1773 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1773.

Events

• March 15 – First performance of Oliver Goldsmith's comedy She Stoops to Conquer at the Covent Garden Theatre in London.^[1]
• April 13 – Richard Brinsley Sheridan marries singer and actress Elizabeth Ann Linley.^[2]
• May 1 – Richard Wroughton takes the role of Prince Henry in Henry II, King of England by John Bancroft at Covent Garden.
• May 4 – Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill composes the keen Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire over the body of her husband Art Ó Laoghaire.^[3]
• August 6 – Samuel Johnson sets out for Scotland^[4] where on August 14 he meets James Boswell in Edinburgh for their tour to the Hebrides.^[5]
• Cláudio Manuel da Costa writes his epic poem Vila Rica, relating the history of the homonymous Brazilian city, modern-day Ouro Preto; it is not published until 1839.
• Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock publishes the last five cantos of his epic poem Der Messias in Hamburg.
• Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, "Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New England", is published in London, the first book published by an African American.
• Christoph Martin Wieland begins publishing the influential literary monthly Der Teutsche Merkur in Weimar.^[6]
• Compilation of the Siku Quanshu ("Complete Library of the Four Treasuries") begins in Qing Dynasty China. The Wenjin Chamber is built at the Chengde Mountain Resort to accommodate a copy.

New books

Births

• April 9 – Étienne Aignan, French translator, librettist and dramatist (died 1824 in literature)
• May 19 – Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi, Swiss scholar of literature, history and economics (died 1842)
• August 21 – Jens Christian Djurhuus, Faroese poet (died 1853)
• October 1 – Peter Kaiser, Liechtenstein statesman and historian (died 1864)
• October 23 – Francis Jeffrey, Scottish jurist and critic (died 1850)
• December 9 – Marianne Ehrenström, Swedish musician and writer (died 1867)

Deaths

• January 21 – Alexis Piron, French dramatist and epigrammatist (born 1689)
• April 20 – Hubert-François Gravelot, French book illustrator (born 1699)
• April 25 – Daniele Farlati, ecclesiastical historian (born 1690)
• May 15 – Alban Butler, hagiographer (born 1710)
• July 5 – Francisco José Freire, Portuguese historian and philologist (born 1719)
• August 3 – Stanisław Konarski, Polish political writer, poet and dramatist (born 1700)
• August 20 – Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (born 1729)
• August 28 – John Ranby, English surgeon and writer on surgery (born 1703)
• September 18 – John Cunningham, Irish poet, dramatist and actor (born 1729)
• November 16 – John Hawkesworth, English poet and editor (born c. 1715)

References