1708 in literature

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

Events

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

New books

Prose

• Joseph Addison – The Present State of the War (pro-Marlborough tract)
• Francis Atterbury – Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions
• Joseph Bingham – Origines Ecclesiasticae, or Antiquities of the Christian Church, vol. 1
• Laurent Bordelon – Mital; ou Aventures incroyables
• Elizabeth Burnet – A Method of Devotion
• Jeremy Collier – An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Chiefly of England, vol. 1
• 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)
• 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)
• 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
• The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions (together with part of the "Bickerstaff Papers")
• An Argument against Abolishing Christianity

Drama

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

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)
• 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)
• 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)

Deaths

• January 1 – Johannes Kelpius, German polymath (born 1673)
• March 4 – Thomas Ward, English Catholic writer (born 1652)
• March 5 – Charles Le Gobien, French Jesuit writer (born 1653)
• March 15 – William Walsh, English poet and critic (born 1662)
• October 11 – Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German philosopher (born 1651)
• 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)
• 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)

References