1694 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1694.

Events

August 24 â The AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise publishes the first complete edition of its Dictionnaire in Paris.^[1]
October 25 â Jonathan Swift is ordained a deacon in the Church of Ireland.^[2]
December 28 â The death of Queen Mary II of England prompts the writing of numerous elegies.^[3]
date unknown â Shortly before his death, Matsuo BashÅ completes the writing of Oku no Hosomichi ("Narrow road to the interior"), not published until 1702.

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

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

August 8 â Francis Hutcheson, Irish philosopher (died 1746)
September 22 â Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, English man of letters (died 1773)
October 9 â Marquard Herrgott, German Benedictine historian (died 1762)
November 1 â Voltaire, French philosopher and writer (died 1778)^[4]
December 22 â Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher (died 1768)