the memory of Pope (an imitation of Milton's Lycidas)
  • 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)
  • January 15 – John Aikin, English biographer, activist and physician (died 1822)
  • 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)
  • September 30 – John Mastin, English memoirist, local historian and cleric (died 1829)
  • December 12 – Anna Seward, English poet (died 1809)
  • Unknown date
  • John Edwards (1747–1792), Welsh poet (died 1792)
  • Thomas Scott, English cleric and religious writer (died 1821)

Deaths

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

References