This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1796.
Events
Samuel Ireland publishes a collection of Shakespearean forgeries in his Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments Under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare (dated this year but actually produced on 24 December 1795). Edmond Malone exposes them in his An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments on 31 March, and the forged 'Shakespearean' play, Vortigern and Rowena, is able to sustain just a single performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on 2 April. Ireland's son, William Henry, confesses to the fraud in An Authentic Account of the Shakespearean Manuscripts.
January – Charles Lamb ends a six-week spell in a mental asylum at Hoxton (London).
July 21 – The Scottish national poet, Robert Burns, dies in Dumfries at the age of 37. His funeral (with honours as a military volunteer) takes place on July 25, while his wife, Jean, is in labour with their ninth child together, Maxwell. Burns is at first buried in the far corner of St Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries. The volume of The Scots Musical Museum published this year includes his versions of "Auld Lang Syne" and "Charlie Is My Darling".[1]
July 30 – A performance of a historical drama, Jane Shore, is given in Sydney, Australia; the playbill, printed by George Hughes, is the earliest known surviving item printed in that country.[2]
^"For the benefit of J. Butler and W. Bryant". Digital Collection – Books and Serials. Canberra: National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2014-08-07.
^Hitchcock, Susan Tyler (2005). Mad Mary Lamb. New York; London: W. W. Norton & Co. pp. 15–17. ISBN0-393-05741-0. mad mary lamb
^Simon Richter; James Hardin (2005). The Literature of Weimar Classicism. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 242–. ISBN978-1-57113-249-9.
^Fanny Burney (15 July 1999). Camilla: Picture of Youth. OUP Oxford. p. 7. ISBN978-0-19-160608-3.
^Timothy Unwin; Unwin Timothy (28 October 1997). The Cambridge Companion to the French Novel: From 1800 to the Present. Cambridge University Press. pp. 76–. ISBN978-0-521-49914-9.
^Richard Cumberland (1982). The Plays of Richard Cumberland. Garland Pub. p. 294. ISBN978-0-8240-3587-7.
^David G. John (8 July 1998). Images of Goethe through Schiller's Egmont. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 176. ISBN978-0-7735-6697-2.
^ a bGeorge Watson; Ian R. Willison; J. D. Pickles (2 July 1971). The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: Volume 2, 1660-1800. Cambridge University Press. p. 839. ISBN978-0-521-07934-1.
^Michael R. Booth (1980). Prefaces to English Nineteenth-century Theatre. Manchester University Press. p. 67. ISBN978-0-7190-0823-8.
^Mary Robinson (1796). The Sicilian Lover: A Tragedy. In Five Acts. author.
^Frederick Chamier (23 May 2011). Life of a Sailor. Pen and Sword. p. 7. ISBN978-1-78346-873-7.
^Lewis Namier; John Brooke (1985). The House of Commons, 1754-1790. Boydell & Brewer. p. 96. ISBN978-0-436-30420-0.
^Charles Sumner (1900). His Complete Works: With Introduction by Hon. George Frisbie Hoar. Lee & Shepard. p. 326.
^Ernest Ludwig Stahl; William Edward Yuill; Hannah Priebsch Closs; M. Q. Smith (1970). German Literature of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Barnes & Noble. p. 380.
^Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, Incorporated, William Benton Publisher. 1973. p. 69. ISBN978-0-85229-173-3.
^"Pistols belonging to Robert Burns". National Museums Scotland. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
^John Stark (1805). Biographia Scotica: Or Scottish Biographical Dictionary. A. Constable & Company. p. 300.