1739 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1739.

Events

• January 16 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Saul is first performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, London.[1]
• February 9 – The Scots Magazine first appears.[2]
• February 17 – George Whitefield first preaches in the open air, to miners at Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, England.[3]
• March 16 – Henry Brooke's drama Gustavus Vasa becomes the first play banned under the Licensing Act 1737.[4]
• April – John Wesley first preaches in the open air, at Whitefield's invitation.[5]
• November – The Champion (periodical) is launched, with Henry Fielding (under the name Captain Hercules Vinegar) as editor.[6]
• unknown date – The first Bible in the Estonian language, Piibli Ramat, translated by Anton thor Helle, is published.[7]

New books

Prose

• Penelope Aubin – A Collection of Entertaining Histories and Novels[8]
• John Campbell – The Travels and Adventures of Edward Bevan, Esq., formerly a merchant in London
• Elizabeth Carter
  • Examination of Mr. Pope's Essay on Man (translation of De Crousaz's Examen de l'essai de Monsieur Pope sur l'homme)
  • Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy Explain'd for the Use of Ladies (translation of Algarotti's Newtonianismo per le donne)
• Philip Doddridge – The Family Expositor
• Richard Glover – London
• David Hume (anonymously) – A Treatise of Human Nature (issued late 1738 but dated this year)
• William Law – The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration
• John Mottley (as Elijah Jenkins) – Joe Miller's Jests; or, the Wits Vade-Mecum
• Robert Nugent (attributed) – An Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole[9]
• John Oldmixon – The History of England during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth[10]
• Laetitia Pilkington – The Statues
• Samuel Richardson – Aesop's Fables
• Elizabeth Singer Rowe – Miscellaneous Works
• Thomas Sheridan – The Satires of Juvenal Translated
• Joseph Trapp – The Nature, Folly, Sin, and Danger, of Being Righteous Over-much (against George Whitefield)
• Voltaire
  • De la Gloire, ou entretien avec un Chinois
  • Conseils a M. Helvetius
• Isaac Watts – The World to Come
• George Whitefield – A Continuation of the Reverend Mr. Whitefield's Journal
• Paul Whitehead – Manners

Drama

• Daniel Bellamy – Miscellanies in Prose and Verse
• Henry Brooke – Gustavus Vasa
• Anthony Brown – The Fatal Retirement
• Henry Carey – Nancy (opera)
• Thomas Cooke – The Mournful Nuptials (not acted)
• David Mallet – Mustapha
• James Miller – An Hospital for Fools
• Edward Phillips – Britons, Strike Home
• William Shirley – The Parricide
• James Thomson – Edward and Eleonora[11]

Poetry

Main article: 1739 in poetry

• Moses Browne – Poems
• Mary Collier – The Woman's Labour: an epistle to Mr Stephen Duck[12]
• Mikhail Lomonosov – Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks
• Robert Nugent
  • An Ode on Mr. Pulteney
  • An Ode, to His Royal Highness on His Birthday
  • Odes and Epistles
• Jonathan Swift – Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift
• John Wesley – Hymns and Sacred Poems

Births

• January – Twm o'r Nant, Welsh playwright and poet (died 1810)
• August 31 – Johann Augustus Eberhard, German theologian and philosopher (died 1809)
• November 20 – Jean-François de la Harpe, French critic (died 1803)
• Unknown dates
  • Hugh Kelly, Irish-born dramatist and poet (died 1777)[13]
  • Sophronius of Vratsa, Bulgarian writer and clergyman, early figure in the Bulgarian National Revival (died 1813)

Deaths

• June 20 – Edmond Martène, French historian (born 1654)[14]
• July 25 – Johann Christoph Wolf, German Hebrew scholar and bibliographer (born 1683)[15]
• September 4 – George Lillo, English dramatist and actor (born 1691)[16]
• October 18 – António José da Silva, Brazilian dramatist (born 1705)[17]
• probable – Liu Zhi (劉智), Chinese Muslim scholar (born c. 1660)

References

1. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
2. Ward, A. W. (2009). The Cambridge History of English Literature. Vol. 9. p. 614.
3. Mathew Backholer (29 January 2018). Reformation to Revival, 500 Years of God’s Glory: Sixty Revivals, Awakenings and Heaven-Sent Visitations of the Holy Spirit. ByFaith Media. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-907066-61-0.
4. Julia Swindells; David Francis Taylor (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the Georgian Theatre 1737–1832. OUP Oxford. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-19-960030-4.
5. Erwin Fahlbusch; Geoffrey William Bromiley; Jan Milic Lochman (14 February 2008). The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 728. ISBN 978-0-8028-2417-2.
6. Simon Varey (31 July 1986). Henry Fielding. CUP Archive. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-521-26244-6.
7. Bruce M. Metzger; Michael David Coogan (20 December 2001). The Oxford Guide to Ideas & Issues of the Bible. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 524. ISBN 978-0-19-514917-3.
8. Penelope Aubin (1739). A Collection of Entertaining Histories and Novels... D. Midwinter, A. Bettesworth and C Hitch, J. and J. Pemberton, R. Ware, C. Rivington, A. Ward, J. and P. Knapton, T. Longman, R. Hett, S. Austen, and J. Wood.
9. Emrys Jones (13 June 2013). Friendship and Allegiance in Eighteenth-Century Literature: The Politics of Private Virtue in the Age of Walpole. Springer. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-137-30050-8.
10. Laird Okie (1991). Augustan Historical Writing: Histories of England in the English Enlightenment. University Press of America. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-8191-8050-6.
11. James Thomson (1739). Edward and Eleonora: A Tragedy. As it was to Have Been Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. author, and sold.
12. Donna Landry; Professor Donna Landry (1990). The Muses of Resistance: Laboring-Class Women's Poetry in Britain, 1739-1796. Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-521-37412-5.
13. Charles Anderton Read (1879). The cabinet of Irish literature, with biogr. sketches and literary notices by C.A. Read (T.P. O'Connor). p. 289.
14. Catholic Encyclopedia. Appleton. 1910. p. 721.
15. George Ripley; Charles Anderson Dana (1863). The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. D. Appleton. pp. 512.
16. George Lillo; Thomas Davies (1810). Mr. Lillo's Life. Silvia; or The Country Burial, an opera. George Barnwall, a tragedy. The Life of Scanderbeg. The Christian Hero, a tragedy. W. Lowndes. p. 32.
17. António Teixeira; Juliet Perkins; António José da Silva (2004). A critical study and translation of António José da Silva's Cretan labyrinth: a puppet opera. E. Mellen Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7734-6519-0.