1723 in literature

• March – Voltaire makes an agreement with Abraham Viret to allow his work to be printed in Rouen.{{cite book|author=Ian Davidson|title=Voltaire: A Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_p9Z8z9-wYC&pg=PT64|date=9 December 2010|publisher=Profile Books|isbn=978-1-84765-224-9|pages=64}}
• July – A new edition of Bernard Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees is presented as a public nuisance by the Grand Jury of Middlesex, England, to the Court of King's Bench. Mandeville escapes prosecution.{{cite book|author1=Bernard Mandeville|author2=E. J. Hundert|title=The Fable of the Bees and Other Writings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yVvBn5_yvdgC&pg=PR10|year=1997|publisher=Hackett Publishing|isbn=0-87220-374-3|pages=10}}
• November – After attending a party at the home of the marquis des Maisons, Voltaire contracts smallpox.{{Cite book |last1=Glynn |first1=Ian |last2=Glynn |first2=Jenifer |title=The Life and Death of Smallpox |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521845427 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifedeathofsmall00glyn/page/69 69] |url=https://archive.org/details/lifedeathofsmall00glyn |url-access=registration |language=en}}
• unknown date – The book collection of Samuel Pepys (died 1703), including his Diary, is transferred to the Pepys Library at his alma mater, Magdalene College, Cambridge, in accordance with his will.{{Cite web |title=History of the Pepys Building |url=https://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/pepys/building |website=Magdalene College |accessdate=20 March 2018 |language=en}}

• Penelope Aubin – The Life of Charlotta Du Pont, an English lady; taken from her own memoirs{{Cite web |title=The life of Charlotta Du Pont |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2795097 |website=National Library of Australia |publisher=printed for A. Bettesworth |accessdate=20 March 2018 |date=1723}}
• Jane Barker – A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies
• Thomas-Simon Gueullette – Les Aventures merveilleuses du mandarin Fum-Hoam, contes chinois (The Transmigrations of the Mandarin Fum-Hoam (Chinese Tales))
• Eliza Haywood – Idalia: Or, the Unfortunate Mistress. A Novel. Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7028796-idalia-or-the-unfortunate-mistress Retrieved 19 February 2019.]
• Anton Josef Kirchweger – Aurea Catena Homeri
• Margrethe Lasson – Den beklædte Sandhed (first novel in Danish)

• Elijah Fenton – Mariamne
• Francis Hawling – The Impertinent Lovers
• Eliza Haywood – A Wife to be Lett
• Ludvig Holberg – Erasmus Montanus[https://www.bartleby.com/library/prose/2620.html Extract. Retrieved 19 February 2019.]
• Hildebrand Jacob – The Fatal Constancy
• Charles Johnson – Love in a Forest (adapted from As You Like It)
• Pierre de Marivaux – La Double Inconstance{{cite book|author1=Marie-Hélène Maudoux|via=lePetitLittéraire.fr|title=La Double Inconstance de Marivaux (Fiche de lecture): Résumé complet et analyse détaillée de l'oeuvre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RtTwrsH4IBUC&pg=PA4|date=1 January 2011|publisher=Primento|isbn=978-2-8062-1785-1|pages=4|language=fr}}
• Ambrose Philips – Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester{{cite book|author=William J. Burling|title=A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMQJxeNpHR0C&pg=PA100|year=1992|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press|isbn=978-0-8386-3451-6|pages=100–103}}
• Jane Robe – The Fatal Legacy
• Richard Savage – Sir Thomas Overbury

{{main article|1723 in poetry}}

• Sir Richard Blackmore – Alfred: an epick poem{{cite book|author=James Perry|title=A Catalog of the Curious and Extensive Library of the Late James Perry, Esq....|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SNwRAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA17|year=1822|publisher=W. Nicol|pages=17–}}
• Heyat Mahmud – Jangnama; Bengali{{cite Banglapedia|article=Heyat Mamud|author=Wakil Ahmed}}
• David Mallet – William and Margaret
• William Meston – Knight of the Kirk
• Ambrose Philips – Ode on the Death of William, Earl of Cowper
• Matthew Prior
• Down-Hall
• The Turtle and the Sparrow
• Allan Ramsay – The Tea-Table Miscellany, Vol. 1
• Voltaire – La Henriade
• Ned Ward – Nuptial Dialogues and Debates, 3rd ed.

• James Anderson – The Constitutions of the Free-Masons
• Henry Baker – An Invocation of Health: a poem
• Offspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter (died 1716) – Collected Works
• Pietro Giannone – Storia civile del regno di Napoli (History of the Kingdom of Naples)
• Bernard de Mandeville – A Search into the Nature of Society
• Thomas Dempster (died 1625) – De Etruria regali libri VII (printed in sans-serif)
• Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard – Cato's Letters (essays)
• John Nott – The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary or, the Accomplish'd Housewives Companion
• John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham (died 1721) – The Works of John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Marquis of Normanby, and Duke of Buckingham

• January 21 (or June 21) – Baron d'Holbach, German-born French philosopher and encyclopedist (died 1789)
• February 23 – Richard Price, Welsh-born philosopher (died 1791)
• February 24 – John Burgoyne, English soldier and dramatist (died 1792)
• June 5 (baptized) – Adam Smith, Scottish economist (died 1790){{Cite web |title=Adam Smith (1723–1790) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/smith_adam.shtml |website=BBC |accessdate=20 March 2018}}
• June 20 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (died 1816)
• July 11 – Jean-François Marmontel, French novelist and dramatist (died 1799)
• September 30 – William Hutton, English local historian and poet (died 1815)
• November 8 – John Byron, English vice-admiral and memoirist (died 1786)
• November 30 – William Livingston, American political writer and politician (died 1790)
• December 26 – Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, German-born French philosopher and encyclopedist (died 1807)

Image:Durfey.jpg at St James's Church, Piccadilly]]

• February 26 – Thomas d'Urfey, English dramatist (born 1653)
• March 13 – René Auguste Constantin de Renneville, French Protestant poet and historian (born 1650)
• March 15 – Johann Christian Günther, German poet (born 1695)
• May 11 – Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (born 1656)
• June 8 – Isaac Chayyim Cantarini, Italian poet, physician and preacher (born 1644)
• July 28 – Mariana Alcoforado, Portuguese nun (born 1640)
• August 21 – Dimitrie Cantemir, Romanian author (born 1673)
• September 23 – Jacques Basnage, French Protestant poet, linguist and preacher (born 1653)
• December 1 – Susanna Centlivre (Susanna Carroll), English dramatist (born c. 1667–70)
• December 17 – John Trenchard, English politician and writer (born 1662)

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