1741 in literature
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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1741.
Events
- January 15 â The revival in the London theatre of Shakespeare plays featuring actresses in travesti roles continues at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with Hannah Pritchard as Viola in Twelfth Night, a play not performed for more than 70 years. Kitty Clive plays Olivia. Mrs Pritchard's Rosalind (As You Like It) remains in the repertory.[1]
- January 29 â A life-size memorial to William Shakespeare (d. 1616), designed by William Kent and sculpted by Peter Scheemakers, is erected in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.[2]
- February 13 â Andrew Bradford launches the American colonies' first periodical in Philadelphia, the American Magazine.[3]
- February 14 â Irish-born actor Charles Macklin makes his London stage debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, pioneering a psychologically realistic style with Shakespeare's text revived, replacing George Granville's melodramatic adaptation The Jew of Venice.[4][5] Kitty Clive plays the travesti role of Portia with Mrs Pritchard as Nerissa.[1]
- March 14 â K. K. Theater an der Burg (Imperial Court Theatre) in Vienna opens.
- October 19 â David Garrick makes his London stage debut in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III. His performance quickly packs theaters.[6] His professional debut was earlier in the year at Ipswich, in Thomas Southerne's adaptation of Oroonoko.
- unknown date
- The first translation of a Shakespeare play into German, Julius Caesar, is made by C. W. von Bork, using alexandrines.[7]
- Printer Robert Foulis sets up as a publisher in Edinburgh.[8]
New books
Fiction
- Anonymous
- Charles Balguy (anonymous translator) â The Decameron
- Comte de Caylus â Les Féeries nouvelles[10]
- Stephen Duck â Every Man in his Own Way
- Henry Fielding (as Mr. Conny Keyber) â An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews
- Eliza Haywood â The Anti-Pamela; or Feignâd Innocence Detected
- Ludvig Holberg â Niels Klim's Underground Travels
- John Kelly â Pamela's Conduct in High Life (continuation of Pamela)
- Alexander Pope with John Gay and John Arbuthnot â Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus
- Charles Povey â The Virgin in Eden (prose fiction)
- Samuel Richardson
- Letters Written to and for Particular Friends (also known as Familiar Letters)
- Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded vols. iii â iv
- Hristofor Zhefarovich â Stemmatographia
Drama
- Anonymous â Pamela; or, Virtue Triumphant
- Robert Dodsley â The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (adapted from anonymous Elizabethan play)
- David Garrick â The Lying Valet
- William Hatchett â The Chinese Orphan: An Historical Tragedy (adapted from the 13th-century Chinese play The Orphan of Zhao; unperformed)
- John Kelly â The Levee
- Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée â Mélanide
- Voltaire â Mahomet (first performed)
Poetry
- Geoffrey Chaucer â The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer (new edition revives interest)
- William Shenstone â The Judgment of Hercules
- Edward Young â Poetical Works of the Reverend Edward Young
- Alonso Verdugo, third Earl of Torrepalma â Adonis
- John and Charles Wesley â A Collection of Psalms and Hymns
Non-fiction
- Thomas Betterton â The History of the English Stage, from the Restoration to the Present
- Thomas Francklin â Of the Nature of the Gods
- David Hume â Essays Moral and Political
- Real Academia Española â OrtografÃa
- Luigi Riccoboni â An Historical and Critical Account of the Theatres of Europe
- MartÃn Sarmiento â Memorias para la historia de la poesÃa y poetas españoles
- Emanuel Swedenborg â A Hieroglyphic Key to Natural and Spiritual Arcana by Way of Representation and Correspondences (written, published in 1784).
- Jonathan Swift
- Dean Swift's Literary Correspondence (pirate edition by Edmund Curll, for which sued by Pope)
- Some Free Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs
- Isaac Watts â The Improvement of the Mind
- Leonard Welsted â The Summum Bonum
- George Whitefield â A Letter to the Reverend John Wesley
Births
- January 6 â Sarah Trimmer, English writer for children (died 1810)
- January 16 â Hester Thrale (Mrs Piozzi), English diarist and arts patron (died 1821)
- August 25 â Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian and adventurer (died 1792)
- October 4 â Edmond Malone, Irish Shakespearean editor (died 1812)
- October 18 â Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French novelist (died 1803)
- October 28 â Johann August von Starck, German theologian and political writer (died 1816)
Deaths
- January 9 â William Gwavas, English lawyer and writer in the Cornish language (born 1676)
- February 21 â Jethro Tull, English agricultural innovator and writer (born 1674)
- March 17 â Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French dramatist and poet (born 1671)
- April 10 â Celia Fiennes, English travel writer (born 1662)
- July 30 â Thomas Emlyn, English Unitarian writer (born 1663)
- December 14 â Charles Rollin, French historian (born 1661)
- December 21 â Bernard de Montfaucon, French scholar and palaeographer (born 1655)[11]
- unknown date â Anne Dick, Scottish comic poet and lampoonist (year of birth unknown)[12]