Editing 1757 in literature

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{{Year nav topic5|1757|literature|poetry}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2020}}
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of '''1757'''.

==Events==
*[[February 16]] – [[Jonathan Edwards (theology)|Jonathan Edwards]] becomes President of the institution that will become [[Princeton University]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jonathan Edwards|title=The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A.M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkBDAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR274|year=1840|publisher=Ball, Arnold and Company|pages=274}}</ref>
* [[April 16]] 
**The works of astronomer [[Galileo Galilei]] espousing [[heliocentrism]] are removed (with the approval of [[Pope Benedict XIV]]) from the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]'' list of books banned by [[Roman Catholic Church]], along with "all books teaching the earth's motion and the sun's immobility".  Other works of heliocentrists Galileo, [[Nicolaus Copernicus]], [[Johannes Kepler]], [[Diego de Zúñiga]] and Paolo Foscarini remain on the list.<ref>Maurice A. Finocchiaro, ''Retrying Galileo, 1633–1992'' (University of California Press, 2007) p138</ref>
**In the wake of public unrest in [[France]], the King's Council issues a decree that bars anyone from writing, printing anything that would tend toward ''émouvoir les esprits'' (stir up popular sentiment) against the government, with violations punishable by death.<ref>Robert Darnton, ''Censors at Work: How States Shaped Literature'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 2014)</ref>
* [[April 29]] – Inside the house at [[Stratford-upon-Avon]] in England known as [[Shakespeare's Birthplace]], a bricklayer, identified as "Mosely", re-tiling the roof, discovers a supposed pro-Catholic testament of [[John Shakespeare]], father of [[William Shakespeare]], more than 150 years after the elder's death. The find starts "what remains one of the most controversial topics in Shakespeare studies" because of disagreements over its authenticity and date.<ref>René Weis, ''Shakespeare Unbound: Decoding a Hidden Life'' (Macmillan, 2008) p304</ref>
*[[May 3]] – The Irish-born actress [[Peg Woffington]], playing [[Rosalind (As You Like It)|Rosalind]] in ''[[As You Like It]]'', suffers a stroke on stage at the [[Theatre Royal, Covent Garden]] in [[London]] and never acts again.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Sandra Mayer|author2=Julia Novak|title=Life Writing and Celebrity: Exploring Intersections|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWnnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT82|date=21 May 2020|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-00-068236-6|pages=82}}</ref>
*[[May 6]] – [[Asylum confinement of Christopher Smart]]: The poet [[Christopher Smart]] is confined to [[St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics]] in London.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sherbo |first=Arthur |title=Christopher Smart: Scholar of the University |url=https://archive.org/details/christophersmart0000sher |url-access=registration |publisher=Michigan State University Press |year=1967 |page=[https://archive.org/details/christophersmart0000sher/page/112 112]}} He may have been confined in a private madhouse before this time.</ref>
*May – The [[Baskerville]] [[typeface]], designed by [[John Baskerville]] of [[Birmingham]], England, is first used in a [[wove paper]] [[quarto]] edition of [[Virgil]] (''Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, Georgica, et Æneis'').
*September – Pierre-Augustin Caron begins using the name [[Pierre Beaumarchais|Beaumarchais]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Hugh Thomas|title=Beaumarchais in Seville: An Intermezzo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X6eem8xQ3lEC&pg=PT23|year=2006|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-13464-9|pages=23}}</ref>
*[[September 9]] – The Parlement of [[Toulouse]] orders a public burning of [[Jesuit]] author [[Hermann Busenbaum]]'s ''Medulla Theologiae Morales'' because of its treatment of the subject of regicide.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Voltaire|author2=John Renwick|title=Traité sur la tolérance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r1MrAQAAIAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Voltaire Foundation|page=308|isbn=9780729407441}}</ref>
*[[December 11]] – On the death of [[Colley Cibber]] as [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate of Great Britain]], the post is declined by [[Thomas Gray]] and passes to [[William Whitehead (poet)|William Whitehead]].
*''unknown dates''
**[[Angelo Maria Bandini]] is appointed librarian of the [[Laurentian Library]] in [[Florence]].<ref>{{cite book|author=William J. Connell|title=Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pxe96uVQtoEC&pg=PA282|date=10 September 2002|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-23254-9|pages=282}}</ref>
**[[Robert Raikes]] becomes proprietor of the ''Gloucester Journal''.
**[[Horace Walpole]] begins the Strawberry Hill Press.
**[[Thomas Warton]] is appointed Professor of Poetry at the [[University of Oxford]].

==New books==
===Prose===
*[[John Brown (essayist)|John Brown]] – ''An Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times''
*[[Edmund Burke]] – ''[[A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful]]''
*[[John Dalrymple (political writer)|John Dalrymple]] – ''An Essay Towards a General History of Feudal Property in Great Britain''
*[[Samuel Derrick]] (probable compiler) – ''[[Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies]]'' (1st edn)
*[[Adam Ferguson]] – ''The Morality of Stage-Plays Seriously Considered''
*[[Sarah Fielding]] – ''The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia''
*Edward and [[Elizabeth Griffith]] – ''A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances'' vols. i – ii.
*[[David Hume]] – ''The Natural History of Religion''
*[[Soame Jenyns]] – ''A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil''
*[[Richard Price]] – ''Review of the Principal Questions in Morals''
*[[Marie Jeanne Riccoboni|Madame Riccoboni]] – ''Lettres de Mistriss Fanny Butlerd''.
*[[Tobias Smollett]] – ''A Complete History of England''
*[[Horace Walpole]] – ''A Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at London, to his Friend Lien Chi at Peking''
*[[William Warburton]] – ''Remarks upon Mr. David Hume's Essay on the Natural History of Religion''
*[[Joseph Warton]] – ''Essay on [[Alexander Pope|Pope]]''
*[[John Wesley]] – ''The Doctrine of Original Sin''

===Drama===
*Anonymous – ''The Taxes''
*[[Phanuel Bacon]] – ''Humorous Ethics, or an Attempt to Cure the Vices and Follies of the Age by a Method Entirely New'' (5 plays)
*[[Denis Diderot]] – ''[[Le Fils naturel]]''
*[[Samuel Foote]] – ''The Author''
*[[David Garrick]] – ''Lilliput''
*[[John Home]] – ''[[Douglas (play)|Douglas]]''
*[[Tobias Smollett]] – ''[[The Reprisal]]''

===Poetry===
{{main article|1757 in poetry}}
*[[Robert Andrews (translator)|Robert Andrews]] – ''Eidyllia''
*[[Cornelius Arnold]] – ''Poems''
*[[Samuel Boyce]] – ''Poems''
*[[John Gilbert Cooper]] as "Aristippus" – ''Epistles to the Great''
*[[John Duncombe (writer)|John Duncombe]] – ''The Feminead'' (answer to [[1754 in literature|1754's]] ''Feminiad'')
*[[William Duncombe]] – ''The Works of Horace in English Verse'' (various translators).
*[[John Dyer]] – ''The Fleece''
*[[Carlo Gozzi]] – ''La tartana degli influssi per l'anno 1756''
*[[Thomas Gray]] – ''Odes''
*[[William Thompson (poet, born circa 1712)|William Thompson]] – ''Poems''
*[[William Wilkie]] – ''Epigoniad''
*[[Edward Young]] – ''The Works of the Author of Night Thoughts''

==Births==
*[[February 1]] – [[John Philip Kemble]], English actor (died [[1823 in literature|1823]])
*[[February 6]] – [[Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz]], Polish poet and dramatist (died [[1841 in literature|1841]])
*[[April 9]] – [[Wojciech Bogusławski]], Polish actor, director and dramatist (died [[1829 in literature|1829]])
*[[July 21]] – [[Basilius von Ramdohr]], German journalist and critic (died [[1822 in literature|1822]])
*[[November 9]] – [[William Sotheby]], English poet and translator (died [[1833 in literature|1833]])
*[[November 13]] – [[Archibald Alison (author)|Archibald Alison]], Scottish essayist and cleric (died [[1839 in literature|1839]])
*[[November 28]] – [[William Blake]], English poet and artist (died [[1827 in literature|1827]])<ref>{{cite web |title=William Blake |url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/william-blake/ |website=Westminster Abbey |access-date=27 August 2024 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[November 27]] ''(possible year)'' – [[Mary Robinson (poet)|Mary Robinson]] (née Darby), English poet, actress and royal mistress (died [[1800 in literature|1800]])
*[[December 4]] – [[Charles Burney (schoolmaster)|Charles Burney]], English classicist and book thief (died [[1817 in literature|1817]])
*''Unknown date'' – [[Giovanni Antonio Galignani]], Italian publisher (died [[1821 in literature|1821]])

==Deaths==
*[[January 9]] – [[Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle]], French dramatist and author (born [[1657 in literature|1657]])
*[[January 19]] – [[Thomas Ruddiman]], Scottish classical scholar, editor, printer and librarian (born [[1674 in literature|1674]])
*[[March 1]] – [[Edward Moore (dramatist)|Edward Moore]], English dramatist (born [[1712 in literature|1712]])<ref>{{cite book |title=Restoration and 18th-Century Drama |date=November 1980 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=978-1-349-16422-6 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OD9dDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[March 8]] – [[Thomas Blackwell (scholar)|Thomas Blackwell]], Scottish classical scholar (born [[1701 in literature|1701]])
*[[August 28]] – [[David Hartley (philosopher)|David Hartley]], English philosopher and psychologist (born [[1705 in literature|1705]])
*[[December 11]]
**[[Colley Cibber]], English dramatist, actor-manager and [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate of Great Britain]] (born [[1671 in literature|1671]])
**[[Edmund Curll]], English bookseller and publisher (born [[1675 in literature|1675]])
*[[December 15]] (''burial)'' – [[John Dyer]], a Welsh poet, painter and Anglican cleric (born [[1699 in literature|1699]])

==In literature==
*[[John Dickson Carr]] – ''[[The Demoniacs]]'' ([[1962 in literature|1962]])
*[[James Fenimore Cooper]] – ''[[The Last of the Mohicans|The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757]]'' ([[1826 in literature|1826]])

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

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