1747 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1747.

Events

 * March 31 – Laurence Sterne preaches the Good Friday sermon at St Helen Stonegate; The Case of Elijah and the Widow of Zerephath is later printed and published.
 * April 9 – David Garrick becomes joint patentee and manager of the Drury Lane Theatre in London.
 * June 21 – Licensing Act transfers responsibility for pre-production censorship of plays in Britain from the Master of the Revels to the Lord Chamberlain and restricts serious drama to the patent theatres.
 * December 1 – Samuel Richardson's two-volume epistolary novel Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady ("by the Editor of Pamela") begins publication in London from his own print shop, dated 1748.
 * unknown date – The Załuski Library in Warsaw is opened to the public.

Prose

 * William Blackstone (attributed) – The Pantheon
 * Thomas Carte – A General History of England
 * Juan de Iriarte – Discurso sobre la imperfección de los diccionarios
 * Diego de Torres Villarroel – Desengaños razonables para sacudir el polvo del espanto
 * Denis Diderot – La Promenade du sceptique (completed; not published until 1830)
 * William Dunkin – Boetia
 * Thomas Edward – A Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear
 * Henry Fielding, as "John Trott Plaid" – The Jacobite's Journal (periodical)
 * Sarah Fielding – Familiar Letters Between the Principal Characters in David Simple (a defense against unauthorized continuations)
 * Samuel Foote – The Roman and English Comedy Consider'd
 * Hannah Glasse, as "A Lady" – The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy
 * Madame de Graffigny – Letters from a Peruvian Woman
 * Henry Home, Lord Kames – Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities
 * Samuel Johnson – The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language
 * Charlotte Lennox – Poems
 * David Mallet – Amyntor and Theodora
 * William Mason – Musaeus: A monody to the memory of Pope (an imitation of Milton's Lycidas)
 * William Memoth, the younger – The Letters of Pliny the Consul
 * Josiah Ralph – A Miscellany
 * Samuel Richardson – Clarissa vol. i–ii
 * William Shakespeare – The Works of Shakespear (edited by William Warburton)
 * Tobias Smollett – Reproof
 * Joseph Spence – Polymetis
 * Voltaire – Zadig (in original form as Memnon)
 * Horace Walpole – A Letter to the Whigs
 * Joseph Warton – Ranelagh House
 * Thomas Warton – The Pleasures of Melancholy

Drama

 * John Cunningham – Love in a Mist
 * Samuel Foote – The Diversions of the Morning or, A Dish of Chocolate
 * David Garrick – Miss in Her Teens
 * Christian Fürchtegott Gellert – Die zärtlichen Schwestern (The Affectionate Sisters)
 * Carlo Goldoni – The Venetian Twins (I due gemelli veneziani)
 * Benjamin Hoadly – The Suspicious Husband
 * Edward Moore – The Foundling
 * Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shōraku and Namiki Senryū I – Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (義経千本桜, Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees, original version for bunraku puppet theatre)

Poetry

 * Philip Francis – A Poetical Translation of the Works of Horace
 * Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – Six Town Eclogues

Births

 * January 11 – François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, French economics writer (died 1827)
 * January 12 – Susanna Blamire, English dialect poet and songwriter (died 1794)
 * January 15 – John Aikin, English biographer, activist and physician (died 1822)
 * January 26 – Samuel Parr, English schoolmaster and writer, "the Whig Johnson" (died 1825)
 * January – William Seward, English man of letters (died 1799)
 * February 19 – John "Walking" Stewart, English traveller and philosopher (died 1822)
 * March 10 – Iolo Morganwg, Welsh antiquarian, bookseller, poet and literary forger (died 1826)
 * September 30 – John Mastin, English memoirist, local historian and cleric (died 1829)
 * December 12 – Anna Seward, English poet (died 1809)
 * Unknown date
 * John Edwards (1747–1792), Welsh poet (died 1792)
 * Thomas Scott, English cleric and religious writer (died 1821)

Deaths

 * January 16 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes German poet (born 1680)
 * May 28 – Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, essayist (born 1715)
 * August
 * Charles Fleetwood, manager of Drury Lane Theatre (year of birth unknown)
 * Leonard Welsted, English poet (born 1688)
 * September 7 – Michel Maittaire, French classical scholar, bibliographer and grammarian (born 1668)
 * November 17 – Alain-René Le Sage, French novelist and playwright (born 1668)
 * November 21 – Robert Mylne, Scottish antiquarian and writer (born 1643)
 * November 22 – Joseph Trapp, poet, controversialist and translator (born 1679)
 * December 23 – Étienne-François Avisse, French dramatist (born 1694)