1747 in literature

This article presents lists of literary events and publications in 1747.

Events

• March 31 – Laurence Sterne preaches the Good Friday sermon at St Helen Stonegate; The Case of Elijah and the Widow of Zerephath is later printed and published.^[1]
• April – David Garrick becomes one of the managers of Drury Lane Theatre in London.
• June 21 – Licensing Act transfers responsibility for pre-production censorship of plays in Britain from the Master of the Revels to the Lord Chamberlain and restricts serious drama to the patent theatres.
• December 1 – Samuel Richardson's 2-volume epistolary novel Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady ("by the Editor of Pamela") begins publication in London from his own printshop.
• The Załuski Library is established in Warsaw.

New books

Prose

• William Blackstone (attributed) – The Pantheon
• Thomas Carte – A General History of England
• Denis Diderot – La Promenade du sceptique (completed; not published until 1830)
• William Dunkin – Boetia
• Thomas Edward – A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear
• Henry Fielding, as "John Trott Plaid" – The Jacobite's Journal (periodical)
• Sarah Fielding – Familiar Letters Between the Principal Characters in David Simple (a defense against unauthorized continuations)
• Samuel Foote – The Roman and English Comedy Consider'd
• Hannah Glasse – The Art of Cookery^[2]
• Madame de Graffigny – Letters from a Peruvian Woman
• Henry Home, Lord Kames – Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities
• Samuel Johnson – The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language
• Charlotte Lennox – Poems
• David Mallet – Amyntor and Theodora
• William Mason – Musaeus: A monody to the memory of Pope (an imitation of Milton's Lycidas)
• William Memoth, the younger – The Letters of Pliny the Consul
• Josiah Ralph – A Miscellany
• Samuel Richardson – Clarissa vol. i–ii
• William Shakespeare – The Works of Shakespear (edited by William Warburton)
• Tobias Smollett – Reproof
• Joseph Spence – Polymetis
• Voltaire – Zadig (in original form as Memnon)
• Horace Walpole – A Letter to the Whigs
• Joseph Warton – Ranelagh House
• Thomas Warton – The Pleasures of Melancholy
• Juan de Iriarte – Discurso sobre la imperfección de los diccionarios
• Diego de Torres Villarroel – Desengaños razonables para sacudir el polvo del espanto

Drama

• John Cunningham – Love in a Mist
• Samuel Foote – The Diversions of the Morning or, A Dish of Chocolate
• David Garrick – Miss in Her Teens
• Carlo Goldoni – The Venetian Twins (I due gemelli veneziani)
• Benjamin Hoadly – The Suspicious Husband
• John Home – Agis
• Edward Moore – The Foundling
• Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shōraku and Namiki Senryū I – Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura ((義経千本桜, Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees, original version for bunraku puppet theatre)

Poetry

• Philip Francis – A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – Six Town Eclogues

Births

• January 11 – François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, French economics writer (died 1827)
• January 12 – Susanna Blamire, English dialect poet and songwriter (died 1794)
• January 15 – John Aikin, English biographer, activist and physician (died 1822)
• January – William Seward, English man of letters (died 1799)
• September 30 – John Mastin, English memoirist, local historian and cleric (died 1829)
• December 12 – Anna Seward, English poet (died 1809)

Deaths

• January 16 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes German poet (born 1680)
• August – Leonard Welsted, English poet (born 1688)^[3]
• November 17 – Alain-René Le Sage, French novelist and playwright (born 1668)
• November 22 – Joseph Trapp, poet, controversialist and translator (born 1679)

References