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1778 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1778. Events *October – On her father's death, novelist Sarah Scott receives a legacy that enables her to give up writing. *c. November – Printing of Nathaniel Brassey Halhed's ''Grammar of the Bengali Language'' in Hooghly for the British East India Company is completed, the first such grammar in English and the first publication using a Bengali typeface, devised by Charles Wilkins. *''unknown dates'' **A new edition of ''The Plays of William Shakespeare'' is published, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. It includes Edmond Malone's essay "An Attempt to Ascertain the Order in Which the Plays Attributed to Shakspeare Were Written". **Fanny Burney's novel ''Evelina'' is published anonymously. New books Fiction *Anonymous – ''The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman, Esquire, into Carnovirria, Taupiniera, Olfactaria, and Auditante, in New-Zealand; in the Island of Bonhommica, and in the Powerf ...
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Sarah Scott
Sarah Scott (née Robinson) (21 September 1720 – 3 November 1795) was an English novelist, translator, social reformer, and member of the Bluestockings. Her most famous work was her utopian novel '' A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent'', followed closely by the sequel ''The History of Sir George Ellison''. Early life Sarah's father, Matthew Robinson, and her mother, Elizabeth Drake, were both from distinguished families, and Sarah was the youngest of nine children. Although born in Yorkshire, she spent much time with her siblings in Cambridge, England, where her grandmother, Sarah Morris Drake, lived with her stepgrandfather, Dr. Conyers Middleton, a famous scholar at Cambridge University. All but one of her brothers would go on to a highly accomplished career, yet her elder sister, who would later become the writer and social activist Elizabeth Montagu, became the most accomplished, earning fame in literary circles as a critic of Shakespeare and founder ...
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Pan Podstoli
''Pan Podstoli'' (''Lord Steward'', or ''Royal Pantler'') is a novel by Polish author, Ignacy Krasicki, published in several parts (1778, 1784 and 1803). It is one of the first Polish novels, and one of the most important works by Krasicki. It served as an inspiration for future Polish novelists and other writers, including Adam Mickiewicz. History Krasicki wrote the first part in 1776, and it was published in 1778, without any indication of a sequel. Krasicki would however publish a second part in 1784, and write a third one, published posthumously in 1803. Krzyżanowski writes that part four was planned, but never written. (from the Introduction by Krzyżanowski, as reproduced a/ref> The novel was likely inspired by Krasicki's experiences with the '' Monitor (Polish newspaper), Monitor'' newspaper, Renaissance works of Łukasz Górnicki and the treatise on peasants by Hans Caspar Hirzel. Plot The novel does not have much of a plot, it has been described as "unashamedly utilit ...
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John Home
Rev John Home FRSE (13 September 1722 – 4 September 1808) was a Scottish minister, soldier and author. His play ''Douglas'' was a standard Scottish school text until the Second World War, but his work is now largely neglected. In 1783 he was one of the joint founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Biography He was born on 13 September 1722 at Ancrum in Roxburghshire, but moved to Leith, near Edinburgh, in early childhood when his father, Alexander Home, a distant relation of the earls of Home, became town clerk. His mother was Christian Hay, the daughter of an Edinburgh lawyer. He was christened on 22 September 1722 John was educated at the Leith Grammar School, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MA in 1742. Though interested in being a soldier, he studied divinity, and was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Edinburgh in 1745. In the same year he joined as a volunteer against Bonnie Prince Charlie, and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Falkir ...
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Jean-François De La Harpe
Jean-François de La Harpe (20 November 173911 February 1803) was a French playwright, writer and literary critic. Life La Harpe was born in Paris of poor parents. His father, who signed himself Delharpe, was a descendant of a noble family originally of Vaud. Left an orphan at the age of nine, La Harpe was taken care of for six months by the Sisters of Charity, and his education was provided for by a scholarship at the Collège d'Harcourt, now known as the Lycée Saint-Louis. When nineteen he was imprisoned for some months on the charge of having written a satire against his protectors at the college. He was imprisoned at For-l'Évêque. La Harpe always denied his guilt, but this culminating misfortune of an early life spent entirely in the position of a dependent possibly had something to do with the bitterness he evinced in later life. Citations: * Sainte-Beuve, ''Causeries du lundi'', vol. v In 1763, his tragedy of ''Warwick'' was played before the court. This, his first pla ...
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Samuel Foote
Samuel Foote (January 1720 – 21 October 1777) was a British dramatist, actor and theatre manager. He was known for his comedic acting and writing, and for turning the loss of a leg in a riding accident in 1766 to comedic opportunity. Early life Born into a well-to-do family,Hartnoll, p. 290. Foote was baptized in Truro, Cornwall on 27 January 1720.Britannica. His father, Samuel Foote, held several public positions, including mayor of Truro, Member of Parliament representing Tiverton and a commissioner in the Prize Office. His mother, née Eleanor Goodere, was the daughter of Sir Edward Goodere Baronet of Hereford.Murphy, p. 1104. Foote may have inherited his wit and sharp humour from her and her family which was described as "eccentric. ..whose peculiarities ranged from the harmless to the malevolent."Howard, p. 131. About the time Foote came of age, he inherited his first fortune when one of his uncles, Sir John Dineley Goodere, 2nd Baronet was murdered by another uncle, C ...
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Charles Dibdin
Charles Dibdin (before 4 March 1745 – 25 July 1814) was an English composer, musician, dramatist, novelist, singer and actor. With over 600 songs to his name, for many of which he wrote both the lyrics and the music and performed them himself, he was in his time the most prolific English singer-songwriter. He is best known as the composer of "Tom Bowling", one of his many sea songs, which often features at the Last Night of the Proms. He also wrote about 30 dramatic pieces, including the operas ''The Waterman'' (1774) and ''The Quaker'' (1775), and several novels, memoirs and histories. His works were admired by Haydn and Beethoven. Life and career Early life and early successes The son of a silversmith, Dibdin was privately baptised on 4 March 1745 in Southampton and is often described as the youngest child of eighteen born to a 50-year-old mother. His parents, intending him for the clergy, sent Dibdin to Winchester College, but his love of music soon diverted his though ...
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The Princess Of Parma
''The Princess of Parma'' is a 1778 play by the British playwright Richard Cumberland. It was originally staged at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is .... No copy of the work is known to survive.Nicoll p.78 References Bibliography * Nicoll, Allardyce. ''A History of English Drama 1660-1900. Volume III: Late Eighteenth Century Drama''. Cambridge University Press, 1952. Plays by Richard Cumberland 1778 plays Lost plays {{18thC-play-stub ...
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The Battle Of Hastings (play)
''The Battle of Hastings'' is a 1778 play by the English writer Richard Cumberland. It is a tragedy set around the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It was staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in October 1778 by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Sheridan later mocked Cumberland's sensitivity to criticism by modelling the character Sir Fretful Plagiary, in his 1779 play ''The Critic'', after him.Baines, Ferraro & Rogers p.87 The original Drury Lane cast included Robert Bensley as Harold Godwinson, John Henderson as Edgar Atheling, John Palmer John Palmer may refer to: People Politicians * John Palmer (fl. 1377–1394), English politician * Sir John Palmer, 5th Baronet (1735–1817), British politician * John Palmer (1785–1840), U.S. congressman from New York * John Palmer (1842–19 ... as Earl Edwin, William Brereton (actor), William Brereton as Prince Waltheof, James Aickin as Earl of Northumberland, Richard Hurst (actor), Richard Hurst as Raymond, Elizabeth Younge as Matilda and Mary An ...
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Richard Cumberland (dramatist)
Richard Cumberland (19 February 1731/2 – 7 May 1811) was an English dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play '' The West Indian'' was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived critical journal called ''The London Review'' (1809). His plays are often remembered for their sympathetic depiction of characters generally considered to be on the margins of society. Early life and education Richard Cumberland was born in the master's lodge of Trinity College, Cambridge on 19 February 1731/2. His father was a clergyman, Doctor Denison Cumberland, who became successively Bishop of Clonfert and Bishop of Kilmore, and through him his great-grandfather was Richard Cumberland, the philosopher and bishop of Peterborough. His mother was Johanna Bentley, youngest daughter of Joanna Bernard and the classical scholar Richard Bentley, l ...
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Elizabeth Craven
Elizabeth, Princess Berkeley, sometimes unofficially styled Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach (''née'' Lady Elizabeth Berkeley; —), previously Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven, of Hamstead Marshall, was an author and playwright, perhaps best known for her travelogues. Life Elizabeth Berkeley was born in Mayfair, London, the third child of the Augustus Berkeley, 4th Earl of Berkeley and his wife, Elizabeth Drax, daughter of Henry Drax and Elizabeth Ernle. Biography Her life was full of scandal: on , "much against her will at the age of sixteen," she was married to William Craven, 6th Baron Craven. After thirteen years of marriage, seven children, and affairs reported on both sides, the couple parted permanently in 1780. She had an affair with Charles Greville sometime in late 1783. Thereafter she lived in France and traveled extensively on the Continent. For a number of years she maintained a romantic relationship with Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenbu ...
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Henry Brooke (writer)
Henry Brooke (1703 – 10 October 1783) was an Irish novelist and dramatist. He was born and raised at Rantavan House near Mullagh, a village in the far south of County Cavan in Ireland, ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'' (''D.I.B.''): Brooke, Henry. https://www.dib.ie/biography/brooke-henry-a0990 the son of a clergyman, and he later studied law at Trinity College, Dublin, but embraced literature as a career. Brooke's father was The Reverend William Brooke, the well-off Church of Ireland Rector of Killinkere and Mullagh within the Church of Ireland Diocese of Kilmore. Henry first began his career as a poet. His now forgotten ''Universal Beauty'' was published in 1735, and Alexander Pope thought its sentiments and poetry fine. He then turned dramatist by adapting extant plays, such as ''The Earl of Essex.'' He wrote from the Tory point of view and became one of the most important figures in Augustan drama, although not for his successes. His ''Gustavus Vasa'' (1739) has t ...
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Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (, by herself possibly , as in French, Aikin; 20 June 1743 – 9 March 1825) was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A " woman of letters" who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a successful writing career that spanned more than half a century. She was a noted teacher at the Palgrave Academy and an innovative writer of works for children. Her primers provided a model for more than a century. Her essays showed it was possible for a woman to be engaged in the public sphere; other women authors such as Elizabeth Benger emulated her. Barbauld's literary career spanned numerous periods in British literary history: her work promoted the values of the enlightenment and of sensibility, while her poetry made a founding contribution to the development of British Romanticism. Barbauld was also a literary critic. Her anthology of 18th-century novels helped to establish the canon as it is known to ...
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