1699 in literature

The year 1699 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• Jonathan Swift is out of work after the death of his employer, Sir William Temple.
• Joseph Addison receives a pension of £300 to enable him to travel abroad.

New books

• Richard Bentley - A Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris (prev. pub. in William Wotton's Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning)
• Thomas Brown - A Collection of Miscellany Poems, Letters, etc.
• Samuel Clarke - Some Reflections on that part of a book called Amyntor, or a Defence of Milton's Life, which relates to the Writings of the Primitive Fathers, and the Canon of the New Testament
  • - Three Practical Essays on Baptism, Confirmation and Repentance
• Jeremy Collier - A Defence of the Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage (see 1698 in literature)
• William Dampier - Voyages and Descriptions (vol. ii)
• John Dunton - The Dublin Scuffle
• Thomas D'Urfey - A Choice Collection of New Songs and Ballads
• George Farquhar - The Adventures of Covent-Garden
• François Fénelon - Telemaque ("The Adventures of Telemachus")
• Samuel Garth - The Dispensary (satire by one of Pope's mentors)
• John Hughes - The Court of Neptune
• George Keith - The Deism of William Penn, and his Brethren
• William King - The Furmetary
  • in support of Charles Boyle - Dialogues of the Dead
  • - A Journey to London
• Gerard Langbaine - The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (cont. by Charles Gildon)
• Anne Lefèvre - prose translation of Homer's Iliad
• Roger L'Estrange - Fables and Storyes Moralized
• John Locke - Mr Locke's Reply to the Right Revered the Lord Bishop of Worcester's Answer to his Second Letter (see 1697 in literature)
• Frances Norton - Reliquae Gethinianae
• John Oldmixon - Reflections on the Stage, and Mr Collier's Defence of the Short View
• John Pomfret - The Choice
• Nahum Tate - Elegies
• William Temple - Letters Written by Sir William Temple During his Being Ambassador at The Hague (edited initially by Jonathan Swift)
• John Toland - The Life of John Milton
  • - Amyntor; or, A Defence of Milton's Life
• Thomas Traherne - A Serious and Pathetical Contemplation of the Mercies of God
• William Wake - The Principles of the Christian Religion Explained
• Ned Ward - A Trip to New-England
• James Wright - Historia Histrionica

New drama

• Abel Boyer - Achilles, or Iphegenia in Aulis
• Colley Cibber - Xerxes
• John Dennis - Rinaldo and Armida
• George Farquhar - The Constant Couple
• Charles Gildon - Measure for Measure, or Beauty the Best Advocate (a re-adaptation of Davenant's 1662 adaptation The Law Against Lovers)
• Joseph Harris - Love's a Lottery, and a Woman the Prize
• Peter Anthony Motteux - The Island Princess; or, The Generous Portuguese (opera, adapted from John Fletcher)
• Mary Pix - The False Friend

Births

• December 29 - Friedrich Ludwig Abresch, philologist (died 1782)
• Robert Blair, Scottish poet (died 1746)
• John Dyer, Welsh poet (died 1758) (probable)
• Madame Geoffrin, literary hostess (died 1777)
• Alexander Ross, philanthropist
• Joseph Spence, literary historian

Deaths

• January 21 - Obadiah Walker, controversial religious writer (born 1616)
• April 21 - Jean Racine, French dramatist (born 1639)
• April 22 - Hans Erasmus Aßmann, Freiherr von Abschatz, German statesman and poet (born 1646)
• date unknown
  • Joseph Beaumont
  • John Evelyn
  • Lady Anne Halkett, memoirist (born 1623)
  • Edward Stillingfleet, theologian (born 1635)
  • William Temple
  • Erhard Weigel, philosopher (born 1625)