1750 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1750.

Events

March â The Rambler is founded by Edward Cave; it lasts for 208 issues, and is mostly written by Samuel Johnson.^[1]
March 5 â Shakespeare's Richard II (in Colley Cibber's version) is presented at their theatre on Nassau Street (Manhattan) by Walter Murray and Thomas Kean,^[2] the earliest known significant professional performance of Shakespeare in North America.
unknown dates
- Weekly meetings for contributors to the EncyclopÃ©die begin, at the salon of Baron d'Holbach.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau wins the prize of the Academy of Dijon for his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.
- London theatres wage "the Romeo and Juliet war" â competing productions appear with David Garrick and Anne Bellamy at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and with Spranger Barry and Susannah Cibber at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
- Old Orchard Street Theatre opens in Bath (England) under the management of John Palmer, with a performance of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2.^[3]
- Carlo Goldoni commits himself to writing a comedy for each week of the 1750â1751 seasons at Gerolamo Medebach's Teatro San Angelo in Venice â 16 plays.^[4]
After taking an M.D. at Aberdeen, Tobias Smollett travels in France, collecting material for The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.

Anonymous
- The Adventures of Mr. Loveill, interspers'd with many real amours of the modern polite world
- The Nominal Husband, or, Distress'd Innocence
- Revived Fugitive: a novel, translated from the French
Henry Brooke â A New Collection of Fairy Tales
John Cleland â Fanny Hill (official and expurgated)
Sarah Fielding (attributed) â The History of Charlotte Summers
Edward Kimber â The Life and Adventures of Joe Thompson
Charlotte Lennox â The Life of Harriot Stuart
Robert Paltock â The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins
Sarah Scott â The History of Cornelia

John Barrow â Navigatio Britannica
William Blackstone â An Essay on Collateral Consanguinity
Samuel Bownas â A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister
John Campbell â The Present State of Europe
Zachary Grey â A Free and Familiar Letter to William Warburton
Eliza Haywood â A Present for Women Addicted to Drinking (on the Gin crisis)
Francis Hutcheson â Reflections Upon Laughter (philosophy of humor)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau â Discourse on the Arts and Sciences^[5]
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (died 1695), edited by Alexander Pope â A Character of King Charles the Second: and political, moral and miscellaneous thoughts and reflections
Laurence Sterne â The Abuses of Conscience

January 7 â Robert Anderson, Scottish critic (died 1803)
June 13 â James Burney, English rear-admiral and naval writer (died 1821)
September 5 â Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet writing in Braid Scots (died 1774)
October 21 â Juraj FÃ¡ndly, Slovak non-fiction writer, entomologist and priest (died 1811)
October 31 â Leonor de Almeida Portugal, 4th Marquise of Alorna, Portuguese noblewoman, painter, and poet (died 1839)^[6]
unknown date â Henrietta Maria Bowdler, English author and expurgator (died 1830)