1715 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1715.

Events

• c. August – Nicholas Rowe becomes the Poet Laureate of Great Britain.
• The first record of the actress and writer Eliza Haywood tells of her performing in Thomas Shadwell's Shakespeare adaptation, Timon of Athens; or, The Man-Hater at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.^[1]

New books

Prose

• Joseph Addison – The Free-Holder (periodical)
• Jane Barker – Exilius; or, The Banished Roman
• Richard Bentley – A Sermon upon Popery
• Samuel Croxall – The Vision
• Daniel Defoe
  • An Appeal to Honour and Justice
  • The Family Instructor
  • A Hymn to the Mob
• Elizabeth Elstob – The Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue, first given in English; with an apology for the study of northern antiquities, the first grammar of Old English
• Thomas-Simon Gueullette – Les Mille et un quarts-d’heure, contes tartares (The Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour, Tartarian Tales)
• Alain-René Lesage (anonymous) – L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane (Books 1–6)
• Charles Montagu – The Works and Life of the Late Earl of Halifax
• Jonathan Richardson – An Essay on the Theory of Painting
• "Captain" Alexander Smith – The Secret History of the Lives of the Most Celebrated Beauties, Ladies of Quality, and Jilts
• Richard Steele
  • The Englishman: Second Series (periodical)
  • Town-Talk (periodical)

Children

• Isaac Watts – Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children

Drama

• Christopher Bullock – A Woman's Revenge^[2]
• Henry Carey – The Contrivances^[2]
• Susanna Centlivre – The Gotham Election (not performed because of political content)
• Chikamatsu Monzaemon – The Battles of Coxinga (国姓爺合戦, Kokusen'ya Kassen)
• Charles Rivière Dufresny – La Coquette de village
• John Gay – The What D'Ye Call It^[2]
• Benjamin Griffin
  • Injured Virtue; or, The Virgin Martyr
  • Love in a Sack^[2]
• Newburgh Hamilton – The Doating Lovers^[2]
• Charles Johnson – The Country Lasses^[2]
• Charles Knipe – A City Ramble^[2]
• Charles Molloy – The Perplexed Couple^[2]
• Nicholas Rowe -The Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey^[2]
• Lewis Theobald – The Perfidious Brother (allegedly plagiarized, staged the following year)
• John Vanbrugh – The Country House

Poetry

• Charles Cotton – The Genuine Works of Charles Cotton
• Alexander Pope
  • The Temple of Fame (based on Chaucer)
  • The Iliad of Homer vol. i.
• Thomas Tickell – The First Book of Homer's Iliad
• Isaac Watts
  • Divine Songs
  • A Guide to Prayer

Births

• January 14 (baptised) – Frances Vane, Viscountess Vane (Lady Fanny), English memoirist (died 1788)
• January 26 or February 26 – Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosophical writer (died 1771)
• June 4 (c. 1715–1724) – Cao Xueqin, Chinese writer (died 1763)
• September 30 – Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, French philosophical writer (died 1780)
• October 1 – Richard Jago, English poet (died 1781)
• Probable year of birth
  • John Hawkesworth, English writer and editor (died 1773)^[3]
  • Alexander Russell, Scottish physician and naturalist (died 1768)

Deaths

• January 7 – François Fénelon, French archbishop, theologian, poet and writer (born 1651)
• February 25 – Pu Songling (蒲松齡), Qing Dynasty Chinese writer (born 1640)
• March 8 – William Dampier, English explorer and writer (born 1651)
• March 17 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish theologian and historian (born 1643)
• July 30 – Nahum Tate, Irish poet and hymnist (born 1652)
• October 13 – Nicolas Malebranche, French priest and rationalist philosopher (born 1638)
• Unknown date – Mary Monck, Irish poet (date of birth unknown)^[4]

References