1716 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1716.

Events

• April 5 – Anne Lefèvre, Madame Dacier, meets Antoine Houdar de la Motte in person.
• May – Voltaire is exiled to Tulle as a result of his lampoon on the regent of France, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans^[1]
• June 21 – Work begins on construction of the Codrington Library at All Souls College, Oxford, to the design of Nicholas Hawksmoor; it will be completed in 1751.^[2]
• Poet John Byrom returns to England to teach his own system of shorthand.
• Edmund Curll renews his controversy with Matthew Prior, by threatening to publish the poet's works without permission.
• Dramatist Philippe Néricault Destouches comes to London as an attaché to the French embassy.
• Ballet master John Weaver revives the pantomime genre at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London with The Loves of Mars and Venus – a new Entertainment in Dancing after the manner of the Antient Pantomimes and Perseus and Andromeda.

New books

Prose

• Richard Blackmore – Essays upon Several Subjects vol. i
• Thomas Browne – Christian Morals
• Francis Chute (as Mr. Gay) – The Petticoat (part of Edmund Curll's "phantom Gay" hoax)
• Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury – Several Letters... to a Young Man at the University
• John Dennis – A True Character of Mr. Pope, and his Writings (in response to The Essay on Criticism)
• Theophilus Evans – Drych y Prif Oesoedd (Mirror of the Early Centuries)
• John Oldmixon – Memoirs of Ireland from the Restoration to the Present Times
• Alexander Pope – The Iliad of Homer vol. ii
• Humphrey Prideaux – The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations
• Andreas Rüdiger – Göttliche Physik (Divine Physics)
• George Sewell – A Vindication of the English Stage
• Johann Georg Walch – Historia critica Latinae linguae
• Zhang Yushu, Chen Tingjing et al. (ed.) – Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典)

Drama

• Joseph Addison – The Drummer
• Barton Booth – The Death of Dido
• Mary Davys – The Northern Heiress
• Benjamin Griffin – The Humours of Purgatory
• Aaron Hill – The Fatal Vision
• John Hughes – Apollo and Daphne
• Charles Johnson – The Cobler of Preston (political satire based on The Taming of the Shrew)
• Voltaire – Oedipe
• José de Cañizares
  • El dómine Lucas
  • Marta la Romarantina
  • El picarillo de España, señor de la Gran Canaria

Poetry

• Jane Brereton – The Fifth Ode of the Fourth Book of Horace Imitated
• John Gay – Trivia
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – Court Poems
• Lewis Theobald – The Odyssey of Homer
• See also 1716 in poetry

Births

• January 20 – Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French writer and numismatist (died 1795)
• March 6 – Pehr Kalm, Swedish/Finnish botanist, naturalist and travel writer (died 1779)
• December 25 – Johann Jakob Reiske, German scholar and physician (died 1774)
• December 26

Unknown dates

• • Thomas Gray, English poet (died 1771)
  • Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French poet, philosopher and military officer (died 1803)
  • Yosa Buson (与謝 蕪村), Japanese Edo period haiku poet and painter (died 1784)

Deaths

• January 5
  • Jean Chardin, French travel writer (born 1643)
  • Hippolyte Hélyot, French historian (born 1660)
• January 11
  • Pierre Jurieu, French Protestant writer (born 1637)
  • René Massuet, French editor (born 1666)
• February 19 – Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, Norwegian poet (born 1634)
• July 24 – Agnes Campbell, Scottish printer (born 1637)
• September 15 – Andrew Fletcher, Scottish politician and writer (born 1653)
• October 21 – Jakob Gronovius, Dutch scholar (born 1645)
• November 14 – Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (born 1646)
• December 31 – William Wycherley, English dramatist (born 1641)
• Probable year of death – Patrick Abercromby, Scottish antiquary and translator (born 1656)

References