1698 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1698.

Events

• March – In his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, clergyman Jeremy Collier attacks leading contemporary dramatists (William Congreve and Sir John Vanbrugh most prominently, but also John Dryden, Thomas d'Urfey, and William Wycherley) for moral shortcomings in their works. Collier's book launches a controversy that dominates the literary world of Britain for the year; future editions of the book continue the controversy until Collier's death in 1726.
• The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is formed by the Reverend Thomas Bray.
• The latest edition of the Bay Psalm Book is the first to include music.

New books

Prose

• Anonymous – The Maxims of the Saints Explained, Concerning the Interiour Life (translation of François Fénelon)
• Francis Atterbury – A Discourse Occasion'd by the Death of the Right Honourable the Lady Cutts
• Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet – Relation sur le quiétisme
• Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery – Dr. Bentley's Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris, and the Fables of Aesop
• Cornelis de Bruijn – Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn door de vermaardste Deelen van Klein Asia (A Voyage to the Levant: or Travels in the Principal Parts of Asia Minor)
• John Bunyan – The Heavenly Foot-Man; or, A Description of the Man that Gets to Heaven
• Jeremy Collier – A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (continued in 1699, 1700, 1703, and 1708)
• William Congreve – Amendments of Mr Collier's False and Imperfect Citations
• Daniel Defoe
• An Enquiry into the Occasional Conformity of Dissenters, in Cases of Preferment
• The Poor Man's Plea
• John Dennis – The Usefulness of the Stage, to the Happiness of Mankind, to Government and to Religion
• John Dunton – '
• Andrew Fletcher – A Discourse of Government with Relation to Militia's
• George Fox – A Collection of Many Select and Christian Epistles, Letters and Testimonials
• Charles Gildon – The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets
• Robert Gould – A Satyr Against Wooing
• Charles Leslie – A Short and Easie Method with the Deists
• Edmund Ludlow – Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow Esq.
• Maximilien Misson – Mémoires et observations faites par un voyageur en Angleterre
• Walter Pope – Moral and Political Fables, Ancient and Modern
• George Ridpath – The Stage Condemn'd
• Elkanah Settle – A Defence of Dramatick Poetry
• Algernon Sidney – Discourses Concerning Government (vs. Robert Filmer)
• Tooke's Pantheon of the Heathen Gods and Illustrious Heroes
• John Vanbrugh – A Short Vindication of The Relapse and The Provok'd Wife, from Immorality and Prophaneness by the Author
• Ned Ward
• The London Spy (published as periodical through 1700)
• A Trip to Jamaica
• Benjamin Whichcote – Select Sermons of Dr. Whichcot (ed. Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl Shaftesbury)