Great Edward's* order early he shall wear; The place shall live in song, and Claremont be the name. *Theologi et vates erant apud eos, Druidas ipsi vocant, qui s victimarum extis de futuris divinant.-Diod. Sic. Lat. Ver. LIFE OF HUGHES. JOHN HUGHES was born at Marlborough, on the 29th of July, 1677. He was educated at a dissenting academy; and was a fellow student of Dr. Watts. At nineteen he drew the outline of a tragedy; and wrote a paraphrase of Horace's Ode Ad Aristium Tuscum.* He also added to poetry, the kindred arts of music and painting; nor did all three together prevent him from engaging in business. He was some time in the office of ordinance; and acted as secretary to several commissions for purchasing lands about the royal docks at Chatham and Portsmouth. In 1697, he wrote a poem on the peace of Ryswick; two years after, another upon the return of King William; and a third upon the Duke of Gloucester's birth-day. It was about the same time that he increased his fame by an Essay, in prose, on the pleasure of being deceived. He wrote a Pindaric Ode on the death of King William, in 1702; and paraphrased the Otium Divos of Horace. The next year brought forth his Ode on Music; and he afterwards attacked the Italian opera, in six Cantatas; which, though set to music by the greatest * Integer vitae scelerisque purus, &c.-L. i. Od. 22. master of the time, still left the opera in possession of its ground. He translated Moliere's Miser, and Fontanelle's Dialogues; and, being now numbered among the wits, was a contributor to the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian. In 1712, he englished Vertot's History of the Revolution in Portugal; and, besides an Ode to the Creator of the World, brought forward the opera of Calypso and Telemachus. In 1715, he produced Apollo and Daphne; and published an edition of Spenser, in 6 volumes, with a Life, a Glossary, and a Discourse on Allegorical Poetry. His fortune was small; and it was not till he was almost beyond the necessity of a greater, that he received the appointment of secretary to the commissions of the peace. This was in 1717. He afterwards wrote the Seige of Damascus ; but died on the day of its performance, February 17, 1720. He lived to hear that it was successful; but the time was past, when such intelligence could give him satisfaction. 'A month ago, (Swift writes to Pope,) were sent me over, by a friend of mine, the Works of John Hughes, Esquire. They are in prose and verse. I never heard of the man in my life; yet I find your name as a subscriber. He is too grave a poet for me; and I think among the Mediocrists in prose as well as verse.' Pope answers, what he wanted in genius, he made up as an honest man; but he was of the class you think him.' This was not good in Mr. Pope; who, in an epigram of Hughes', is apos trophised as, O, Thou, who, with a happy genius born, |