1798 in literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1798.
Events
- February â Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes the conversation poem "Frost at Midnight", commonly seen as the best of the series.
- April â Coleridge writes the conversation poems "Fears in Solitude" ("Written ... During the Alarm of an Invasion", soon published in a pamphlet) and "The Nightingale".
- April 16 â Coleridge's "The Recantation: An Ode" appears in The Morning Post, describing his disillusionment with the French Revolution.
- April 30 â Richard Cumberland's comedy The Eccentric Lover is first performed at the Covent Garden Theatre in London.
- September 18 â Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge is first published anonymously in Bristol by Joseph Cottle (who also remains anonymous), marking the beginning of English literary Romanticism.[1] Most of the poems are by Wordsworth, including Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, 13 July 1798, but also opening with the first publication of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, whose first London publication is on October 4.
- October 11 â Elizabeth Inchbald's Lovers' Vows (adapted from Kotzebue's Das Kind der Liebe â the child of love) is first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
- October 12 â The rebuilt Weimarer Hoftheater are inaugurated with the first performance of the first part of Friedrich Schiller's dramatic trilogy Wallenstein: Das Lager (The Camp), directed by Goethe.
- unknown dates
- Ivan Kotliarevsky's mock-heroic poem Eneyida (ÐнеÑда) becomes the first printed work in the modern Ukrainian language.[2]
- The National Library of the Netherlands originates when the Batavian Republic opens the former library of the stadtholder to the public.[3]
- The Académie française publishes the 5th edition of its Dictionnaire.[4]
- Thomas Nelson's publishing company is established in Edinburgh as a second-hand religious bookshop.[5]
New books
Fiction
- Charles Brockden Brown
- Alcuin: a Dialogue
- Wieland: or, The Transformation; an American Tale
- Emily Clark â Ianthé, or the Flower of Caernarvon
- Francis Lathom â The Midnight Bell: a German story, founded on incidents in real life
- Regina Maria Roche â Clermont: a Tale[6]
- Eleanor Sleath â The Orphan of the Rhine: a romance
- Caroline von Wolzogen (anonymously) â Agnes von Lilien (first complete book publication, in 2 vols)
- Hannah Webster Foster â The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils
- Mary Wollstonecraft â Posthumous Works (edited by William Godwin) including Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman
Children
- François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil â CÅlina, ou l'Enfant du mystère (Celina, or the Mystery Child)[7]
- Edward Augustus Kendall
- Keeper's Travels in Search of His Master
- The Sparrow. A Tale
- Richmal Mangnall (anonymously) â Historical and Miscellaneous Questions for the Use of Young People (often known as Mangnall's Questions)[1]
- Samuel Jackson Pratt ("Selected by a Lady") â Pity's Gift: a collection of interesting tales, to excite the compassion of youth for the animal creation
Drama
- James Boaden
- Elizabeth Craven â The Georgian Princess
- Richard Cumberland â
- Thomas John Dibdin â The Mouth of the Nile
- Thomas Holcroft â
- Elizabeth Inchbald â Lovers' Vows
- Thomas Morton
- Frederick Reynolds â Laugh When You Can
- Friedrich von Schiller â Wallensteins Lager
Poetry
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth â Lyrical Ballads
- Richard Polwhele (anonymously) â The Unsex'd Females
- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Non-fiction
- Nathan Drake â Literary Hours
- William Godwin â Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Edward Jenner â An Inquiry Into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ
- Thomas Malthus (anonymously) â An Essay on the Principle of Population
Births
- January 5 â David Macbeth Moir, Scottish poet and humorist (died 1851)
- January 29 â Henry Neele, English poet and scholar (died 1828)
- February 12 â Catherine Gore, English novelist and dramatist (died 1861)
- February 17 â Auguste Comte, French philosopher (died 1857)
- March 30 â Luise Hensel, German religious author and poet (died 1876)
- June 29 â Count Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet, essayist and philologist (died 1837)
Deaths
- April 12 â Madeleine de Puisieux, French philosopher and feminist writer (born 1720)
- June 4 â Giacomo Casanova, Italian librarian and memoirist (born 1725)
- June 20 â Jeremy Belknap, American historian of New Hampshire (born 1744)
- December 16 â Thomas Pennant, Welsh naturalist and travel writer (born 1726)[8]