1750 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1750.

Events

• March – The Rambler is founded by Edward Cave; it lasts for 208 issues, and is mostly written by Samuel Johnson.
• March 5 – Shakespeare's Richard II (in Colley Cibber's version) is presented at their theatre on Nassau Street (Manhattan) by Walter Murray and Thomas Kean,^[1] the earliest known significant professional performance of Shakespeare in North America.
• Weekly meetings for contributors to the Encyclopédie begin, at the salon of Baron d'Holbach.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau wins the prize of the Academy of Dijon for his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.
• The London theatres wage "the Romeo and Juliet war" — competing productions with David Garrick and Anne Bellamy at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane versus Spranger Barry and Susannah Cibber at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
• Old Orchard Street Theatre opens in Bath (England) under the management of John Palmer, with a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2.^[2]
• Carlo Goldoni commits himself to writing a comedy for each week of the 1750–51 seasons at Gerolamo Medebach's Teatro San Angelo in Venice – 16 plays.^[3]
• After taking his MD at Aberdeen, Tobias Smollett travels in France, collecting material for The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.

New books

Births

• January 7 – Robert Anderson, Scottish critic (died 1803)
• June 13 – James Burney, English rear-admiral and naval writer (died 1821)
• September 5 – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet writing in Braid Scots (died 1774)
• October 21 – Juraj Fándly, Slovak non-fiction writer, entomologist and priest (died 1811)
• Unknown date – Henrietta Maria Bowdler, English author and expurgator (died 1830)

Deaths

• February – Aaron Hill, English dramatist (born 1685)
• June 15 – Marguerite De Launay, Baronne Staal, French writer (born 1684)
• November 11 – Apostolo Zeno, Venetian poet and journalist (born 1668)
• November 18 – Susanna Highmore, English poet (born 1690)

References