1714 in literature

The year 1714 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• Sir Samuel Garth, poet and royal physician, is knighted by King George I of Great Britain
• Death of Queen Anne of Great Britain, which threw many writers out of position and put them into opposition.
• Accession of George I of the United Kingdom, who brought with him a whig ministry, and notably the rise of Robert Walpole and indictment and trial of both Robert Harley and Henry St. John.

New books

• Anonymous - A Compleat Key to The Dispensary (in re Samuel Garth's 1699 poem)
  • - The Court of Atalantis (attrib. to Delarivière Manley, but possibly John Oldmixon or others)
  • - The Ladies Tale (stories)
  • - The Ladies Library (ed. Richard Steele)
• John Arbuthnot - A Continuation of the History of the Crown-Inn
  • - A Postscript to John Bull
• Daniel Defoe - A Secret History of the White-Staff (reporting allegations against Harley)
• William Diaper - An Imitation of the Seventeenth Epistle of the First Book of Horace
• Thomas Ellwood - The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood
• Laurence Eusden - A Letter to Mr Addison, on the King's Accession to the Throne
• Abel Evans - Prae-existence: A poem, in imitation of Milton
• John Gay - The Shepherd's Week
• Charles Gildon - A New Rehearsal (an attack on Pope, et al.)
• Anthony Hamilton - Memoirs of the Life of the Count de Grammont (transl. Abel Boyer)
• Samuel Jones - Poetical Miscellanies on Several Occasions
• William King et al. - The Persian and the Turkish Tales, Compleat
• Gottfried Leibniz - La Monadologie
• John Locke - The Works of John Locke (posth.)
• Bernard de Mandeville - The Fable of the Bees
• Delarivière Manley - The Adventures of Rivella; or, The History of the Author of the Atalantis
• Alexander Pope - The Rape of the Lock
• Nicholas Rowe - Poems on Several Occasions
• William Shakespeare - The Works of Mr William Shakespear (ed. Nicholas Rowe, 3rd edition)
• Alexander Smith or "Captain Alexander Smith" - The History of the Lives of the Most Noted Highway-men, Foot-pads, House-breakers, Shop-lifts, and Cheats...
• Richard Steele - The Crisis
  • - The Englishman (collection and end of the periodical)
  • - The Lover (periodical)
  • - Mr Steele's Apology for Himself and his Writings
  • - Poetical Miscellanies (with contributions from Pope, Thomas Parnell, John Gay, Thomas Warton, Edward Young, and others)
  • - The Public Spirit of the Tories (attrib.: response to Swift)
  • - The Reader (periodical)
• Jonathan Swift - The First Ode of the Second Book of Horace Paraphras'd
  • - The Public Spirit of the Whigs
• Ned Ward - The Field-Spy
• Edward Young - The Force of Religion

New drama

• Susanna Centlivre - The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret
• Robert Hunter - Androboros
• Charles Johnson - The Victim
• Nicholas Rowe - The Tragedy of Jane Shore

Births

• January 1 - Kristijonas Donelaitis, poet (died 1780)
• April 14 - Adam Gib, theologian (died 1788)
• November 13 - William Shenstone, English poet (died 1763)
• James Hervey, the anatomist
• George Whitefield, the preacher

Deaths

• June 22 - Matthew Henry, Biblical commentator (born 1662)
• date unknown - Charles Davenant, economist, son of Sir William Davenant (born 1656)
• date unknown - Antonio Magliabechi, librarian (born 1633)