1746 in literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1746.
Events
- May 9 â Voltaire, on being admitted into the Académie française, gives a discours de réception in which he criticizes Boileau's poetry.[1]
- June 18 â Samuel Johnson signs a contract to compile A Dictionary of the English Language for a group of London booksellers led by Robert Dodsley at a literary breakfast.[2]
- August 28 â A Native American massacre on this day of two white families in Deerfield, Massachusetts, gives rise to the first known poem by an African American, Lucy Terry, at the time a slave of around 16: "Bars Fight, August 28, 1746".[3]
- October 4 â Irish actor Spranger Barry makes his London stage debut in the title role of Othello at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (with Charles Macklin as Iago).
- unknown dates
- The probable first performance of Carlo Goldoni's comedy Servant of Two Masters (Italian: Il servitore di due padroni) takes place at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice.
- The oldest manuscript of Jean de Joinville's Life of Saint Louis is rediscovered in Brussels.
- Ãlie Catherine Fréron founds his controversial journal Lettres de la comtesse de...
New books
Prose
- John Arbuthnot (died 1735) â Miscellanies
- John Collier as "Tim Bobbin" â A View of the Lancashire Dialect by way of dialogue between Tummus... and Meary...
- Zachary Grey â A Word or Two of Advice to William Warburton
- James Hervey â Meditations Among the Tombs
- Soame Jenyns â The Modern Fine Gentleman
- Jacques Rochette de La Morlière â Angola[4]
- Pierre Louis Maupertuis â Astronomie nautique, volume 2
- Tobias Smollett â Advice
- Lauritz de Thurah â Den Danske Vitruvius, volume I
- John Upton â Critical Observations on Shakespeare
- Horace Walpole â The Beauties
- John Wesley
- The Principles of a Methodist Father Explain'd
- Sermons on Several Occasions
Drama
- Charles Macklin â Henry VII
- Pierre de Marivaux â Le Préjugé vaincu
- Takeda Izumo I, Takeda Izumo II, Namiki SÅsuke and Miyoshi ShÅraku[5] â Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami
Poetry
- Thomas Blacklock â Poems
- William Collins â Odes
- Thomas Cooke â A Hymn to Liberty
- Christian Fürchtegott Gellert â Fabeln und Erzählungen (Fables and Stories) (in verse)
- Joseph Warton â Odes on Various Subjects
- See also 1746 in poetry
Births
- January 12 â Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss educational reformer (died 1827)
- January 25 â Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis, French writer, harpist, educator (died 1830)
- March 27 â Michael Bruce, Scottish poet (died 1767)
- April 3 â Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville, French fantasy novelist (died 1805)
- May 3 â Radu Golescu, Wallachian statesman and literary sponsor (died 1818)
- December 21 â José de la Cruz (Huseng Sisiw), Filipino writer (died 1829)
- unknown date â Victor d'Hupay, French philosopher (died 1818)
Deaths
- February 4 â Robert Blair, Scottish member of the "Graveyard poets" (born 1699)
- February 8 â Anton Josef Kirchweger, Latin Pietist author (year of birth unknown)[6]
- May 16 â Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Italian Jewish rabbi, kabbalist and philosopher (born 1707)
- May 22 â Thomas Southerne, Irish dramatist (born 1660)
- November 12 â Mary Leapor, English kitchenmaid poet (born 1722; died of measles)
- December 6 â Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish poet (born 1665)
- unknown date â Frederic Count de Thoms, German biographer of King Louis XIV of France and art collector (born 1669)[7]