1728 in literature

The year 1728 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• January 28 - On the night of Esther Johnson's death, Jonathan Swift begins witing The Death of Mrs. Johnson.
• January 29 - John Rich, manager of the theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London, mounts the first production of The Beggar's Opera, a ballad opera by John Gay. Its great success makes "Rich gay and Gay rich". By the summer, it has been imitated in Thomas Walker's The Quaker's Opera.
• May - Jonathan Swift and Thomas Sheridan launch The Intelligencer (periodical).^[1]
• October 12 - The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal is founded by Daniel Defoe and Henry Baker.
• Biblioteca Joanina at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) completed.

New books

• Anonymous - Memoirs of an English Officer "by Captain George Carleton"
• Joseph Addison - The Christian Poet (posth.)
• Penelope Aubin - The Life and Adventures of the Young Count Albertus (sequel)
• Peter Browne - The Procedure, Extent, and Limits of Human Understanding
• Ephraim Chambers - Cyclopaedia, or, A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences
• Thomas Cooke - The Works of Hesiod (first translation of Hesiod into English)
• John Dennis - Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock
• Henry Fielding - The Masquerade ("by Lemuel Gulliver")
• James Gibbs - A Book of Architecture
• Eliza Haywood - The Agreeable Caledonian
• Francis Hutcheson - An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections
• David Mallet - The Excursion
• John Oldmixon
  • The Arts of Logick and Rhetorick
  • An Essay on Criticism
• Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie - The Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, 1436–1565 (written about 1575, in the Scots language)
• Christopher Pitt - An Essay on Virgil's Aeneid
• Alexander Pope - The Dunciad
• James Ralph
  • Night
  • Sawney (answer to Dunciad)
  • Zeuma
• Elizabeth Rowe - Friendship in Death
• Richard Savage
  • The Bastard
  • Nature in Perfection
• George Sewell - Posthumous Works of Dr. George Sewell
• Thomas Sheridan - The Satyrs of Persius
• Jonathan Swift - A Short View of the State of Ireland
• James Thomson - Spring (part of The Four Seasons)
• Ned Ward - Durgen (satire of "a Pompous Satyrist")
• William Wycherley - The Posthumous Works of William Wycherley, edited by Lewis Theobald (part of Theobald's and Curll's battle with Pope and other "Tory" wits)
• Edward Young
  • Ocean
  • A Vindication of Providence

New drama

• Colley Cibber and Sir John Vanbrugh - A Journey to London
• Henry Fielding - Love in Several Masques
• John Gay - The Beggar's Opera
• Pierre de Marivaux - Le Trionphe de Plutus
• John Mottley - The Craftsman
• Alexis Piron - Les Fils ingrats
• Lewis Theobald - Double Falsehood, or the Distress'd Lovers (reportedly adapted from Cardenio, by Fletcher and Shakespeare)
• Sir John Vanbrugh - The Provok'd Husband

Poetry

• Allan Ramsay - Poems
• See also 1728 in poetry

Births

• January 9 - Thomas Warton, English literary historian, critic, and poet (died 1790)
• March 11 - Robert Bage, English novelist (died 1801)
• September 14 - Mercy Otis Warren, political writer and propagandist of the American Revolution (died 1814)

Deaths

• January 28 - Esther Johnson, known as "Stella", English inspiration of Jonathan Swift (born 1681)
• February 12 - Cotton Mather, New England Puritan minister (born 1663)
• June 23 - Gabriel Daniel, French Jesuit historian (born 1649)
• September 23 - Christian Thomasius, German publisher and general author (born 1655)
• November 13 - William Wall, English theologian (born 1647)
• December 19 - White Kennett, English bishop (born 1660)

References