1708 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1708.

Events

• July 14 – Joseph Trapp becomes the first Oxford Professor of Poetry.^[1]
• unknown date – Edward Lhuyd becomes a Fellow of the Royal Society.^[2]

New books

Prose

• Joseph Addison – The Present State of the War (pro-Marlborough tract)^[3]
• Francis Atterbury – Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions^[4]
• Joseph Bingham – Origines Ecclesiasticae, or Antiquities of the Christian Church, vol. 1^[5]
• Laurent Bordelon – Mital; ou Aventures incroyables^[6]
• Elizabeth Burnet – A Method of Devotion^[7]
• Jeremy Collier – An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Chiefly of England, vol. 1^[8]
• Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury – A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (opposing radical Protestantism)
• Edmund Curll – The Charitable Surgeon
• Anne Dacier (Anne Lefèvre) – Homer's Odyssey (prose, first translation into French)
• John Downes – Roscius Anglicanus (historical review of the stage)
• John Fisher, Cardinal Bishop of Rochester (executed 1535) – Funeral Sermon for Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby (originally delivered 1509; published with an anonymous preface by Thomas Baker)
• John Gay – Wine
• Charles Gildon
  • Libertas Triumphans (re Battle of Oudenarde)
  • The New Metamorphosis (fiction)
• John Harris – Lexicon Technicum: Or, A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (2nd edition)
• Aaron Hill & Nahum Tate – The Celebrated Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses, for the Armour of Achilles (from Ovid)^[9]
• Benjamin Hoadly – The Unhappiness of the Present Establishment, and the Unhappiness of Absolute Monarchy
• Anne de La Roche-Guilhem – La Foire de Beaucaire
• François Leguat – Voyage et avantures de François Leguat et de ses compagnons, en deux isles désertes des Indes orientales (A new voyage to the East-Indies)^[10]
• John Locke (died 1704) – Some Familiar Letters
• Simon Ockley – The Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Aegypt by the Saracens (vol. 1 of History of the Saracens)
• John Oldmixon – The British Empire in America
• Jonathan Swift
  • Predictions for the Year 1708^[11]
  • The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions (together with part of the "Bickerstaff Papers")
  • An Argument against Abolishing Christianity^[12]

Drama

• Thomas Baker – The Fine Lady's Airs (first performed December 18)^[13]
• Charles Goring – Irene
• Peter Anthony Motteux – Love's Triumph (opera)
• Nicholas Rowe – The Royal Convert^[14]
• William Taverner – The Disappointment^[15]
• Lewis Theobald – The Persian Princess^[15]

Poetry

See main article: 1708 in poetry.

• Richard Blackmore – The Kit-Cats
• Ebenezer Cooke – The Sot-Weed Factor (poem)
• Elijah Fenton – Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems
• William King – The Art of Cookery (poem)
• Matthew Prior – Poems on Several Occasions (see also 1707)

Births

• April 23 – Friedrich von Hagedorn, German poet (died 1754)^[16]
• July 8 – Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon, French dramatist (died 1775)
• August 29 – Olof von Dalin, Swedish poet (died 1763)
• September 2 – André le Breton, French publisher (died 1779)^[17]
• October 16 – Albrecht von Haller, Swiss biologist and poet (died 1777)
• unknown dates
  • Richard Dawes, English classical scholar (died 1766)
  • Thomas Seward, English poet (died 1790)^[18]

Deaths

• January 1 – Johannes Kelpius, German polymath (born 1673)
• March 4 – Thomas Ward, English Catholic writer (born 1652)^[19]
• March 5 – Charles Le Gobien, French Jesuit writer (born 1653)
• March 15 – William Walsh, English poet and critic (born 1662)^[20]
• October 11 – Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German philosopher (born 1651)^[21]
• October 21
  • Kata Szidónia Petrőczy, Hungarian Baroque writer (born 1659)
  • Christian Weise, German dramatist and poet (born 1642)
• October 22 – Hermann Witsius, Dutch theologian (born 1636)^[22]
• November 15 – Gregory Hascard, English religious writer and cleric (year of birth unknown)
• unknown date – Nikolai Spathari (Nicolae Milescu), Moldavian travel writer and diplomat (born 1636)^[23]

Notes and References

1. [:s:Trapp, Joseph (DNB00)]
2. s-LHUY-EDW-1660 . Lhuyd, Edward (1660-1709), botanist, geologist, antiquary, and philologist . Thomas Jones . 1 March 2019.
3. Joseph Addison and Eighteenth-Century "Liberalism" . Edward A. Bloom and Lillian D. Bloom . Journal of the History of Ideas . 12 . 4 . 560–583 . 2707486 . 1951 . 10.2307/2707486.
4. Book: Eric Parisot . Graveyard Poetry: Religion, Aesthetics and the Mid-Eighteenth-Century Poetic Condition . 22 April 2016 . Routledge . 978-1-317-12490-0 . 10.
5. Book: Colin Kidd . British Identities before Nationalism: Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600–1800 . 13 March 1999 . Cambridge University Press . 978-1-139-42572-8 . 238.
6. Book: Kenneth Thompson . Culture & Progress:Esc . 21 August 2013 . Routledge . 978-1-136-47940-3 . 478.
7. Book: The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats . 2007 . Department of English, Temple University . 978-0-670-06320-8 . 95.
8. Book: Saint Peter's Church, Cornhill (LONDON) . Robert WILKINSON (of the parish of St. Peter's, Cornhill.) . An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Parish Church of St. Peter upon Cornhill . 1837 . Proprietor . 2.
9. Book: Christine Gerrard. Aaron Hill: The Muses' Projector, 1685-1750. 2003. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-818388-4. 15.
10. Book: François Le Guat. Voyage Et Avantures De François Leguat, & de ses Compagnons, En Deux Isles Desertes Des Indes Orientales.... 1708. Chez David Mortier.
11. Book: David Oakleaf. A Political Biography of Jonathan Swift. 6 October 2015. Routledge. 978-1-317-31552-0. 67.
12. Book: Eugene Hammond . Jonathan Swift: Irish Blow-In . 22 March 2016 . Rowman & Littlefield . 978-1-61149-607-9 . 311.
13. Book: Thomas Baker . The Fine Lady's Airs . March 2006 . Dodo Press . 978-1-4065-0502-3.
14. Book: Michael Caines . The Plays and Poems of Nicholas Rowe, Volume II: The Middle Period Plays . 3 November 2016 . Taylor & Francis . 978-1-134-98114-4 . 257.
15. Book: William J. Burling. A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737. 1992. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. 978-0-8386-3451-6. 46.
16. Book: Franz J. L. Thimm. The Literature of Germany: From Its Earliest Period to the Present Time, Historically Developed. 1866. Franz Thimm. 21.
17. Book: Revue des bibliothèques. Association des bibliothécaires français. Émile Bouillon. 1909. 298–299.
18. Book: Dr Teresa Barnard. Anna Seward: A Constructed Life: A Critical Biography. 28 April 2013. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. 978-1-4094-7533-0. 26.
19. Book: Thomas Ward. England's reformation ... A poem in four cantos ... The fifth edition. With marginal notes ... as also, the author's life, etc. 1742. printed, and sold by Hue Firstfire. 13.
20. James . Sambrook . Walsh, William (bap. 1662, d. 1708) . . Oxford University Press . 2004 . Online . 10.1093/ref:odnb/28620 . 2015-07-15.
21. Book: Pierre Costabel. Leibniz and Dynamics: The Texts of 1962. Hermann. 1973. 69.
22. Book: J. Bertrand Payne. Haydn ́s Universal Index of Biography. Salzwasser-Verlag GmbH. 2020. 576. 9783846047712.
23. Book: Nikolaos Chrissidis. An Academy at the Court of the Tsars: Greek Scholars and Jesuit Education in Early Modern Russia. 10 August 2016. Cornell University Press. 978-1-60909-189-7. 201.