1723 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1723.

Events

 * March – Voltaire makes an agreement with Abraham Viret to allow his work to be printed in Rouen.
 * July – A new edition of Bernard Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees is presented as a public nuisance by the Grand Jury of Middlesex, England, to the Court of King's Bench. Mandeville escapes prosecution.
 * November – After attending a party at the home of the marquis des Maisons, Voltaire contracts smallpox.
 * unknown date – The book collection of Samuel Pepys (died 1703), including his Diary, is transferred to the Pepys Library at his alma mater, Magdalene College, Cambridge, in accordance with his will.

Fiction

 * Penelope Aubin – The Life of Charlotta Du Pont, an English lady; taken from her own memoirs
 * Jane Barker – A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies
 * Thomas-Simon Gueullette – Les Aventures merveilleuses du mandarin Fum-Hoam, contes chinois (The Transmigrations of the Mandarin Fum-Hoam (Chinese Tales))
 * Eliza Haywood – Idalia: Or, the Unfortunate Mistress. A Novel. Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood
 * Anton Josef Kirchweger – Aurea Catena Homeri
 * Margrethe Lasson – Den beklædte Sandhed (first novel in Danish)
 * John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (died 1721) – The Works of John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Marquis of Normanby, and Duke of Buckingham

Drama

 * Elijah Fenton – Mariamne
 * Francis Hawling – The Impertinent Lovers
 * Eliza Haywood – A Wife to be Lett
 * Ludvig Holberg – Erasmus Montanus
 * Hildebrand Jacob – The Fatal Constancy
 * Charles Johnson – Love in a Forest (adapted from As You Like It)
 * Pierre de Marivaux – La Double Inconstance
 * Ambrose Philips – Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
 * Jane Robe – The Fatal Legacy
 * Richard Savage – Sir Thomas Overbury

Poetry

 * Sir Richard Blackmore – Alfred: an epick poem
 * Heyat Mahmud – Jangnama; Bengali
 * David Mallet – William and Margaret
 * William Meston – Knight of the Kirk
 * Ambrose Philips – Ode on the Death of William, Earl of Cowper
 * Matthew Prior
 * Down-Hall
 * The Turtle and the Sparrow
 * Allan Ramsay – The Tea-Table Miscellany, Vol. 1
 * Voltaire – La Henriade
 * Ned Ward – Nuptial Dialogues and Debates, 3rd ed.

Non-fiction

 * James Anderson – The Constitutions of the Free-Masons
 * Henry Baker – An Invocation of Health: a poem
 * Offspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter (posthumously) – Collected Works
 * Pietro Giannone – Storia civile del regno di Napoli (History of the Kingdom of Naples)
 * Bernard de Mandeville – A Search into the Nature of Society
 * Thomas Dempster (posthumous) – De Etruria regali libri VII (printed in sans-serif)
 * Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard – Cato's Letters (essays)
 * John Nott – The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary or, the Accomplish'd Housewives Companion

Births

 * January 21 (or June 21) – Baron d'Holbach, German-born French philosopher and encyclopedist (died 1789)
 * February 23 – Richard Price, Welsh-born philosopher (died 1791)
 * February 24 – John Burgoyne, English soldier and dramatist (died 1792)
 * June 5 (baptized) – Adam Smith, Scottish economist (died 1790)
 * June 20 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (died 1816)
 * July 11 – Jean-François Marmontel, French novelist and dramatist (died 1799)
 * September 30 – William Hutton, English local historian and poet (died 1815)
 * November 8 – John Byron, English vice-admiral and memoirist (died 1786)
 * November 30 – William Livingston, American political writer and politician (died 1790)
 * December 26 – Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, German-born French philosopher and encyclopedist (died 1807)

Deaths

 * February 26 – Thomas d'Urfey, English dramatist (born 1653)
 * March 13 – René Auguste Constantin de Renneville, French Protestant poet and historian (born 1650)
 * March 15 – Johann Christian Günther, German poet (born 1695)
 * May 11 – Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (born 1656)
 * June 8 – Isaac Chayyim Cantarini, Italian poet, physician and preacher (born 1644)
 * July 28 – Mariana Alcoforado, Portuguese nun (born 1640)
 * August 21 – Dimitrie Cantemir, Romanian author (born 1673)
 * September 23 – Jacques Basnage, French Protestant poet, linguist and preacher (born 1653)
 * December 1 – Susanna Centlivre (Susanna Carroll), English dramatist (born c. 1667–70)
 * December 17 – John Trenchard, English politician and writer (born 1662)