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).
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