1.
1745 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1745. September 21 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock delivers a speech on epic poetry – Abschiedsrede über die epische Poesie, october 19 – Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist and Dean of St. Patricks Cathedral, Dublin, dies aged 78. The London theatres stage competing productions of Shakespeares King John in response to the Jacobite rising begun this summer by Bonnie Prince Charlie, david Garricks production of the original text at Drury Lane contrasts with Colley Cibbers adaptation Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John at Covent Garden. The rivalry anticipates the Romeo and Juliet war of five years later
2.
1749 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1749. February - The second part of John Clelands erotic novel Fanny Hill is published in London, the author is released from debtors prison in March. The Church of England asks the Secretary of State to stop the progress of this vile Book, in November, Cleland is arrested and charged with corrupting the Kings subjects. February 28 - Henry Fieldings comic novel The History of Tom Jones and it reaches its 4th edition by the end of the year. Also this year, Fielding becomes magistrate at Bow Street, and first enlists the help of the Bow Street Runners, april 12 - Official opening of the circular Radcliffe Library in Oxford, designed by James Gibbs. Sarah Fieldings novel The Governess, or Little Female Academy, generally seen as the first school story, is published in London, Élie Catherine Frérons journal Lettres de la comtesse de. is suppressed but he immediately replaces it by Lettres sur quelques écrits de ce temps. Oliver Goldsmith graduates from Trinity College, Dublin
3.
1752 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1752. January 4 – Paper War of 1752–1753, in the first issue of The Covent-Garden Journal Henry Fielding starts his long-running quarrel with John Hill, tobias Smollett soon becomes involved, accusing Fielding of plagiarism. Thomas Sheridan introduces a version of Shakespeares Coriolanus incorporating portions of the version by James Thomson as Coriolanus, lewis Hallam opens a tour of north America with his brother Williams company at Williamsburg, Virginia, with Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice. Library at Melk Abbey in Lower Austria completed, september–December – Jovan Ševićs migration to Slavo-Serbia inspires Miloš Crnjanskis novel Сеобе
4.
1762 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1762. The Académie française produces a new edition of its dictionary of the French language, in Paris, the Comédie-Italienne is merged with the Opéra-Comique and performs at the Hôtel de Bourgogne. Benjamin Victors adaptation of The Two Gentlemen of Verona is staged by David Garrick at Drury Lane and it is the earliest known performance of that Shakespearean play in any form. Christoph Martin Wieland begins publishing his prose translations of 22 Shakespearean plays, hugh Blair is appointed first Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh by King George III, the first such chair in English literature
5.
1754 in architecture
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The year 1754 in architecture involved some significant events. The Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc, Moravia, finished and consecrated, kings Chapel, in Boston, Massachusetts, designed by Peter Harrison, completed. Wieskirche in Steingaden, Bavaria, designed by Johann Baptist Zimmermann and Dominikus Zimmermann, versailles Cathedral in France, designed by Jacques Hardouin-Mansart de Sagonne, completed and consecrated August 24. Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza, Aragon, begun to the design of Francisco Herrera the Younger in 1681 and continued by Felipe Sánchez, stroganov Palace in Saint Petersburg, designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, completed. Pavillon du Butard in France, designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Louis XV, tomb of Safdarjung in Delhi, a late example of Mughal architecture, completed. Mow Cop Castle in Staffordshire, a folly, built by Randle Wilbraham, Liverpool Town Hall, in Liverpool, designed by John Wood, the Elder, completed. St Andrews Church, Kiev, in Russia, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, obando Church, in the Philippines, completed and consecrated April 29. Steeple added to Christ Church, Philadelphia, making it the tallest building in North America
6.
Horace Walpole
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Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford — also known as Horace Walpole — was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, south-west London and his literary reputation rests on his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto and his Letters, which are of significant social and political interest. He was the son of the first British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, as Horace Walpole was childless, on his death his barony descended to his cousin of the same surname, who was created the new Earl of Orford. Walpole was born in London, the youngest son of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, like his father, he received early education in Bexley, he was also educated at Eton College and Kings College, Cambridge. Walpoles first friends were probably his cousins Francis and Henry Conway, to whom Walpole became strongly attached, at Eton he formed with Charles Lyttelton and George Montagu the Triumvirate, a schoolboy confederacy. More important were another group of friends dubbed the Quadruple Alliance, Walpole, Thomas Gray, Richard West, at Cambridge Walpole came under the influence of Conyers Middleton, an unorthodox theologian. Walpole came to accept the nature of Middletons attitude to some essential Christian doctrines for the rest of his life, including a hatred of superstition. Walpole ceased to reside at Cambridge at the end of 1738, according to one biographer his love for his mother was the most powerful emotion of his entire life. the whole of his psychological history was dominated by it. Walpole did not have any relationships with women, he has been called a natural celibate. Walpoles sexual orientation has been the subject of speculation, many contemporaries described him as effeminate. Biographers such as Timothy Mowl explore his possible homosexuality, including a passionate, some previous biographers such as Lewis, Fothergill, and Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, however, have interpreted Walpole as asexual. Upon coming of age he became Comptroller of the Pipe and Clerk of the Estreats which gave him an income of £300 per annum, Walpole decided to go travelling with Thomas Gray and wrote a will whereby he left Gray all his belongings. They left Dover on 29 March and arrived at Calais later that day and they then travelled through Boulogne, Amiens and Saint-Denis, arriving at Paris on 4 April. Here they met many aristocratic Englishmen, in early June they left Paris for Rheims, then in September going to Dijon, Lyons, Dauphiné, Savoy, Aix-les-Bains, Geneva, and then back to Lyons. In October they left for Italy, arriving in Turin in November, then going to Genoa, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, Modena, Bologna, and in December arriving at Florence. Here he struck up a friendship with Horace Mann, an assistant to the British Minister at the Court of Tuscany and wrote Epistle from Florence to Thomas Ashton, tutor to the Earl of Plymouth, a mixture of Whig history and Middletons teachings. In February 1740 Walpole and Gray left for Rome with the intention of witnessing the papal conclave upon the death of Pope Clement XII, Walpole wanted to attend fashionable parties and Gray wanted to visit all the antiquities. At social occasions in Rome he saw the Old Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart, Walpole and Gray returned to Florence in July
7.
Serendipity
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Serendipity means a fortunate happenstance or pleasant surprise. It was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754, in a letter he wrote to a friend, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. The princes, he told his correspondent, were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, in June 2004, a British translation company voted the word to be one of the ten English words hardest to translate. However, due to its use, the word has since been exported into many other languages. The first noted use of serendipity in the English language was by Horace Walpole, the name comes from Serendip, an old name for Sri Lanka, from Old-Tamil Cherantivu, which means Island of Cheras referring to the ancient Naga people. Parts of Sri Lanka were under the rule of Tamil kings for extended periods of time in history, Kings of Kerala, India, were called Chera Kings and divu, tivu or dheep, which means island. The island belonging to the Chera King was called Cherandeep, hence Sarandib by Arab traders. Serendipity is not just a matter of an event, nor can it be taken simply as a synonym for a happy accident, finding out things without being searching for them. The chance is an event, serendipity a capacity, the Nobel Prize laureate Paul Flory suggests that significant inventions are not mere accidents. Successful researchers can observe scientific results with careful attention to analyzing a phenomenon under the most diverse and they can question themselves on assumptions that do not fit with empirical observations. Various thinkers discuss the role that luck can play in science, indeed, the scientific method, and the scientists themselves, can be prepared in many other ways to harness luck and make discoveries. Serendipity is postulated by Napier and Vuong as an advantage with which a firm can tap its potential creativity. Serendipity is a key concept in competitive intelligence because it is one of the tools for avoiding blind spots, the book is a study in sociological semantics and the sociology of science, as the subtitle of the book declares. It further develops the idea of serendipity as scientific method, william Boyd coined the term zemblanity to mean somewhat the opposite of serendipity, making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occurring by design. A zemblanity is, effectively, an unpleasant unsurprise and it derives from Novaya Zemlya, a cold, barren land with many features opposite to the lush Sri Lanka. On this island Willem Barents and his crew were stranded while searching for a new route to the east, bahramdipity is derived directly from Bahram Gur as characterized in the The Three Princes of Serendip. It describes the suppression of serendipitous discoveries or research results by powerful individuals, browse Chance Coincidence Insight Lateral thinking Multiple discovery Remer, Theodore G. ed. Serendipity and the Three Princes, from the Peregrinaggio of 1557. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by Theodore G. Remer, LCC 65-10112 Merton, Robert K. Barber, Elinor
8.
The Three Princes of Serendip
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The Three Princes of Serendip is the English version of the story Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo published by Michele Tramezzino in Venice in 1557. Tramezzino claimed to have heard the story from one Christophero Armeno, the story first came to English via a French translation, and now exists in several out-of-print translations. Serendip is the Perso-Arabic name for Sri Lanka, in ancient times there existed in the country of Serendippo, in the Far East, a great and powerful king by the name of Giaffer. He had three sons who were dear to him. The father searches out the best possible tutors, when the tutors are pleased with the excellent progress that the three princes make in the arts and sciences, they report it to the king. He, however, still doubts their training, and summoning each in turn, each politely declines, affirming the fathers superior wisdom and fitness to rule. The king is pleased, but fearing that his sons education may have been too sheltered and privileged, feigns anger at them for refusing the throne, no sooner do the three princes arrive abroad than they trace clues to identify precisely a camel they have never seen. They conclude that the camel is lame, blind in one eye, missing a tooth, carrying a pregnant woman, when they later encounter the merchant who has lost the camel, they report their observations to him. He accuses them of stealing the camel and takes them to the Emperor Beramo, Beramo asks how they are able to give such an accurate description of the camel if they have never seen it. It is clear from the replies that they have used small clues to infer cleverly the nature of the camel. Grass had been eaten from the side of the road where it was less green, because there were lumps of chewed grass on the road that were the size of a camel’s tooth, they inferred they had fallen through the gap left by a missing tooth. The tracks showed the prints of three feet, the fourth being dragged, indicating that the animal was lame. That butter was carried on one side of the camel and honey on the other was evident because ants had been attracted to melted butter on one side of the road and flies to spilled honey on the other. Because some urine was nearby, I wet my fingers and as a reaction to its odour I felt a sort of carnal concupiscence, at this moment, a traveller enters the scene to say that he has just found a missing camel wandering in the desert. Beramo spares the lives of the three princes, lavishes rich rewards on them, and appoints them to be his advisors. The three princes have many adventures, where they continue to display their sagacity, stories-within-stories are told. The fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip is based upon the life of Persian King Bahram V, with the exception of the well-known camel story, English translations are very hard to come by. He then turned back, and. after complimenting the two slaves for their shrewdness, he at once gave them their liberty. ”T. H. Edgar Allan Poe in his turn was inspired by Zadig when he created C
9.
Smock Alley Theatre
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The Smock Alley Theatre is a theatre in Dublin. The original theatre opened in 1662 and operated till 1787, in 2012, after a €3.5 million investment, a new theatre opened on the original foundations and with a lot of the original superstructure. The Smock Alley Theatre was the purpose built theatre in Ireland. It was preceded by the Werburgh Street Theatre - which was, however, only active for four years and that earlier theater came to a sudden end with the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. In October of that year, the Lords Justices prohibited playing there, already shortly afterwards, the building was said to be ruined and spoiled, and a cow-house made of the stage. There never was an attempt to renew theatrical activity in that location, the years of Oliver Cromwells Puritan rule were a bad time for the theater, altogether outlawed also in England itself. Moreover, Ireland, conquered by Cromwells troops, suffered various other kinds of harsh oppression, but the restoration of King Charles II - who strongly appreciated French culture, including French theater - saw the swift revival of theater and its flourishing in both England and Ireland. Within a short time of the Restoration of the Monarchy, no less than three major theaters were opened, the construction in London of Lincolns Inn Fields, and Drury Lane was closely followed by Dublins Smock Alley Theatre, the first Irish institute to be dubbed Theatre Royal. It was known as the Theatre Royal at Smock Alley when it was built and it consisted of a classical proscenium stage, pit, boxes, a middle and upper gallery, lattices and a music/orchestra loft above the stage, also the acoustics were said to be excellent. The pit had backless benches and a floor that rose toward the back of the audience to help sightlines. Mostly single men sat here, and it was the noisiest, rowdiest area in the theatre, boxes sat upper class aristocrats—mostly married couples with wives who wanted to be seen. Boxes were luxuriously decorated with velvet drapes should the occupants require some privacy during the evening. for whatever reason, the doors were wider in the boxes to allow access for the voluminous dresses of the ladies. Galleries held the class, including servants of the upper classes in attendance. These were the worst seats as they were on the level as the large chandeliers that lit the theatre. Candles were made of tallow and they were very pungent and smokey and he was pulled from the wreckage of his box with two broken legs There was another partial collapse in March 1734 after which it was abandoned for a short while. The major decision was taken to demolish and rebuild the theatre in 1735 with increased audience capacity. However a new theatre had opened in Aungier Street and it managed to wrestle the title Theatre Royal from Smock Alley for a time, in 1745 Thomas Sheridan, godson of Jonathan Swift, took on the role of manager of Smock Alley and Aungier Street. He made many improvements and reclaimed the title Theatre Royal for Smock Alley, by 1750 the Aungier Street theatre had closed down
10.
Thomas Sheridan (actor)
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Thomas Sheridan was an Irish stage actor, an educator, and a major proponent of the elocution movement. He received his M. A. in 1743 from Trinity College in Dublin and he also published a respelled dictionary of the English language. He was married to Frances Chamberlaine and his son was the better known Richard Brinsley Sheridan, while his daughter Alicia also wrote plays. His work is noticeable in the writings of Hugh Blair. In 1739, he earned his BA from Trinity College, Dublin and he had his début in acting when he played the title role in Shakespeare’s Richard III in Dublin. Soon after, he was noted as the most popular actor in Ireland, not only an actor, he also wrote The Brave Irishman or Captain OBlunder which premièred in 1738. He became the manager of the Dublin theatre sometime in the 1740s, Sheridan left his acting career, although he continued to manage theatre companies and occasionally play bit parts, and moved permanently to England with his family in 1758. There, his time was spent as a teacher and an offering a very successful lecture course. In 1762 Sheridan published Lectures on Elocution, following that work, he published A Plan of Education, Lectures on the Art of Reading, and A General Dictionary of the English Language. Each of these works was based on some form of an argument taken in an earlier work British Education, Or, The source of the Disorders of Great Britain. With an attempt to shew, that a revival of the Art of Speaking, and this venture apparently proving to be unsuccessful, he returned to Dublin and the theatre in 1771. Thomas’s son Richard became an owner of the Theatre Royal in London in 1776. Two years later Thomas was appointed manager of the theatre, a position he held until 1781, Sheridan attempted to supply the willing student with a guide to public speaking that was correct, appropriate, and successful. What he actually wanted was a reform of the British education system. In his work British Education, Sheridan revealed that poor preaching was negatively affecting religion itself, Sheridans belief in the valuable effects of strong and correct public speaking was so strong that he was sure studying elocution would help ensure perfection in all of the arts. In British Education, Sheridan writes that preaching from the pulpit must either effectually support religion against all opposition, or be the principal means of its destruction. This he can never be, unless the tones of voice in which you come from the heart, accompanied by corresponding looks, and gestures. Sheridan believed that elocution was not restricted to the voice, but embodied the person with facial expressions, gestures, posture
11.
Frances Sheridan
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Frances Sheridan was an Anglo-Irish novelist and playwright. Frances Chamberlaine was born in Dublin, Ireland and her father, Dr. Phillip Chamberlaine, was an Anglican minister. In 1747 she married Thomas Sheridan, who was then an actor and theatre director, the couple moved to London permanently in 1758 for business reasons. In London Frances was introduced to Samuel Richardson, who encouraged her in her writing and her most successful novel, Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, in diary format, was influenced by Samuel Richardsons Pamela. She then turned to drama, and two of her plays were produced at Londons Drury Lane theatre by David Garricks company in the 1760s. Frances Sheridan was the mother of the famous playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She died at age 42 in Blois, France, a book-length biography was published in 1824, written by her granddaughter, Alicia LeFanu. The Discovery The Dupe A Trip to Bath Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph The History of Nourjahad Conclusion of the Memoirs Eugenia and Adelaide Sheridan, Frances
12.
Samuel Richardson
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Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three novels, Pamela, Or, Virtue Rewarded, Clarissa, Or the History of a Young Lady. Richardson was a printer and publisher for most of his life and printed almost 500 different works, including journals. He was also known to collaborate closely with the London bookseller Andrew Millar on several occasions, at a very early age, Richardson was apprenticed to a printer, whose daughter he eventually married. He lost his first wife along with their five sons, although with his second wife he had four daughters who lived to become adults, they had no male heir to continue running the printing business. While his print shop slowly ran down, at the age of 51 he wrote his first novel and immediately became one of the most popular and he knew leading figures in 18th-century England, including Samuel Johnson and Sarah Fielding. In the London literary world, he was a rival of Henry Fielding, and his name was on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list established by the Pope containing the names of books that Catholics were not allowed to read. Richardson, one of nine children, was born in 1689 in Mackworth, Derbyshire, to Samuel. It is unsure where in Derbyshire he was born because Richardson always concealed the location, the trade his father pursued was that of a joiner. The abilities and position of his father brought him to the attention of James Scott, however this, as Richardson claims, was to Richardson seniors great detriment because of the failure of the Monmouth Rebellion, which ended in the death of Scott in 1685. After Scotts death, the elder Richardson was forced to abandon his business in London, the Richardsons were not exiled forever from London, they eventually returned, and the young Richardson was educated at Christs Hospital grammar school. The extent that he was educated at the school is uncertain, received what education he had at Christs Hospital. However, this conflicts with Richardsons nephews account that it is certain that was never sent to a more respectable seminary than a grammar school located in Derbyshire. Little is known of Richardsons early years beyond the few things that Richardson was willing to share, one such letter, written when Richardson was almost 11, was directed to a woman in her 50s who was in the habit of constantly criticizing others. Assuming the style and address of a person in years, Richardson cautioned her about her actions, however, his handwriting was used to determine that it was his work, and the woman complained to his mother. The result was, as he explains, that my mother chid me for the freedom taken by such a boy with a woman of her years but also commended my principles, after his writing ability was known, he began to help others in the community write letters. In particular, Richardson, at the age of thirteen, helped many of the girls that he associated with to write responses to love letters they received. But this opportunity did little more for me, at so tender an age, than point, as I may say, or lead my enquiries, as I grew up, into the knowledge of female heart
13.
Sarah Fielding
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Sarah Fielding was an English author and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding. She wrote The Governess, or The Little Female Academy, the first novel in English aimed specifically at children, earlier she had success with her novel The Adventures of David Simple. Sarah Fielding was born in 1710 after Henry and Ursula, her siblings were Anne, Beatrice. Sarahs father, Edmund Feilding, the son of John Feilding, was a military officer. Although Edmund spelled his last name Feilding as often as Fielding, when asked by an Earl of Denbigh why, Henry Fieldings son said, I cannot tell, my Lord, except it be that my branch of the family were the first that knew how to spell. Sarah Fieldings mother, Sarah Gould, was the daughter of Sir Henry Gould and this descent is important for understanding the early life and education of Edmund Feildings children. Edmund left the care of his children to his wifes mother, Lady Sarah Gould, the children grew up in her home in Glastonbury and their paternal grandfathers house in East Stour. Henry was sent to Eton, but all of the daughters were sent to Mary Rookess boarding school in Salisbury. Lady Gould was so set against Anne and her enlargement to the family that in 1721, she sued for custody of the children and she eventually won, leaving the children unable to see their father for years. In the 1740s, Fielding moved to London, sometimes living with her sisters and sometimes with her brother Henry, the women of the family lacked sufficient money for a dowry, and consequently none married. Even when Lady Gould died in 1733, there was money for the children. Fielding turned to writing to make a living, while she lived with her brother and acted as his housekeeper, she began to write. In 1742, Henry Fielding published Joseph Andrews, and Fielding is often credited with having written the letter from Leonora to Horatio, in 1743, Henry Fielding published his Miscellanies, and Fielding may have written its narrative of the life of Anne Boleyn. In 1744, Fielding published a novel, The Adventures of David Simple, as was the habit, it was published anonymously. The novel was successful and gathered praise from contemporaries, including the publisher. Richardson, who was himself the target of Henry Fieldings satire, said that he thought Sarah, the Adventures of David Simple went into a second edition within ten weeks, and was translated into French and German. The title pages to Fieldings novels often carried the advertisement that they were written by the author of David Simple, the novel was sufficiently popular that Fielding wrote Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David Simple as an epistolary furtherance to the novel in 1747. In 1753, she wrote a sequel to The Adventures of David Simple entitled David Simple, David Simple was one of the earliest sentimental novels, featuring a wayfaring hero in search of true friendship who triumphs by good nature and moral strength
14.
The Cry (book)
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Jane Colliers and Sarah Fieldings The Cry, A New Dramatic Fable was Fieldings sixth and Colliers second and final work. The work is an allegorical and satirical novel, Collier died the year after its publication. The novel was produced in three volumes and divided into five parts. The work involves many stories told through the character Portia to an audience consisting of Una, a figure representing truth, and the Cry. It is likely that by 1751, Fielding and Collier were living together, in 1753, Fielding published The Adventures of David Simple. Volume the Last, and Collier published An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting and their joint effort The Cry was published in March 1754. After Collier died in 1755, Richardson encouraged Fielding to revise the work, originally, Collier planned A book called The Laugh on the same plan as The Cry, but was never able to complete it before she died. After working on The Cry, Fielding began to focus on the lives of women and the conditions that they live, the community was a group of female writers that challenged the traditional ideas of female education and the role of women in society. The Cry features stories by characters with responses by a known as the Cry. They operate as a sort of chorus in the novel, a meeting is held between Portia, Una, and the Cry, who regard Portia as a dupe. Portia describes Nicanors family—a gloomy father and the twins Ferdinand and Cordelia—and the Cry accuses her of being in love with Ferdinand and this leads to Portia telling a story of her courtship with Ferdinand, but the Cry accuse her of being too fond of him. Then, the Cry start abusing Portia for her feelings and for later discussing logic, Una asks Portia to continue talking about logic. This leads to a story being told of John and Betty and it is then revealed that the Cry cannot stand women learning, and they oppose the thought of it. Portia responds by telling a story of three children, a story of Ben Johnsons jealousy of Shakespeare, and an infant and two monkeys, the Cry react badly to these stories and attack Portia for telling them. Una stops the fighting before it out of hand by dismissing the meeting. The narrator provides the back-story of Nicanors family, specifically how the fathers extravagance almost ruined the family, Portia begins by discussion pagan gods and other matters on religion. Things go smoothly until Portia discusses Love and the Cry attack her for being mad, then Portia describes Oliver, Ferdinands brother, and their courtship. She then questions the Cry and attacks them, Portia condemns Prior Emma and then tells a story about Perdita, which provokes the Cry to claim their admiration for Indian women who kill themselves after their husbands die
15.
Henry Fielding
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Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist best known for his rich, earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. His younger sister, Sarah, also became a successful writer, Fielding was born at Sharpham, Somerset, and educated at Eton College, where he established a lifelong friendship with William Pitt the Elder. After a romantic episode with a woman that ended in his getting into trouble with the law, he went to London. In 1728, he travelled to Leiden to study classics and law at the university, however, lack of money obliged him to return to London and he began writing for the theatre. Some of his work was critical of the government of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. The Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 is alleged to be a response to his activities. The particular play that triggered the Licensing Act was the unproduced, anonymously authored, The Golden Rump, once the act was passed, political satire on the stage became virtually impossible, and playwrights whose works were staged were viewed as suspect. Fielding therefore retired from the theatre and resumed his career in law in order to support his wife Charlotte Craddock, Allen went on to provide for the education and support of Fieldings children after the writers death. Fielding never stopped writing political satire and satires of current arts, the Tragedy of Tragedies was, for example, quite successful as a printed play. He also contributed a number of works to journals of the day and he wrote for Tory periodicals, usually under the name Captain Hercules Vinegar. Fielding continued to air his liberal and anti-Jacobite views in articles and newspapers in the late 1730s. Almost by accident he took to writing novels in 1741, angered by Samuel Richardsons success with Pamela and his first big success was an anonymous parody of that, Shamela. This satire follows the model of the famous Tory satirists of the generation, Jonathan Swift and John Gay. Fielding followed this with Joseph Andrews, an original work supposedly dealing with Pamelas brother, although begun as a parody, it developed into an accomplished novel in its own right and is considered to mark Fieldings debut as a serious novelist. It is a satire of Walpole that draws a parallel between him and Jonathan Wild, the gang leader and highwayman. Though a minor item in Fieldings œuvre, the subject is consistent with his preoccupation with fraud, shamming. His greatest work was Tom Jones, a meticulously constructed picaresque novel telling the convoluted, Fielding married his first wife, Charlotte Craddock, in 1734 at the Church of St Mary in Charlcombe, Somerset. Charlotte, on whom he modelled the heroines of both Tom Jones and Amelia, died in 1744
16.
Salomon Gessner
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Salomon Gessner was a Swiss painter and poet. His writing suited the taste of his time, though by some more recent standards it is sweet and monotonously melodious. ”As a painter. The first of his writings attracted attention was his Lied eines Schweizers an sein bewaffnetes Mädchen. ”Encyclopædia Britannica puzzles over the reason for Gessners universal popularity. Britannica notes that his writings are marked by sweetness and melody, qualities which were appreciated by Lessing, Herder. The New International Encyclopædia finds his writing “insipidly sweet and monotonously melodious, ”, collected editions of Gessners works were repeatedly published. They were translated into French, and versions of the Idyllen appeared in English, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Czech, in 1780 Gessner founded the Zürcher Zeitung. Gessners life was written by Johann Jakob Hottinger, and by Heinrich Wölfflin, for Gessners literary influence, see Texte, J. J. Rousseau and Literary Cosmopolitanism. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Gessner. Thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds, media related to Salomon Gessner at Wikimedia Commons Salomon Gessner
17.
Sarah Scott
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Sarah Scott was an English novelist, translator, social reformer, and member of the Bluestockings. Her most famous work was her utopian novel A Description of Millenium Hall, Sarahs father, Matthew Robinson, and her mother, Elizabeth Drake, were both from distinguished families, and Sarah was the youngest of nine children. The sisters were close in their early years. Sarahs letters also revealed a love of literature, especially the works of Spenser, Sidney, Milton, Swift. Sarah contracted smallpox in 1741, a disease that would leave its victims scarred and disfigured. Sarah would later create a character in Millenium Hall who had the telltale marks of smallpox that diminished her complexion. Sarah stayed home to tend to her mother, who was dying of cancer, after her mother died in 1746, Sarah visited Elizabeth and Edward in Bath. She chose to stay and care for the invalid Lady Barbara Montagu, or Lady Bab, in 1748, the two women combined their finances and set up house together. In the late 1740s, Sarah contracted to marry George Lewis Scott, Sarah and George Lewis Scott were married on 15 June 1751. The marriage, according to letters, was never consummated. In April 1752, Sarahs father and brothers came to London to remove her from her husbands house for undisclosed reasons, speculations persisted of incompatibility, abuse, an illicit affair, or even nondisclosure of a prior marriage. Regardless of reason, the scandal if made public would have damaged George Scotts career, when she was no longer with her husband, she became her fathers charge, and he gave her no money at all. Further, he forbade Elizabeth or Sarahs brother Matthew from relieving Sarahs poverty, Sarah wrote her first novel before her marriage, The History of Cornelia, a portrait of an ideal and pious young woman. To help with the expenses and philanthropy, Sarah decided to write. In 1754, she translated Le Laideur aimable as An Agreeable Ugliness, after publishing her first novels and completing a translation of another, Sarah began to write educational texts. In the late 1750s, Sarah and Lady Barbara followed their earlier endeavors to educate children by writing a series of cards that concentrated on teaching history. She succeeded this with The History of Mecklenburgh in 1762 to capitalize on the publics interest in George IIIs wife, also in 1762, Scott published her most successful novel, A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent. The utopian tale depicts a community of devoted to artistic pursuits and education, Christian virtues
18.
John Shebbeare
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John Shebbeare was a British Tory political satirist. He was the eldest son of an attorney and corn-factor of Bideford, a hundred and a village in Devon, where the family had owned land, bear their name. Shebbeare was educated at the school, Exeter, under Zachariah Mudge. In his sixteenth year he was apprenticed to a surgeon, having, however, lampooned both his master and the members of the Exeter corporation, he in 1736 removed to Bristol, where he later entered into partnership with a chemist. In 1740 he published A new Analysis of the Bristol Waters, together with the Cause of Diabetes and Hectic, and their Cure, as it results from those Waters, which was reissued in 1760. In 1752 he went to Paris, where he claimed to have obtained a medical degree, but he found his pen more remunerative than his practice. The author was imprisoned for his reflections on the legislature, but his book was reissued in 1755 as Matrimony and this political satire, modelled on Bolingbrokes writings against Robert Walpole, alone entitled Shebbeare to a respectable name in literature. On 12 January 1758 a general warrant was issued against the author, printer, on 23 January all copies of a seventh Letter were seized and suppressed. On 17 June Shebbeare was tried for libel on an information laid against him by the attorney-general, Pratt, during the trial, as Walpole laments, Mansfield laid it down that satires on dead kings were punishable. In summing up he declared that the Letter nearly approached high treason, on 28 Nov. Shebbeare was sentenced to a fine and three years imprisonment, besides having to find security for good behaviour for seven years. He was also to stand in the pillory at Charing Cross on 5 Dec, at the end of an hour he retired amidst the cheers of the crowd, who had been invited by printed bills to come and see the British champion. Beardmore was afterwards punished for his conduct, an anonymous squib appeared under the title Memoirs of the Pillory, being a consolatory Epistle to Dr. Shebbeare. While in prison Shebbeare received subscriptions for a history of England, and actually composed one volume, when attacked on the subject in a letter in the Public Advertiser of 10 Aug. Notwithstanding his position, he refused to avail himself of the Insolvent Act, on his release he advocated peace with France, and attacked John Wilkes. On 29 Feb.1764 a memorial signed by members of parliament was presented to George Grenville in his favour. The king, in reply to Sir John Philips, who made the application, is said to have spoken of Shebbeare in very favourable terms, almons statement that a pension of £400 had been previously granted by Bute seems doubtful. Henceforth Shebbeare became an advocate of the measures of the court. It is an exposure of the weak points in whig policy and administration, followed by a panegyric on George III
19.
Henry Jones (poet)
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Henry Jones, born in Ireland, was a poet and dramatist active in London. Jones was born at Beaulieu, near Drogheda, co and he was apprenticed to a bricklayer, but contrived to study privately. Some complimentary verses which he addressed to the corporation of Drogheda and some lines On Mr. Popes Death, attracted the attention of Lord-chief-justice Singleton, Chesterfield rewarded Jones liberally, and, at his request, Jones followed him to London in 1748. With the assistance of Chesterfield and his friends, Jones published by subscription Poems on Several Occasions, 8vo, London,1749 and he finished about the end of 1752 his tragedy, The Earl of Essex. Chesterfield warmly commended it to Colley Cibber, the latter introduced Jones to the manager of Covent Garden Theatre, and showed his regard for him by making efforts at court to secure the laureateship for Jones after his own death. It met with success in Dublin and the provinces. The play was printed soon after its production, and reached a fourth edition in 1770 and its literary quality is of the poorest. The success ruined Jones, and he took to irregular courses, at length he offended him by borrowing money of his servant. He had at that time made some progress with a tragedy called Harold and his relations with some of the leading actors were still friendly. He sponged freely on minor actors, whom in his drunken fits he would denounce as parrots and he composed a prologue for Husbands, paid some poetical compliments to Barry on his Hamlet, and wrote a eulogy on Margaret Woffington. When an inmate of sponging-houses he generally contrived to flatter the daughter or wife of the bailiff with verses on their beauty or talents and his misfortunes at last excited the pity of the master of the Bedford Coffee-house, Covent Garden, who gave him free board and lodging. He left his room unobserved early one morning, and, after being in a state of intoxication for two days, was run over by a wagon in St. Martins Lane and he died in the parish workhouse in April 1770. Reddish, the actor of Drury Lane, obtained all Joness manuscripts, the last-named drama was augmented and completed by Paul Hiffernan, and, under the title of The Heroine of the Cave, was produced for Reddishs benefit on 25 March 1774. It was printed in the following year, the fate of Harold is unknown. Jones wrote also, Philosophy, a Poem addressd to the Ladies who attend Mr. Booths Lectures, by the Bricklayer, 8vo, Dublin,1746. Earl of Orrery, occasiond by reading his Lordships translation of Plinys Epistles, 4to, merit, a Poem, 4to, London,1753. The Relief, or Day-Thoughts, a Poem, occasioned by The Complaint, or Night Thoughts, 8vo, the Duke of Newcastle, on the Death of the Rt. Hon. Henry Pelham, 4to, London,1754, the Invention of Letters, and the Utility of the Press, s. sh. fol
20.
William Whitehead (English poet)
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William Whitehead was an English poet and playwright. He became Poet Laureate in 1757 after Thomas Gray declined the position, the son of a baker, Whitehead was born in Cambridge and through the patronage of Henry Bromley, afterwards Baron Montfort, was admitted to Winchester College. He entered Clare College, Cambridge on a scholarship, and became a fellow in 1742. At Cambridge, Whitehead published an epistle On the Danger of writing Verse and some poems, notably an heroic epistle, Ann Boleyn to Henry the Eighth. In 1745 Whitehead became the tutor of George Villiers, Viscount Villiers, son of William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey, there he produced two tragedies, The Roman Father and Creusa, Queen of Athens. The plots of these tragedies are based the Horace of Pierre Corneille, after being appointed Poet Laureate, Whitehead defended the poetry of Laureates in a comic poem A Pathetic Apology for All Laureates, Past, Present, And To Come. He was conscientious, and saw himself as a representative for the whole country. Astonishingly for a political appointee, he appeared to see no requirement to defend the King or support the government, for some 28 years in this post, he contented himself in writing the obligatory verse, avoiding flattery and domestic politics, and bolstering Britain’s place in world affairs. Indeed, he was the first laureate to see past court and party divisions, the odes Whitehead wrote in his capacity as Poet Laureate, however, were ridiculed. Charles Churchill attacked him in 1762, in the book of The Ghost, as the heir of Dullness. Whiteheads works were collected in two volumes in 1774, a third, including a memoir by William Mason, appeared posthumously in 1788. His plays are printed in Bells British Theatre and other collections, and his poems appear in Alexander Chalmerss Works of the English Poets and similar compilations
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Thomas Birch
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Thomas Birch was an English historian. He was the son of Joseph Birch, a coffee-mill maker and he preferred study to business but, as his parents were Quakers, he did not go to the university. Notwithstanding this circumstance, he was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1730, as a strong supporter of the Whigs, he gained the favour of Philip Yorke, afterwards Lord Chancellor and first Earl of Hardwicke, and his subsequent preferments were largely due to this friendship. He held successively a number of benefices in different counties, and he was noted as a keen fisherman during the course of his lifetime, and devised an unusual method of disguising his intentions. Dressed as a tree, he stood by the side of a stream in an outfit desgned to make his arms seem like branches, any movement, he argued, would be taken by a fish to be the consequences of a mild breeze. In 1735 he became a member of the Society of Antiquaries, in 1728 he had married Hannah Cox, who died in the following year. Birch was killed on 9 January 1766 by a fall from his horse, Birch was prolific, even if Horace Walpole questioned his parts, taste and judgment. He corresponded with prominent men of his time, samuel Johnson wrote, Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation, but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties. Birch often collaborated with the greatly successful London bookseller, Andrew Millar and these included The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, co-written by Reverend Henry Miles, and A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton. Birch wrote most of the English lives in the General Dictionary, assisted in the composition of the Athenian Letters, edited the State Papers of John Thurloe and the State Papers of W. Murdin. The heads of persons of Great Britain, in 108 copper plates, engraved by Mr. Houbraken and Mr. Vertue, with their lives and characters, by Thomas Birch. Secretary of the Royal Society, London,1761 Among the papers left at his death were some which were published in 1848 as the Court and Times of James I and the Court and Times of Charles I. Recently discovered by American researcher Alan Houston at the British Library is a file entitled Copies of Letters relating to the March of General Braddock, Birch was said to have obsessively copied any documents of historical importance he could get his hands on. He was a friend of Franklin, and they were members of the Royal Society. They speak of his 1755 efforts to help British Redcoats led by Braddock in their march to defeat the French at Fort Dusquesne, Braddock desperately needed transportation for his troops, and Franklin rounded up horses and wagons for him using his persuasive powers as Pennsylvanias leading politician. Incidentally, Braddock and most of his men were defeated by the French, memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth from the Year 1581 till her Death. In which the secret intrigues of her Court, And the conduct of her favourite, Robert Earl of Essex, memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth from the Year 1581 till her Death. In which the secret intrigues of her Court, And the conduct of her favourite, Robert Earl of Essex, both at Home and Aboard are particularly illustrated
22.
Charles Bonnet
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Charles Bonnet, Genevan naturalist and philosophical writer, was born at Geneva, of a French family driven into the region by the religious persecution in the 16th century. The last twenty five years of his life he spent quietly in the country, at Genthod, near Geneva and his wife was a lady of the family of De la Rive. They had no children, but Madame Bonnets nephew, the celebrated Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, was brought up as their son and he made law his profession, but his favourite pursuit was the study of natural science. The account of the ant-lion in Noël-Antoine Pluches Spectacle de la nature and he procured RAF de Réaumurs work on insects, and with the help of live specimens succeeded in adding many observations to those of Réaumur and Pluche. During that year he had been in correspondence with his uncle Abraham Trembley who had discovered the hydra. This little creature became the hit of all the salons across Europe once philosophers and natural scientists saw its amazing regenerative capabilities. In 1743, he was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society, in 1753, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and on 15 December 1769 a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. But Bonnets eyesight, which threatened to fail altogether, caused him to turn to philosophy, in 1754 his Essai de psychologie was published anonymously in London. This was followed by the Essai analytique sur les facultés de lâme, in 1760 he described a condition now called Charles Bonnet Syndrome, in which vivid, complex visual hallucinations occur in psychologically normal people. Bonnets philosophical system may be outlined as follows, man is a compound of two distinct substances, mind and body, the one immaterial and the other material. All knowledge originates in sensations, sensations follow vibrations in the nerves appropriate to each, and lastly, the nerves are made to vibrate by external physical stimulus. A nerve once set in motion by a particular object tends to reproduce that motion, the sensation accompanying this increased flexibility in the nerve is, according to Bonnet, the condition of memory. That which puts the mind into activity is pleasure or pain, the divine Being originally created a multitude of germs in a graduated scale, each with an inherent power of self-development. Thus not man only but all forms of existence are immortal. Nor is mans mind alone immortal, his also will pass into the higher stage, not, indeed, the body he now possesses. It is impossible, however, to absolute perfection, because the distance is infinite. In this final proposition, Bonnet violates his own principle of continuity and it is also difficult to understand whether the constant advance to perfection is performed by each individual, or only by each race of beings as a whole. In Philosophical Palingesis, or Ideas on the Past and Future States of Living Beings, Bonnets complete works appeared at Neuchâtel in 1779–1783, partly revised by himself
