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.

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)