rence of Eudocia would have been reasonable, i his mifery 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. 7 RF.; * 55 J1. 3 3 * ১৯ ১১ He was now weak with a lingering.consumption, and not able to attend the rehearfal; yet was so vigorous in his faculties, that only ten days before his death he wrote the dedication to his patron lord Cowper. On February 17, 1719-20, the play was represented, and the author died. He lived to hear that it was well received, but paid no regard to the intelligence, being then wholly employed in the meditations of a departing Christian, A man of his character was undoubtedly regretted; and Steele devoted an essay, in the paper called The Theatre, to the memory of his virtues. His life is written in the Biographia with some degree of favourable partiality; and an account of him is prefixed to his works, by his relation the late Mr. Duncombe, Duncombe, a man whose blameless elegance deserved the same respect. The character of his genius I shall transcribe from the correspondence of Swift and Pope. ! "A month ago," says Swift, "was 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." 1. To this Pope returns: "To answer your " question as to Mr. Hughes; what he want"ed in genius, he made up as an honest, man; but he was of the class you think " him." " In Spence's collections Pope is made to speak of him with still less respect, as having no claim to poetical reputation but from his tragedy. SHEF : SHEFFIELD, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. OHN SHEFFIELD, defcended from a long series of illustrious ancestors, was born in 1649, the son of Edmund earl of Mulgrave, who died 1658. The young lord was put into the hands of a tutor, with whom he was fo little fatisfied, that he got rid of him in a short time, and, at an age not exceeding twelve years, refolved to educate himself. Such a purpose, formed at such an age, and successfully profecuted, delights as it is strange, and instructs as it is real. His literary acquisitions are more wonderful, as those years in which they are commonly made were spent by him in the tumult of a military life, or the gaiety of a court. When war was declared against the Dutch, he went at seventeen on board the ship in which prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle marle failed, with the command of the fleet; but by contrariety of winds they were restrained from action. His zeal for the king's' service was recompenfed by the command of one of the independent troops of horse, then raised to protect the coaft. 2 Next year he received a summons to parliament, which, as he was then but eighteen years old, the earl of Northumberland cenfured as at least indecent, and his objection was allowed. He had a quarrel with the earl of Rochester, which he has perhaps too oftentatioufly related, as Rochester's surviving fifter, the lady Sandwich, is faid to have told him with very sharp reproaches. When another Dutch war (1672) broke out, he went again a volunteer in the ship which the celebrated lord Offory commanded; and there made, as he relates, two curious remarks. " I have observed two things, which I " dare affirm, though not generally believed. "One was, that the wind of a cannon-bul"let, though flying never so near, is in"" capable of doing the least harm; and, in 5 66 deed, 7 " deed, were it otherwise, no man above " deck would escape. The other was, that 66 a great shot may be sometimes avoided, even as it flies, by changing one's ground "a little; for, when the wind sometimes " blew away the smoak, it was so clear a " fun-fhiny day that we could eafily perceive "the bullets (that were half-fpent) fall " into the water, and from thence bound up " again among us, which gives sufficient " time for making a step or two on any fide; though, in so swift a motion, 'tis hard to judge well in what line the bullet comes, “which, if mistaken, may by removing coft " 'å man his life, instead of saving it." His behaviour was fo favourably reprefented by lord Offory, that he was advanced to the command of the Katherine, the best second-rate ship in the navy. He afterwards raised a regiment of foot, and commanded it as colonel. The landforces were fent ashore by prince Rupert; and he lived in the camp very familiarly with Schomberg. He was then appointed colonel of the old Holland regiment, together with his own; and had the promife of a garter, which he obtained in his twenty |