1746 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1746. Events May 9 – Voltaire, on being admitted into the Académie française, gives a discours de réception in which he criticizes Boileau's poetry. June 18 – Samuel Johnson signs a contract to compile A Dictionary of the English Language for a group of London booksellers led by Robert Dodsley at a literary breakfast. August 28 – A Native American massacre on this day of two white families in Deerfield, Massachusetts, gives rise to the first known poem by an African American, Lucy Terry, at the time a slave of around 16: "Bars Fight, August 28, 1746". October 4 – Irish actor Spranger Barry makes his London stage debut in the title role of Othello at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (with Charles Macklin as Iago). unknown dates The probable first performance of Carlo Goldoni's comedy Servant of Two Masters takes place at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice. The oldest manuscript of Jean de Joinville's Life of Saint Louis is rediscovered in Brussels. Élie Catherine Fréron founds his controversial journal Lettres de la comtesse de... New books Prose John Arbuthnot (died 1735) – Miscellanies John Collier as "Tim Bobbin" – A View of the Lancashire Dialect by way of dialogue between Tummus... and Meary... Zachary Grey – A Word or Two of Advice to William Warburton James Hervey – Meditations Among the Tombs Soame Jenyns – The Modern Fine Gentleman Jacques Rochette de La Morlière – Angola Pierre Louis Maupertuis – Astronomie nautique, volume 2 Tobias Smollett – Advice Lauritz de Thurah – Den Danske Vitruvius, volume I John Upton – Critical Observations on Shakespeare Horace Walpole – The Beauties John Wesley The Principles of a Methodist Father Explain'd Sermons on Several Occasions