1694 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1694.

Events

• October 25 – Jonathan Swift is ordained a deacon in the Church of Ireland.
• December 28 – The death of Queen Mary II of England prompts numerous elegies.
• The Académie française publishes the first complete edition of its Dictionnaire in Paris.
• Matsuo Bashō completes the writing of Oku no Hosomichi ("Narrow road to the interior").

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 Conversations

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 published
• 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)
• September 22 – Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, English man of letters (died 1773)
• 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)
• Probable year of birth – Mademoiselle Aïssé, French letter-writer (died 1733)

Deaths

• August 6 – Antoine Arnauld, French theologian and philosopher (born 1612)
• September – Henry Neville, English satirist (born 1620)
• October 13 – Samuel von Pufendorf, German philosopher and historian (born 1632)
• November 8 – Ulrik Huber, Dutch-born German political philosopher (born 1636)
• November 28 – Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉), Japanese poet (born 1644)
• December 9 – Paolo Segneri, Italian ascetic writer (born 1624)