'' by
Abraham Pether, 1809 •
February 24 – The
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, is destroyed by fire. When found drinking wine in the street while watching the conflagration,
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the proprietor, is reported as saying: "A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside." The putative manuscript of
The History of Cardenio may have been lost in the blaze. •
March 1 – The literary and political periodical
The Quarterly Review is first published by
John Murray in London. •
June 1 –
Samuel Taylor Coleridge founds
The Friend, a weekly periodical which runs for some 25 issues. •
July 7 –
Jane Austen settles with her sister and mother at
Chawton Cottage in
Chawton, near
Alton, Hampshire and she resumes writing regularly. •
September 18 – A new
Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London, opens to replace the first, which burnt down in 1808. The first play performed is
Macbeth. Raised ticket prices cause the
Old Price Riots, which last for 64 days, until the manager,
John Philip Kemble, reverses the increases. •
Uncertain dates • The
Walnut Street Theatre,
Philadelphia, United States, is opened as "The New Circus" by the
Circus of Pepin and Breschard. It becomes the oldest continually operating playhouse in the English-speaking world and the oldest in the United States. •
William Combe begins publication of the verse
Tour of Dr Syntax in search of the Picturesque in Ackermann's
Political Magazine (London), illustrated by
Thomas Rowlandson, satirising
William Gilpin's views on the
picturesque. ==New books==