1774 in literature

Events

• February 22 – The English legal case of Donaldson v Beckett is decided in the House of Lords, denying the continued existence of a perpetual common law copyright and holding that copyright is a creation of statute and can be limited in its duration. This does permit authors to claim copyright on their own works.
• September 14 – A new Stadsschouwburg (municipal theatre) in Amsterdam opens with the première of Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken's tragedy Jacob Simonszoon de Ryk.
• September 29 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's semi-autobiographical epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) (written January – March) is published anonymously in Leipzig, Germany; it is influential in the Sturm und Drang movement and Romanticism.
• unknown dates
  • After the destruction of the Schloss Weimar by fire, Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, forms a commission for its reconstruction directed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
  • James Lackington begins in the London bookselling business.
  • Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider becomes secretary to Richard François Philippe Brunck.
  • The National and University Library of Slovenia in Ljubljana is established as the Lyceum Library, from the remains of the dissolved Jesuit library and several monastery libraries.
  • Alberto Fortis publishes Viaggio in Dalmazia ("Journey to Dalmatia") and starts Morlachism.

New books

Fiction

• Jeremy Bentham – The White Bull
• Henry Brooke – Juliet Grenville
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – The Sorrows of Young Werther
• Charles Johnstone – The History of Arsaces
• The Newgate Calendar
• Christoph Martin Wieland – Die Abderiten, eine sehr wahrscheinliche Geschichte (The Abderites: A Very Probable Story)

Children

• Johann Bernhard Basedow – Elementarwerk (first of four volumes)

Drama

• Miles Peter Andrews – The Election
• John Burgoyne – The Maid of the Oaks
• George Colman the Elder – The Man of Business
• Richard Cumberland
  • The Choleric Man
  • The Note of Hand
• Charles Dibdin – The Waterman
• Alexander Dow – Sethona
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Clavigo
• Hugh Kelly – The Romance of an Hour
• Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz – The Tutor (Der Hofmeister)
• Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos – El delincuente honrado

Poetry

Main article: 1774 in poetry

• James Beattie – The Minstrel, volume 2
• William Dunkin – Poetical Works
• Oliver Goldsmith – Retaliation
• Richard Graves – The Progress of Gallantry
• William Mason – An Heroic Postscript to the Public
• Hannah More – The Inflexible Captive
• Samuel Jackson Pratt (as Courtney Melmoth) – The Tears of A Genius, occasioned by the Death of Dr. Goldsmith
• Henry James Pye – Farringdon Hill
• Mary Scott – The Female Advocate
• Candido Maria Trigueros – El poeta filósofo o Poesías filosóficas en verso pentámetro
• William Whitehead – Plays and Poems, by William Whitehead, Esq. Poet Laureat

Non-fiction

• Giacomo Casanova – Istoria delle turbolenze della Polonia
• Mary Deverell – Sermons
• Alberto Fortis – Viaggio in Dalmazia
• Martin Gerbert – De cantu et musica sacra
• Oliver Goldsmith
  • The Grecian History
  • An History of the Earth and Animated Nature
• Henry Home – Sketches of the History of Man
• John Hutchins (died 1773) – The History and Antiquities of Dorset
• Thomas Jefferson – A Summary View of the Rights of British America
• Samuel Johnson – The Patriot
• Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz – The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina (English translation of Histoire de la Louisiane (1758) in 1 vol.)
• Joseph Priestley – Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
• William Richardson – A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters
• Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes – Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria popular
• Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield – Letters to his Son
• Sugita Genpaku – Kaitai Shinsho (解体新書, "New Text on Anatomy", Japanese translation of Ontleedkundige Tafelen)
• Horace Walpole – A Description of Strawberry-Hill
• Thomas Warton – The History of English Poetry, volume 1
• John Wesley – Thoughts upon Slavery

Births

• January 1 – Pietro Giordani, Italian translator, scholar and writer (died 1848)
• February 24 – Archibald Constable, Scottish publisher (died 1827)
• July 14 – Francis Lathom, Dutch-born English Gothic novelist and dramatist (died 1832)
• August 12 – Robert Southey, English poet and Poet Laureate (died 1843)

Deaths

• April 4 – Oliver Goldsmith, Irish dramatist (born 1728/1730)
• April 28 – Gottfried Lengnich, German/Polish historian (born 1689)
• September 17 – Abraham Langford, English auctioneer and playwright (born 1711)
• October 16 – Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet (head injury, born 1750)
• unknown date – Catherine Michelle de Maisonneuve, French editor and writer

References

References

1. 2 Brown's Parl. Cases 129, 1 Eng. Rep. 837; 4 Burr. 2408, 98 Eng. Rep. 257; 17 Cobbett's Parl. Hist. 953 (1813).
2. te Winkel, Jan. (1924). "De ontwikkelingsgang der Nederlandsche letterkunde V, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche letterkunde van de Republiek der Vereenigde Nederlanden". Héritiers F. Bohn.
3. (2010). "Das Stadtschloss Weimar/The Palace at Weimar". Klassik Stiftung Weimar.
4. Martin Geck. (2003). "Bach". Haus Publishing.
5. Miriam Drake. (20 May 2003). "Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Second Edition -". CRC Press.
6. Milić Brett, Branislava. (2014). "Imagining the Morlacchi in Fortis and Goldoni". [[University of Alberta]].
7. Cándido María Trigueros. (1774). "El poeta filosofo; o poesias filosoficas en verso pentametro". En la Imprenta de Don Manuel Nicolàs Vazquez, y Compañia.
8. [https://archive.today/20130419184427/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00mr8yj/profiles/robert-fergusson BBC Two: Writing Scotland.]