# 1694 in literature

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)