1723 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1723.

Events[edit]

• Voltaire contracts smallpox.^[1]
• The book collection of Samuel Pepys (died 1703), including his Diary, is transferred to the Pepys Library at his alma mater, Magdalene College, Cambridge, in accordance with his will.^[2]

New books[edit]

Fiction[edit]

• Penelope Aubin – The Life of Charlotta Du Pont, an English lady; taken from her own memoirs^[3]
• Jane Barker – A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies
• Eliza Haywood – Idalia
• Anton Josef Kirchweger – Aurea Catena Homeri
• Margrethe Lasson – Den beklædte Sandhed (first novel in Danish)
• John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (died 1721) – The Works of John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Marquis of Normanby, and Duke of Buckingham

Drama[edit]

• Susanna Centlivre – The Artifice
• Elijah Fenton – Marianne
• Eliza Haywood – A Wife to be Let
• Ludvig Holberg – Erasmus Montanus
• Charles Johnson – Love in a Forest (adapted from As You Like It)
• Pierre de Marivaux – La Double Inconstance
• Ambrose Philips – Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester: a tragedy
• Richard Steele – The Conscious Lovers

Poetry[edit]

• Sir Richard Blackmore – Alfred: an epick poem
• David Mallet – William and Margaret
• William Meston – Knight of the Kirk
• Ambrose Philips – Ode on the Death of William, Earl of Cowper
• Matthew Prior
  • Down-Hall
  • The Turtle and the Sparrow
• Allan Ramsay – The Tea-Table Miscellany, Vol. 1
• Ned Ward – Nuptial Dialogues and Debates, 3rd ed.

Non-fiction[edit]

• James Anderson – The Constitutions of the Free-Masons
• Henry Baker – An Invocation of Health: a poem
• Offspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter (posthumously) – Collected Works
• Bernard de Mandeville – A Search into the Nature of Society
• Thomas Dempster (posthumous) – De Etruria regali libri VII (printed in sans-serif)
• Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard – Cato's Letters (essays)
• John Nott – The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary or, the Accomplish'd Housewives Companion

Births[edit]

• January 21 (or June 21) – Baron d'Holbach, German-born French philosopher and encyclopedist (died 1789)
• February 23 – Richard Price, Welsh-born philosopher (died 1791)
• February 24 – John Burgoyne, English soldier and dramatist (died 1792)
• June 5 (bapt.) – Adam Smith, Scottish economist (died 1790)^[4]
• June 20 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (died 1816)
• July 11 – Jean-François Marmontel, French novelist and dramatist (died 1799)
• September 30 – William Hutton, English local historian and poet (died 1815)
• November 8 – John Byron, English vice-admiral and memoirist (died 1786)
• November 30 – William Livingston, American political writer and politician (died 1790)
• December 26 – Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, German-born French philosopher and encyclopedist (died 1807)

Deaths[edit]

Memorial to Thomas d'Urfey at St James's Church, Piccadilly

• February 26 – Thomas d'Urfey, English dramatist (born 1653)
• March 13 – René Auguste Constantin de Renneville, French Protestant poet and historian (born 1650)
• March 15 – Johann Christian Günther, German poet (born 1695)
• May 11 – Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (born 1656)
• June 8 – Isaac Chayyim Cantarini, Italian poet, physician and preacher (born 1644)
• July 28 – Mariana Alcoforado, Portuguese nun (born 1640)
• August 21 – Dimitrie Cantemir, Romanian author (born 1673)
• September 23 – Jacques Basnage, French Protestant poet, linguist and preacher (born 1653)
• December 1 – Susanna Centlivre (Susanna Carroll), English dramatist (born c. 1667–70)
• December 17 – John Trenchard, English politician and writer (born 1662)

References[edit]