John Hughes

John Hughes was educated with Isaac Watts and Samuel Say at Thomas Rowe's nonconformist academy; afterwards he worked as a clerk in the ordinance office. In addition to his work as poet, essayist, translator, and dramatist, Hughes was highly regarded as a musician. Apart from his contributions to The Spectator and his edition of Spenser, Hughes's literary reputation was based on his tragic drama, the Siege of Damascus (1720); the playwright lived just long enough to hear of its success.

TEXT RECORDS:

1697Horace. Book 1. Ode xxii. imitated in Paraphrase.
1698Of Style.
1698The Triumph of Peace.
1700The Court of Neptune. A Poem.
1702Horace. Book 2. Ode xvi. imitated in Paraphrase.
1711 ca.Supplement to Milton's Il Penseroso.
1714Lay Monk No. 31 [Parallel between Painting and Poetry.]
1714Lay Monk No. 32 [Parallel between Painting and Poetry. Continued.]
1714Lay Monk No. 39 [Parallel between Painting and Poetry. Conclusion.]
1714The Picture.
1715An Essay on Allegorical Poetry. With Remarks on the Writings of Mr. Edmund Spenser.
1715Mr. Hughes to Sir Godfrey Kneller [On Spenser and Rubens].
1715Remarks on the Fairy Queen.
1715Remarks on the Shepherd's Calendar, &c.
1715The Life of Mr. Edmund Spenser.
1719The Morning Apparition. Written at Wallington-house in Surry.

PUBLICATIONS:

The triumph of peace. 1698.
The court of Neptune. 1699.
The house of Nassau: a Pindarick ode. 1702.
An ode in praise of music. 1703.
A complete history of England [by White Kennett, contributor]. 1706.
Advices from Parnassus, all translated from the Italian by several hands, revis'd and corrected by Mr. Hughes [Boccalini, trans.] 1706.
Fontenelle's Dialogues of the dead, translated from the French; and two original dialogues. 1708.
Calypso and Telemachus: an opera. 1712.
The history of the revolution in Portugal by the Abbot de Vertot [trans.] 1712.
An ode to the creator of the world, occasion'd by the fragments of Orpheus. 1712.
Letters of Abelard and Heloise. To which is prefix'd, a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes [trans. Hughes]. 1713.
The lay-monastery: consisting of essays, discourses, etc publish'd singly under the title of the Lay-monk [with Richard Blackmore]. 1714.
An allusion to Horace, Book I. Ode XXII. 1715.
The works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, with a glossary explaining the old and obscure words. 6 vols, 1715.
Apollo and Daphne: a masque set to musick. 1716.
An ode for the birthday of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. 1716.
Orestes: a tragedy. 1717.
A layman's thoughts on the late treatment of the Bishop of Bangor. 1717.
Hamlet, prince of Denmark: a tragedy, as it is now acted by His Majesty's servants, ed. Hughes. 1718.
Charon, or the ferry-boat: a vision. 1719.
Conversations with a lady on the plurality of worlds: to which is added A discourse concerning the antients and moderns [Fontenelle, discourse trans. Hughes]. 1719.
An ode for the second of March next (St. David's day being on a Sunday) to be then performed at the anniversary meeting of the societies of ancient Britons. 1719?
The ecstacy: an ode. 1720.
A new miscellany of original poems [contributor]. 1720.
The siege of Damascus: a tragedy. 1720.
Poems on several occasions, with some select essays in prose. 2 vols, 1735.
The complicated guilt of the late [1715] Rebellion, ed. William Duncombe. 1745.
Letters by several eminent persons deceased, ed. John Duncombe. 3 vols, 1772, 1773.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Dissenter
Anglican

Stoke Newington Academy
Dissenting academy

editor
painter
musician
clerk
poet
dramatist
essayist
translator

Tatler
New Monthly Amusement
Spectator
Guardian
Lay Monastery

Joseph Addison
Sir Richard Blackmore
William Duncombe
Earl of Halifax
Handel
William Hinchliffe
Jabez Hughes
Judith Cowper Madan
John Oldmixon
Alexander Pope
Elizabeth Rowe
Nicholas Rowe
Rev. Samuel Say
John Somers
Thomas Southerne
Sir Richard Steele
Rev. Isaac Watts

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

Giles Jacob, Poetical Register (1719); Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720) 80-85, 327; "On the Death of John Hughes" in Miscellaneous Poems by Several Hands (1729); Life by William Duncombe in Poems (1735); John Wesley, Moral and Sacred Poems (1744); Biographia Britannica (1747-66); Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753); David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); Correspondence in Duncombe, ed. Letters of Several Eminent Persons (1772, 1773); Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1776-82); John Duncombe, "Hughes's Plan for a Tragedy on the same Subject with Elfrida" Gentleman's Magazine 47 (August 1777) 366-67; Samuel Johnson, Life in Works of the English Poets (1779-81); Gentleman's Magazine 49 (1779) 457; John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Hughes, Letter to Lady Donnegal in European Magazine 22 (November 1792) 328; R. Bisset, Biographical Sketch of the Authors of the Spectator (1793); Robert Anderson, British Poets (1795); J. E. Harwood, "John Hughes" Literary Magazine and American Register [Philadelphia] 6 (October 1806) 360-63; Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); Samuel Jackson Pratt, Cabinet of Poetry (1808); Alexander Chalmers, English Poets (1810); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Ezekiel Sanford, British Poets (1819); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Emmy Weidenmann, John Hughes, his Life and Work (1915); Jewel Wurtsbaugh, "John Hughes" TLS (22 February 1934) 126; Fairchild, in Religious Trends in English Poetry (1939); Dobree, OHEL (1959); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for John Hughes:

1.	1699  Samuel Say to John Hughes, 11 January 1699; in Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:22-23.
2.	1713  Richard Blackmore to John Hughes, 11 November 1713; Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:122-23.
3.	1715  Godfrey Kneller to John Hughes, 24 August 1715; Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:131-32.
4.	1715  Alexander Pope to John Hughes, 7 October 1715; Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:132-34.
5.	1716  Nicholas Rowe to John Hughes, 22 October 1716; Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:150-51.
6.	1719  Anonymous, in "The Election of a Poet Laureate in 1719" Freeholder's Journal (13 February 1723) 375.
7.	1720  Richard Steele, in The Theatre 15 (20 February 1720); Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:xxiv-xxvi.
8.	1720  William Duncombe, "To the Memory of Mr. Hughes" 1720; Hughes, Poetical Works (1735) 1:lxix.
9.	1720  Jabez Hughes, "To the Memory of Mr. Hughes" 1720; Hughes, Poetical Works (1735) 1:lxix-lxx.
10.	1720  J. Bunce, in "To the Memory of Mr. Hughes" 1720; Hughes, Poetical Works (1735) 1:lxxii.
11.	1720  Judith Cowper Madan, "To the Memory of Mr. Hughes" 1720; Hughes, Poetical Works (1735) 1:lxv-lxviii.
12.	1720 ca.  Anonymous, "To the Memory of John Hughes, Author of the Siege of Damascus" 1720 ca.; City Gazette And Daily Advertiser [Charleston] (25 April 1796).
13.	1721  Judith Cowper Madan, in "Progress of Poetry" (1721); London Magazine 58 (1759) 157.
14.	1734  Isaac Watts to William Duncombe, 1 November 1734; Duncombe, Letters of Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 2:49-51.
15.	1735 ca.  Jonathan Swift to Alexander Pope, 1735 ca.; Works of Pope, ed. Warton (1797) 9:268-69.
16.	1735  Thomas Herring to William Duncombe, 12 May 1735; Letters from ... Dr. Thomas Herring, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury (1777) 24-26.
17.	1744  Alexander Pope, February 1744; in Spence, Anecdotes, ed. Osburne (1966) 1:211.
18.	1744 ca.  Joseph Spence, 1744 ca.; in Anecdotes, ed. Osburne (1966) 1:211-12.
19.	1751  John Upton, in A Letter concerning a New Edition of Spenser's Faerie Queene (1751) 1-2.
20.	1757  John Campbell, in Biographia Britannica (1757) 4:2706n.
21.	1764  David Erskine Baker, in Companion to the Play-House (1764) 2:Sig. S4-S4v.
22.	1776  Charles Burney, in A General History of Music (1776-89; 1935) 2:681.
23.	1780  John Nichols, in Select Collection of Poems (1780-84) 4:301-02n.
24.	1795  Robert Anderson, in Works of the British Poets (1795) 7:268.
25.	1797  Joseph Warton, in Works of Alexander Pope, ed. Warton (1797) 9:269n.
26.	1806  J. E. Harwood, "John Hughes" Literary Magazine and American Register [Philadelphia] 6 (November 1806) 361-62.
27.	1807  Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 213.
28.	1818  R. R., "Written at a small Village in Hertfordshire, formerly the residence of Hughes the Poet" Gentleman's Magazine 88 (August 1818) 157.
29.	1819  Leigh Hunt, in The Indicator (1819-21; 1845) 2:88.
30.	1821  Lord Byron, in On the Rev. W. L. Bowles's Strictures (1821); Letters and Journals, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1898-1901) 4:553.
31.	1834  John Wilson, in "Spenser" Blackwood's Magazine 36 (1834) 424.
32.	1862  Thomas Arnold, in A Manual of English Literature (1862; 1885) 356.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Hughes:

1.	1719  Giles Jacob, in Poetical Register: or the Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1719) 145.
2.	1720  Giles Jacob, in Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of our most considerable English Poets (1720) 80-85, 327.
3.	1735  William Duncombe, "An Account of the Life and Writings of John Hughes, Esq." Hughes, Poetical Works (1735) 1:i-xxxvii.
4.	1753  Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 4:27-42.
5.	1757  Anonymous, "John Hughes" Biographia Britannica (1757) 4:2697-708.
6.	1772  John Duncombe, in Letters by Several Distinguished Persons Deceased (1772; 1773) 1:v-xxi.
7.	1779  Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets (1779-81); ed. Hill (1905) 2:159-65.
8.	1808  Samuel Jackson Pratt, in Cabinet of Poetry (1808) 2:352-53.
9.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 18:294-97.
10.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:615.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1696  Rev. Isaac Watts:   John Hughes to Isaac Watts, 30 May 1696; Duncombe, Letters of Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:10-12.
2.	1697  Rev. Samuel Say:   John Hughes to Samuel Say, 6 November, 1697; Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:20-21.
3.	1698  Sir William Temple:   John Hughes, in "Of Style" 1698; Poems (1735) 1:252-53.
4.	1700 ca.  Edmund Waller:   John Hughes, "A Fragment" 1700 ca.; Poems (1735) 1:157.
5.	1714  Joseph Addison:   John Hughes, "To Mr. Addison, on his Tragedy of Cato" Poems and Translations by Several Hands (1714) 47-49.
6.	1714  Joseph Addison:   John Hughes, "To a Lady, with the Tragedy of Cato" Poems and Translations by Several Hands (1714) 91-92.
7.	1714  John Milton:   John Hughes, "To the Memory of Mr. Milton" Poems and Translations by Several Hands (1714) 266.
8.	1714  Alexander Pope:   John Hughes, "Advice to Mr. Pope, on his intended Translation of Homer's Illiad" Poems and Translations by Several Hands (1714) 245.
9.	1718  Leonard Welsted:   John Hughes to Earl Cowper, 15, 12 August 1718 [sic]; Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:194, 199-200.
10.	1720  John Sheffield:   John Hughes to John Sheffield, January 1720; Duncombe, ed. Letters by Several Eminent Persons (1772; 1773) 1:262-64.