This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1752.
Charlotte Lennox, néeRamsay, was a Scottish novelist, playwright and poet, mostly remembered today as the author of The Female Quixote, and for her association with Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds and Samuel Richardson. However, she had a long career in her own right.
William Reeve was an English theatre composer and organist.
The Covent-Garden Tragedy is a play by Henry Fielding that first appeared on 1 June 1732 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane alongside The Old Debauchees. It is about a love triangle in a brothel involving two prostitutes. While they are portrayed satirically, they are imbued with sympathy as their relationship develops.
The Mock Doctor: or The Dumb Lady Cur'd is a play by Henry Fielding and first ran on 23 June 1732 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It served as a replacement for The Covent-Garden Tragedy and became the companion play to The Old Debauchees. It tells the exploits of a man who pretends to be a doctor at his wife's requests.
The Covent-Garden Journal was an English literary periodical published twice a week for most of 1752. It was edited and almost entirely funded by novelist, playwright, and essayist Henry Fielding, under the pseudonym, "Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knt. Censor of Great Britain". It was Fielding's fourth and final periodical, and one of his last written works.
The Female Quixote; or, The Adventures of Arabella is a novel written by Charlotte Lennox imitating and parodying the ideas of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. Published in 1752, two years after she wrote her first novel, The Life of Harriot Stuart, it was her best-known and most-celebrated work. It was approved by both Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson, applauded by Samuel Johnson, and used as a model by Jane Austen for Northanger Abbey. It has been called a burlesque, "satirical harlequinade", and a depiction of the real power of females. While some dismissed Arabella as a coquette who simply used romance as a tool, Scott Paul Gordon said that she "exercises immense power without any consciousness of doing so". Norma Clarke has ranked it with Clarissa, Tom Jones and Roderick Random as one of the "defining texts in the development of the novel in the eighteenth century".
Henrietta is an 18th-century novel by Scottish author Charlotte Lennox. The first edition was published in 1758, and the second edition, revised by Lennox was published in 1761.
Sarah Ward (1726-1771), was a Scottish stage actor and theatre manager. She was the first woman to have been active as a theatre manager in Edinburgh.
Fatal Curiosity is a 1737 tragedy by the British writer George Lillo. It is also known by the alternative title Guilt Its Own Punishment.
Marina is a 1738 tragedy by the British writer George Lillo. It is a reworking of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, produced at a time when Covent Garden was experimenting with a summer season.
Scanderbeg, A Tragedy is a 1733 tragedy by the British writer William Havard. It is based on the life of Skanderbeg who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century. Another play about him George Lillo's The Christian Hero was produced two years later.
Edward and Eleonora is a 1739 tragedy by the British writer James Thomson. Originally due to be performed at Covent Garden in 1739, the play was banned by the censor, the Lord Chamberlain Charles FitzRoy, Duke of Grafton, under the recent Licensing Act. This happened late into rehearsals in March 1739. The original cast was intended to feature Dennis Delane as Edward, Christiana Horton as Eleanor, James Rosco as Gloucester and Lacy Ryan as the Sultan.
The Double Mistake is a 1766 comedy play by the British writer Elizabeth Griffith. It was her most successful play along with The School for Rakes.
The Perplexities is a 1767 comedy play by the British actor and writer Thomas Hull. It was a reworking of an earlier Restoration-era play Adventures of Five Hours by Samuel Tuke, itself based on an original Spanish work.
The Roman Father is a 1750 tragedy by the British writer William Whitehead. It is set during the reign of Tullus Hostilius, the legendary third King of Rome and his war with the neighbouring city of Alba Longa.
The Triumphs of Love and Honour is a 1731 tragedy by the British writer Thomas Cooke.
Love the Cause and Cure of Grief is a 1743 tragedy by the British writer Thomas Cooke. It is a revised version of Cooke's earlier published but unperformed play The Mournful Nuptials.
The Deserted Daughter is a 1795 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft.
