The year 1674 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• Isaac de Benserade is elected to the French Academy, along with Pierre Daniel Huet.
• Thomas Ken and Izaak Walton visit Rome together.
• The new Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opens in March. Designed by Christopher Wren, it replaces the original theatre that burned down in 1672.
• The derivative nature of Restoration drama is richly displayed when the Duke's Company produces Thomas Shadwell's "operatic" re-adaptation of Dryden and Davenant's 1667 adaptation of The Tempest. In response, their rivals at the King's Company stage The Mock Tempest, or the Enchanted Castle by Thomas Duffet.

New books

• Samuel Chappuzeau - Le Th tre Fran ois
• John Evelyn - Navigation and Commerce
• John Josselyn - An Account of the Voyages to New England, London: Printed for Giles Widdows
• Thomas Ken - Manual of Prayers for the use of the Scholars of Winchester College
• Anthony Wood - Historia et antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis

New drama

• Anonymous (and John Dryden?) - The Mistaken Husband
• William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle - The Triumphant Widow
• Pierre Corneille - Sur na
• John Crowne - Andromache
• Sir William Davenant - Macbeth, a "dramatic opera" adapted from Shakespeare's play, is published
• Thomas Duffet (attributed to) - The Amorous Old Woman
  • The Empress of Morocco: a Farce
  • The Mock Tempest
• Nathaniel Lee - The Tragedy of Nero, Emperour of Rome
• Jean Racine - Iphig nie

Poetry

• Thomas Flatman - Poems and Songs

Births

• January 15 - Prosper Jolyot de Cr billon, poet and dramatist (died 1762)
• June 20 - Nicholas Rowe (dramatist) (died 1718)
• October - Thomas Ruddiman, classical scholar (died 1757)
• ?December - Christmas Samuel, Independent minister and writer (died 1764)

Deaths

• June 14 - Marin le Roy de Gomberville, poet and novelist (born 1600)
• August 13 - Lucidor, burlesque poet (born 1638) (killed in a duel)
• September 27 - Thomas Traherne, poet and religious writer (born c. 1636)
• October - Robert Herrick, poet (born 1591)
• November 8 - John Milton, poet, prose writer, polemicist and civil servant (born 1608)
• December 9 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (born 1609)
• date unknown - Miguel S nchez, Novohispano priest, writer and theologian (born 1594)

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