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was beyond the reach of praise or blame, has been adopted by Dr. JOHNSON. The performance for which he is now chiefly remembered, is his tragedy of the Siege of Damascus, which still holds its rank on the stage, though "it is neither acted nor printed according to the author's original draught, or his settled intention. He had made Phocyas apostatize from his religion; after which, the abhorrence of Eudocia would have been reasonable, his misery would have been just, and the horrors of his repentance exemplary. The players, however, required that the guilt of Phocyas should terminate in desertion to the enemy: and HUGHES, unwilling that his relations should lose the benefit of his work, complied with the alteration*."

He died Feb. 17, 1719-20, the same day on which this play was first represented. STEELE, who has drawn a very favourable character of him in THE THEATRE, No. 15, says, "I cannot, in the first place, but felicitate a death, on the same evening in which he received, and merited, the applause of his country, for a great and good action; his work is full of such sentiments as only can give comfort in the last hour; and I am told, he showed a pleasure in hearing that the labours, which he so honestly and virtuously intended, had met with a suitable success."

In this, however, STEELE was deceived; and it is singular that he did not perceive he was

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JOHNSON'S Life of HUGHES. His life is also written by DUNCOMBE, by CIEBER, and by Dr. CAMPEELL, in the Biog Brit.

placing his friend in the novel and ridiculous situation of an author preparing for eternity by the recollection of a well-written play, and the applause of a crowded theatre. The truth is, HUGHES had laid aside all thoughts of his play, and composed himself to meet death with the resolution and dignity becoming a Christian*. He was of a very feeble constitution, tending to consumption, which, after many lingering attacks, and flattering abatements, put an end to his blameless life, at an age when life is usually reckoned in its prime.

He appears to have been universally regretted as an honest and amiable man, and held an enviable rank among the wits of his time. Such was his acknowledged judgment, that ADDISON requested he would complete his Cato for the stage; and although this task was afterwards performed by ADDISON himself, yet it was by the persuasion of HUGHES that this celebrated play was finished and acted.

As a prose writer he is known by his edition of SPENSER'S Works, which he enriched with a life, a glossary, and a discourse on allegorical poetry. He also wrote the preface to the "Complete History of England," usually called Dr. KENNET'S; and translated FONTENELLE'S" Dialogues of the Dead," to which he added two composed by himself, and (Dr. JOHNSON has remarked) "though not only an honest, but a pious man, dedicated his work to the EARL of WHARTON." His first prose essay, which has

* DUNCOMBE'S Life, prefixed to HUGHES'S Works.

much merit, is, "On the pleasure of being deceived," and is dated 1701, when he was in his twenty-fourth year.

His contributions to the TATLER are, a letter signed Josiah Coupler, in No. 64; another signed Will Trusty, in No. 73, to which TICKELL alludes in some verses in No. 532 of the SPECTATOR; and the Inventory of a Beau, in No. 113. The annotators suspect that he wrote No. 194, with an eye to his edition of SPENSER.

In the SPECTATOR he was the author of two letters, No. 33 and 53, on the art of improving beauty; in No. 66, of two letters concerning fine breeding; in No. 91, the history of Honoria; in No. 104, a letter on the ladies' riding-habits; in No. 141, remarks on the Lancashire witches; No. 210, on the immortality of the soul; No. 220, on expedients for wit, a letter; No. 230, all, except the last letter; No. 231, a letter on the awe of appearing before public assemblies; No. 237, on Divine Providence, which was printed by TICKELL, in his edition of ADDISON'S works, but was afterwards claimed for HUGHES, by Mr. DUNCOMBE; the letter in No. 231, is also published in ADDISON's works, but evidently from its connection with the rest of the paper. HUGHES wrote also, in No. 252, a letter on the eloquence of tears and fainting fits; No. 311, a letter from the father of a great fortune; No. 375, a picture of virtue in distress, which a writer in DUNCOMBE's Letters says "mixed tears with a great deal of the tea, which was that morning drank in London and Westminster;" No. 525, on conjugal love; No. 537,

on the dignity of human nature; No. 541, rules for pronunciation and action; and No. 554, on the improvement of genius; No. 302, the character of Emilia, claimed by Mr. DUNCOMBE, was written by Dr. BROME; on the other hand, however, the annotators on the SPECTATOR assign to him Nos. 224 and 467*.

In the GUARDIAN, only one paper, No. 37, has been discovered to be his, and in his correspondence, published in 1772, are three short letters, intended for the GUARDIAN, which are added to the present edition. The general character of all his essays is favourable; he appears to have possessed a mild and agreeable humour, some of the strokes of which are truly ADDISONIAN; and his serious papers are excellent both for matter and manner. Such was his regard for decency, that he withdrew his contributions to a volume of Miscellaneous Poems, published by STEELE, because POPE'S imitation of CHAUCER'S Wife of Bath was to be inserted in it.

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The name of POPE has been currently repeatamong those of the authors of the SPECTATOR, yet one article only, and that a very trifling

In "DUNCOMBE's Letters by several eminent Persons deceased, including the Correspondence of JOHN HUGHES, Esq." is printed a letter by Mr. HUGHES, intended for the SPECTATOR, on English Operas, vol. i. p. 61, edit. 1772. The letter signed Parthenissa, in No. 306, is claimed for HUGHES, by Mr. DUNCOMBE, who adds, that the real person alluded to was a Miss ROTHERAM, sister to the second lady of the sixth Lord EFFINGHAM, and afterwards married to the Rev. Mr. WYATT, master of Felsted school, in Essex. Gent. Mag. 1780.

one, in No. 527, a short letter with a few verses, is all that can with certainty be ascribed to him. His "Messiah" was published in No. 378, and the annotators deduce that he wrote No. 408, from its train of thought, which is the same that occurs frequently in his works, and especially in his "Essay on Man." His contributions to the GUARDIAN are more important, and will be noticed in the Preface to that paper.

Two excellent papers on dreaming, Nos. 586 and 593, and which have been the foundation of many succeeding essays on the same subject, considered in the same point of view, were writ. ten by Mr. JOHN BYROM, whose facetious talents were well suited to this species of composition, and whose delicate and simple humour appears so favourably in the well-known verses in No. 603, beginning "My time, O ye muses, &c." His PHEBE, was the youngest of the celebrated Dr. BENTLEY'S daughters, and the mother of RICHARD CUMBERLAND, Esq. the present well-known dramatic and miscellaneus writer. The annotators ascribe to Mr. BYROM also No. 587, a paper to which he was certainly equal, but in this assignment they have overlooked a passage in No. 593, in which his being the author is positively denied. They are perhaps more correct in giving him credit for No. 597, although even that appears doubtful.

This ingenious writer, a younger son of EDWARD BYROM, of Kersal, in Lancashire, was born at Manchester, 1691. He was educated first in his native town, and afterwards at Merchant Taylor's School in London, whence he

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