1727 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1727. Events November 22 – Richard Savage is arrested for the murder of James Sinclair in a drunken quarrel the previous night. He escapes the death penalty through the intercession of Frances, Countess of Hertford (wife of the man later known as Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset), and others. December 13 – Lewis Theobald's Double Falshood; or, The Distrest Lovers, claimed as an adaptation of the otherwise lost Cardenio by Shakespeare and Fletcher, is acted at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. It will be printed the following year. unknown date – Publisher Edmund Curll is convicted under English law for publishing an English translation of Venus in the Cloister (in 1724) under the common law offence of disturbing the peace, setting a legal precedent for prosecutions for obscenity. New books Prose Anonymous (attributed to Eliza Haywood) – Memoirs of the Court of Liliput Henry Baker – The Universe, a Poem intended to restrain the Pride of Man Elizabeth Boyd (as Louisa) – Variety Cadwallader Colden – The History of the Five Indian Nations Mary Davys – The Accomplished Rake Daniel Defoe Conjugal Lewdness An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions A New Family Instructor John Gay – Fables Madeleine-Angélique de Gomez – Anecdotes persanes, dédiées au roy (Persian Anecdotes, Dedicated to the King) Eliza Haywood Philidore and Placentia Cleomelia The Perplex'd Dutchess The Secret History of the Present Intrigues of the Court of Caramania (roman à clef) Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon – A Collection of Several Tracts Madame de Lambert – Réflexions nouvelles sur les femmes, ou Métaphysique d'amour (New Reflections on Women, or Metaphysics of Love) John Oldmixon – Clarendon and Whitlock Compar'd Arabella Plantin – The Ingrateful (Or, The Just Revenge) James Ralph – The Tempest Henry St. John – The Occasional Writer (periodical) Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Arbuthnot, et al. – Miscellanies in Prose and Verse Évrard Titon du Tillet – Le Parnasse François William Warburton (anonymously) – The Legal Judicature in Chancery Stated José Francisco de Isla Juventud triunfante El tapabocas Diego de Torres Villarroel – Visiones y visitas de Torres con Francisco de Quevedo por la corte