1694 in literature

The year 1694 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• Jonathan Swift is ordained a clergyman.
• The death of Queen Mary II of England prompts numerous elegies.

New books

• Edmund Arwaker - An Epistle to Monsieur Boileau
• Mary Astell - A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
• Thomas Pope Blount - De Re Poetica; or, Remarks upon Poetry
• Gilbert Burnet - Four Discourses
• Jeremy Collier - Miscellanies
• John Dryden and Jacob Tonson - The Annual Miscellany: for the Year 1694
• George Fox - The Journal of George Fox, edited by Thomas Ellwood
• Charles Gildon - Chorus Poetarum; or, Poems on Several Occasions (incl. Aphra Behn, John Denham, George Etheridge, Andrew Marvell, inter al.)
• William Killigrew - Mid-night and Daily Thoughts
• William King - Account of Denmark
• Jane Lead - The Enochian Walks with God
• Jan Luyken - Het Menselyk Bedryf ("The Book of Trades")
• John Milton - Letters of State (trans. Edward Phillips)
• John Strype - Memorials of Thomas Cranmer
• Matthew Tindal - An Essay Concerning the Laws of Nature and the Rights of Soveraigns
• William Wotton - Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (answering Sir William Temple)
• James Wright - Country Covnersations

New drama

• John Banks - The Innocent Usurper; or, The Death of the Lady Jane Grey
• Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery - Herod the Great published
• William Congreve - The Double-Dealer
• John Crowne - The Married Beau; or, The Curious Impertinent
• John Dryden - Love Triumphant; or, Nature Will Prevail
• Thomas D'Urfey - The Comical History of Don Quixote (some songs by Henry Purcell)
• Laurence Echard, translator:
  • Plautus's Comedies: Amphytrion, Epidicus, and Rudens
  • Terence's Comedies
• Elkanah Settle - The Ambitious Slave; or A Generous Revenge
• Thomas Southerne - The Fatal Marriage; or The Innocent Adultery (adapted from Aphra Behn's The Nun)
• Joseph Williams - Have at All, or the Midnight Adventures

Poetry

• See 1694 in poetry

Births

• August 8 - Francis Hutcheson, Irish philosopher (died 1746)
• October 9 - Marquard Herrgott, German Benedictine historian (died 1762)
• November 1 - Voltaire, French philosopher and writer (died 1778)
• December 22 - Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher (died 1768)
• unknown date
  • Mademoiselle Aïssé, letter-writer
  • Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (died 1773)

Deaths

• August 6 - Antoine Arnauld, theologian and philosopher (born 1612)
• October 13 - Samuel von Pufendorf, German philosopher and historian (born 1632)
• November 8 - Ulrik Huber, political philosopher (born 1636)
• November 28 - Matsuo Bashō, Japanese poet (born 1644)
• December 9 - Paolo Segneri, ascetic writer (born 1624)
• date unknown
  • Henry Neville, English satirist (born 1620)
  • Elizabeth van der Woude, Dutch traveller and author (born 1657)