# 1747 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 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.
* April 9 – David Garrick becomes joint patentee and manager of the 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 two-volume epistolary novel Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady ("by the Editor of Pamela") begins publication in London from his own print shop, dated 1748.
* unknown date – The Załuski Library in Warsaw is opened to the public.

## New books
### Prose

* William Blackstone (attributed) – The Pantheon
* Thomas Carte – A General History of England
* Juan de Iriarte – Discurso sobre la imperfección de los diccionarios
* Diego de Torres Villarroel – Desengaños razonables para sacudir el polvo del espanto
* 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, as "A Lady" – The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy
* Madame de Graffigny – Lettres d'une Péruvienne
* Henry Home, Lord Kames – Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities
* Samuel Johnson – The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language
* David Mallet – Amyntor and Theodora
* 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

### 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
* Christian Fürchtegott Gellert – Die zärtlichen Schwestern (The Affectionate Sisters)
* Carlo Goldoni – The Venetian Twins (I due gemelli veneziani)
* Benjamin Hoadly – The Suspicious Husband
* 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
* Charlotte Lennox – Poems
* William Mason – Musaeus: A monody to the memory of Pope (an imitation of Milton's Lycidas)
* 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 26 – Samuel Parr, English schoolmaster and writer, "the Whig Johnson" (died 1825)
* January – William Seward, English man of letters (died 1799)
* February 19 – John "Walking" Stewart, English traveller and philosopher (died 1822)
* March 10 – Iolo Morganwg, Welsh antiquarian, bookseller, poet and literary forger (died 1826)
* September 30 – John Mastin, English memoirist, local historian and cleric (died 1829)
* December 12 – Anna Seward, English poet (died 1809)
* Unknown date
** John Edwards (1747–1792), Welsh poet (died 1792)
** Thomas Scott, English cleric and religious writer (died 1821)

## Deaths

* January 16 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes German poet (born 1680)
* May 28 – Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, essayist (born 1715)
* August
** Charles Fleetwood, manager of Drury Lane Theatre (year of birth unknown)
** Leonard Welsted, English poet (born 1688)
* September 7 – Michel Maittaire, French classical scholar, bibliographer and grammarian (born 1668)
* November 17 – Alain-René Le Sage, French novelist and playwright (born 1668)
* November 21 – Robert Mylne, Scottish antiquarian and writer (born 1643)
* November 22 – Joseph Trapp, poet, controversialist and translator (born 1679)
* December 23 – Étienne-François Avisse, French dramatist (born 1694)