1737 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1737.

Events

March 2 – Samuel Johnson and his former pupil David Garrick leave Lichfield to seek their fortunes in London.
June 21 – The Theatrical Licensing Act is passed, introducing censorship to the London stage. Plays now require approval before production. Edward Capell is appointed deputy-inspector of plays. "Legitimate drama" is limited to the theaters at Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and the Haymarket. The anonymous satire The Golden Rump is used as ammunition by the Act's proponents.
September 1 – The News Letter is first published in Belfast by Francis Joy, making it the world's oldest existing English newspaper.
October – The first professional stage production in the Swedish language by native-born actors is given in Sweden, of the comedy Den Svenska Sprätthöken at the Bollhuset in Stockholm.
November 20 – Caroline of Ansbach, Queen Consort of Great Britain and a significant patron of the arts, dies.
unknown date – The poet Richard Jago becomes curate of Snitterfield.

Guillaume-Hyacinthe Bougeant – Amusement philosophique sur le language des bêtes
Alexander Cruden – A Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament
Philip Doddridge – Submission to Divine Providence in the Death of Children
Stephen Duck – The Vision
Jonathan Edwards – A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Works of God
Étienne Fourmont – Meditationes Sinicae
William Law – A Demonstration of the Gross and Fundamental Errors of a Late Book
Marguerite de Lubert – Tecserion
William Oldys – The British Librarian
Elizabeth Singer Rowe – Devout Exercises of the Heart
Sarah Stone – A Complete Practice of Midwifery
Jan Swammerdam – Biblia Naturae
Jonathan Swift – A Proposal for Giving Badges to the Beggars in all the Parishes of Dublin
Diego de Torres Villarroel – ''Médico para el bolsillo''

Richard Glover – Leonidas
Matthew Green – The Spleen
Ignacio de Luzán – Poética
Alexander Pope
*Horace His Ode to Venus
*The Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, Imitated
*The First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, Imitated
*The Works of Alexander Pope vols. v-vi
William Shenstone – Poems
Prince Thammathibet – The Legend of Phra Malai
Voltaire – Défense du Mondain ou l'apologie du luxe, a poetic response to criticism of his Le Mondain
John Wesley – ''A Collection of Psalms and Hymns''