1780 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1780.

List of years in literature (table)
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Events

• September/October – Richard Brinsley Sheridan is elected to Parliament in the 1780 British general election.
• December – Karl von Marinelli becomes head of the Schultz theatre company (Schultzsche Gesellschaft) of Baden.[1]
• unknown dates
  • Det Dramatiske Selskab in Christiania, an amateur acting troupe, is formed and gives the first regular stage performances in Norway.
  • A legal deposit law entitles the Załuski Library in Warsaw to a copy of every book published in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[2]

New books

Fiction

• Elizabeth Blower – The Parsonage House
• Herbert Croft – Love and Madness
• Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire – The Sylph
• Thomas Holcroft – Alwyn
• Sophia Lee – The Chapter of Accidents
• Samuel Jackson Pratt – Emma Corbett, or, The miseries of civil war

Children

• Mrs. Trimmer – An Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature, and Reading the Holy Scriptures. Adapted to the Capacities of Children

Drama

• Hannah Cowley – The Belle's Stratagem
• Isaac Reed – A Select Collection of Old Plays (from Robert Dodsley's press)

Poetry

Main article: 1780 in poetry

• Hannah Cowley – The Maid of Aragon
• George Crabbe – The Candidate
• Herbert Croft – The Abbey of Kilkhampton; or, Monumental Records for the Year 1980 (satire)
• Susannah Harrison – Songs in the Night
• William Hayley – An Essay on History
• Anna Seward – Elegy on Captain Cook
• Christoph Martin Wieland – Oberon

Non-fiction

• William Beckford – Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters
• Jacob Bryant – An Address to Dr. Priestley
• Edmund Burke – Speech on Oeconomical Reformation
• Giacomo Casanova – Opuscoli miscellanei (containing Il duello and Lettere della nobil donna Silvia Belegno alla nobil donzella Laura Gussoni)
• William Combe – Letters of the Late Lord Lyttelton (forgeries)
• Martin Madan – Thelyphthora (in favor of polygamy)
• Johannes von Müller – Geschichten der Schweizer
• John Nichols – A Select Collection of Poems
• Richard Price – An Essay on the Population of England
• Joseph Priestley – Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever
• William Shakespeare – Supplement to the Edition of Shakespeare's Plays Published in 1778 by Samuel Johnson and George Stevens (by Edmond Malone)
• Horace Walpole – On Modern Gardening
• John Wesley – Reflections on the Rise and Progress of the American Rebellion
• Arthur Young – A Tour in Ireland

Births

• March 10 – Frances Trollope, English novelist (died 1863)
• June 1 – Carl von Clausewitz, German soldier and military historian and theorist (died 1831)
• June 3 – William Hone, English satirist (died 1842)
• August 14 – George Croly, Irish poet, novelist and historian (died 1860)
• November 27 – William Cardell, American grammarian and writer of boys' stories (died 1828)[3]
• December 20 – John Wilson Croker, Irish statesman and author (died 1857)
• December 26 – Mary Somerville, Scottish science writer and polymath (died 1872)
• probable
  • Maria Elizabeth Budden, English novelist and writer of didactic children's books (died 1832)
  • Anna Maria Porter, English poet and novelist (died 1832)

Deaths

• January 31 – Jonathan Carver, American explorer and writer (born 1710)
• February 14 – William Blackstone, English jurist and legal author (born 1723)
• February 17 – Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (born 1706)
• April 29 – Claude Joseph Dorat, "Le Chevalier Dorat", French poet and novelist (born 1734)
• May 11 – Nicolas Fernández de Moratín, Spanish literary reformer (born 1737)
• July 14 – Charles Batteux, French philosopher (born 1713)[4]
• September 4 – Sir John Fielding, English social reformer and half-brother of Henry Fielding (born 1721)
• September 8 – Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, French novelist (born 1711)
• September 23 – Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand, French salon hostess (born 1697)
• December 22 – James Harris, English grammarian (born 1709)

References

1. Karl Weiss (1876). Topographie der Stadt Wien. Verlag des Vereins für Landeskunde von Niederösterreich. p. 135.
2. Miriam Drake (20 May 2003). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Second Edition -. CRC Press. p. 2036. ISBN 978-0-8247-2079-7.
3. John R. Shook (5 April 2012). Dictionary of Early American Philosophers. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-84371-182-7.
4. Horace Walpole (1939). Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Madame Du Deffand and Wiart. Yale University Press. pp. 239–240.