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.^[1]
• 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.^[2]
• November – After attending a party at the home of the marquis des Maisons, Voltaire contracts smallpox.^[3]
• 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.^[4]

New books

Fiction

• Penelope Aubin – The Life of Charlotta Du Pont, an English lady; taken from her own memoirs^[5]
• 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^[6]
• Anton Josef Kirchweger – Aurea Catena Homeri
• Margrethe Lasson – Den beklædte Sandhed (first novel in Danish)

Drama

• Elijah Fenton – Mariamne^[7]
• Francis Hawling – The Impertinent Lovers^[7]
• Eliza Haywood – A Wife to be Lett^[7]
• Ludvig Holberg – Erasmus Montanus^[8]
• Hildebrand Jacob – The Fatal Constancy^[7]
• Charles Johnson – Love in a Forest (adapted from As You Like It)^[7]
• Pierre de Marivaux – La Double Inconstance^[9]
• Ambrose Philips – Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester^[7]
• Jane Robe – The Fatal Legacy^[7]
• Richard Savage – Sir Thomas Overbury^[7]

Poetry

Main article: 1723 in poetry

• Sir Richard Blackmore – Alfred: an epick poem^[10]
• Heyat Mahmud – Jangnama; Bengali^[11]
• 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 (died 1716) – 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 (died 1625) – 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
• John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (died 1721) – The Works of John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Marquis of Normanby, and Duke of Buckingham

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)^[12]
• 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

Memorial to Thomas d'Urfey at St James's Church, Piccadilly

• 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)