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1721 In Literature
This article is a summary of the major literary events and publications of 1721. Events *February – Joseph A. Hall's book, ''A Sober Reply to Mr. Higgs' Merry Arguments from the Light of Nature for the Tritheistic Doctrine of the Trinity...'', published in the previous year, is burned by order of the British House of Lords for ridiculing Christian doctrine. *''unknown dates'' **John Cleland becomes a pupil at Westminster School; at first an exemplary student, he would eventually be expelled for an unknown offence. **Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduces to London the Ottoman Turks, Ottoman Turkish method of inoculation against smallpox – variolation. The Caroline of Ansbach, Princess of Wales is persuaded to test the treatment and it becomes fashionable. **Thomas Parnell's ''A Night-Piece on Death'' is published, inaugurating the "Graveyard poets" movement. New books Prose *Joseph Addison – ''The Works of Joseph Addison'' *Penelope Aubin **''The Strange Adventures of the Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Lords scrutinises bills that have been approved by the House of Commons. It regularly reviews and amends bills from the Commons. While it is unable to prevent bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it can delay bills and force the Commons to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the House of Lords acts as a check on the more powerful House of Commons that is independent of the electoral process. While members of the Lords may also take on roles as government ministers, high-ranking officials such as cabinet ministers are usually drawn from the Commons. The House of Lords does not control the term of the prime minister or of the government. Only the lower house may force ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl Of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (26 February 1671 – 16 February 1713) was an English politician, philosopher, and writer. Early life He was born at Exeter House in London, the son of the future Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury and his wife Lady Dorothy Manners, daughter of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland. Letters sent to his parents reveal emotional manipulation attempted by his mother in refusing to see her son unless he cut off all ties to his father. At the age of three Ashley-Cooper was made over to the formal guardianship of his grandfather Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. John Locke, as medical attendant to the Ashley household, was entrusted with the supervision of his education. It was conducted according to the principles of Locke's ''Some Thoughts Concerning Education'' (1693), and the method of teaching Latin and Greek conversationally was pursued by his instructress, Elizabeth Birch. At the age of eleven, it is said, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Wodrow
Robert Wodrow (167921 March 1734) was a Scottish minister and historian, known as a chronicler and defender of the Covenanters. Robert Wodrow was born at Glasgow, where his father, James Wodrow, was a professor of divinity. Robert was educated at the university and was librarian from 1697 to 1701. From 1703 till his death, he was parish minister at Eastwood, near Glasgow. He had sixteen children, his son Patrick being the "auld Wodrow" of Burns's poem Twa Herds. Biography Robert Wodrow was the youngest son of James Wodrow, Professor of Divinity, at the University of Glasgow. He was born in the Trongate there, April (or September) 1679. At the very hour of his birth, soldiers under warrant of the Privy Council, were searching the house to seize his father, but the latter, having exchanged clothes with the physician's man-servant, succeeded in escaping. Wodrow entered the University of Glasgow in 1691, and graduated with an M.A. on 18 January 1697. He served as chaplain in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diego De Torres Villarroel
Diego de Torres Villarroel (169319 June 1770) was a Spanish writer, poet, dramatist, doctor, mathematician, priest and professor of the University of Salamanca. His most famous work is his autobiography, ''Vida, ascendencia, nacimiento, crianza y aventuras del Doctor Don Diego de Torres Villarroel'' (first published 1743). Life Villarroel was born in Salamanca and baptised on June 18, 1694. His father was a poor bookseller and his mother was a draper's daughter. After an elementary education he went on to study Latin under Juan González de Dios, who later became professor of humanities at the University of Salamanca. Villarroel was then enrolled at the Colegio Trilingüe in Salamanca. However, at this stage the young Villarroel had little love for learning and his wayward and disruptive behaviour led to trouble with the authorities. It was only when he began to read the books in his father's shop that he discovered a fondness for mathematics and astrology. Villarroel was in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Tickell
Thomas Tickell (17 December 1685 – 23 April 1740) was a minor English poet and man of letters. Life The son of a clergyman, he was born at Bridekirk near Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was educated at St Bees School 1695–1701, and in 1701 entered The Queen's College, Oxford, taking his M.A. degree in 1709. He became a fellow of his college in the next year, and in 1711 University Reader or Professor of Poetry. He did not take orders, but by a dispensation from the Crown was allowed to retain his fellowship until his marriage to Clotilda Eustace in 1726 in Dublin. Tickell acquired the name ‘Whigissimus’, because of his close association with the Whig parliamentary party. In 1717 he was appointed Under Secretary to Joseph Addison, Secretary of State. In 1724 Tickell was appointed secretary to the Lords Justices of Ireland, a post which he retained until his death in 1740, at Bath, aged 54. Tickell owned a house and small estate in Glasnevin on the banks of the River Tolka, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift". Swift is remembered for works such as ''A Tale of a Tub'' (1704), ''An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity'' (1712), '' Gulliver's Travels'' (1726), and ''A Modest Proposal'' (1729). He is regarded by the '' Encyclopædia Britannica'' as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles. His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in ''A Modest Proposal'', has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian". Biography E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758). Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions, notably on Easter Weekend, on 6 April 1744. His experiences culminated in a "spiritual awakening" in which he received a revelation that Jesus Christ had appointed him to write ''The Heavenly Doctrine'' to reform Christianity. According to ''The Heavenly Doctrine'', the Lord had opened Swedenborg's spiritual eyes so that from then on, he could freely visit heaven and hell to converse with angels, demons and other spirits, and that the Last Judgment had already occurred in 1757, the year before the 1758 publication of ''De Nova Hierosolyma et ejus doctrina coelesti'' (English: ''Concerning the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Strype
John Strype (1 November 1643 – 11 December 1737) was an English clergyman, historian and biographer from London. He became a merchant when settling in Petticoat Lane. In his twenties, he became perpetual curate of Theydon Bois, Essex and later became curate of Leyton; this allowed him direct correspondence with several highly notable ecclesiastical figures of his time. He wrote extensively in his later years. Life Born in Houndsditch, London, he was the son of John Strype (or van Stryp) and cousin to sailor and writer Robert Knox. A member of a Huguenot family who, in order to escape religious persecution within Brabant, had settled in East London. Located in what has now become known as Strype Street in Petticoat Lane, he was a merchant and silk throwster. The younger John was educated at St Paul's School, and on 5 July 1662 entered Jesus College, Cambridge; he went on from there to St Catharine's Hall, where he graduated B.A. in 1665 and M.A. in 1669. On 14 July 1669 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Sheffield, 1st Duke Of Buckingham And Normanby
John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, (7 April 164824 February 1721) was an English poet and Tory politician of the late Stuart period who served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord President of the Council. He was also known by his original title, Lord Mulgrave. Life John Sheffield was the only son of Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave, and succeeded his father as 3rd Earl and 5th Baron Sheffield in 1658. At the age of eighteen he joined the fleet, to serve in the Second Anglo-Dutch War; on the renewal of hostilities in 1672 he was present at the Battle of Sole Bay, and in the next year received the command of a ship. He was also made a colonel of infantry, and served for some time under Turenne. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1674. In 1680 he was put in charge of an expedition sent to relieve the Garrison of the town of Tangier, which was then under siege by Moulay Ismail ibn Sharif. It was said that he was provided with a rotten ship in the hope tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior (21 July 1664 – 18 September 1721) was an English poet and diplomat. He is also known as a contributor to ''The Examiner (1710–1714), The Examiner''. Early life Prior was probably born in Middlesex. He was the son of a Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Richard Busby, Dr Richard Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel Row. Here, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, Lord Dorset found him reading Horace, and set him to translate an ode. He did so well that the Earl offered to contribute to the continuation of his education at Westminster. One of his schoolfellows and friends was Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax. It was to avoid being separated from Montagu and his brother James that Prior accepted, against his patron's wish, a scholarship recently founded at St John's College, Cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Pennecuik
Alexander Pennecuik M.D. (1652–1722) was a Scottish physician and poet. Life He was the eldest son of Alexander Pennecuik of Newhall, Edinburgh, who had been a surgeon under Johan Banér in the Thirty Years' War, and afterwards in the Scottish army of the First English Civil War in England. After foreign travel, he cared for his father, who lived to age 90. Pennecuik was in practice as a physician in Tweeddale, and on good terms with a number of Scottish men of letters. In 1702 his elder daughter married, and Pennecuik gave with her the estate of Newhall. Her husband, however, got into debt, and in 1703 Newhall was sold to Sir David Forbes, father to John Forbes, Pennecuik's friend and Allan Ramsay's patron. Pennecuik lived at Romanno until his death in 1722. He was buried in the churchyard at Newlands, by his father's side. Works Pennecuik published poetical pieces: * ''Caledonia Triumphans'', broadside, 1699, reprinted in David Laing's ''Various Pieces of Fugitive Scotch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persian Letters
''Persian Letters'' (french: Lettres persanes) is a literary work, published in 1721, by Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, recounting the experiences of two fictional Persian noblemen, Usbek and Rica, who spend several years in France under Louis XIV and the Regency.; Publication The first edition of the novel, which consisted of 150 letters, appeared in May 1721 under the rubric Cologne: Pierre Marteau, a front for the Amsterdam publisher Jacques Desbordes whose business was now being run by his widow, Susanne de Caux. Referred to as edition A, this is the text utilized in the recent critical edition of ''Lettres persanes'' (2004) for the ongoing complete works of Montesquieu published in Oxford and Lyon/Paris beginning in 1998. A second edition (B) by the same publisher later in the same year, for which there is so far no entirely satisfactory explanation, curiously included three new letters but omitted thirteen of the original ones. All subsequent editions in the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
