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

Events

  • August 24 – The Académie française publishes the first complete edition of its Dictionnaire in Paris.
  • October 25 – Jonathan Swift is ordained a deacon in the Church of Ireland.
  • December 28 – The death of Queen Mary II of England prompts the writing of numerous elegies.
  • date unknown – Shortly before his death, Matsuo Bashō completes the writing of Oku no Hosomichi ("Narrow road to the interior"), not published until 1702.

New books

Prose

  • 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

Drama

  • John Banks – The Innocent Usurper; or, The Death of the Lady Jane Grey published
  • Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery – Herod the Great published
  • William Congreve – The Double Dealer published
  • John Crowne – The Married Beau
  • 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
  • Edward Ravenscroft – The Canterbury Guests
  • Elkanah Settle – The Ambitious Slave
  • Thomas Southerne – The Fatal Marriage (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
  • Mademoiselle Aïssé, French letter-writer (died 1733)
  • James Bramston, English satirical poet (died 1743)

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)

References