His laft work was his tragedy, The Siege of Damafcus, after which a Siege became a popular title.. This play, which still continues on the stage, and of which it is unneceffary to add a private voice to fuch continuance of approbation, is not acted or printed according to the author's original draught, or his fettled intention. He had made Phocyas apoftatize from his religion; after which the abhorrence of Eudocia would have been reasonable, his mifery would have been juft, and the horrors of his repentance exemplary. The players, however, required that the guilt of Phocyas fhould terminate in defertion to the enemy; and Hughes, unwilling that his relations fhould lose the benefit of his work, complied with the alteration.

He was now weak with a lingering confumption, and not able to attend the rehearsal, yet was fo 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 reprefented, 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 Chriftian.

A man of his character was undoubtedly regretted; and Steele devoted an effay, in the paper called The Theatre, to the memory of his virtues. His life is written in the Biographia with fome degree of favourable partiality; and an account of him is prefixed to his works, by his relation the late Mr. Duncombe, a man whose blameless elegance deferved the fame respect.

The character of his genius I shall transcribe from the correfpondence of Swift and Pope. "A month

66

"A month ago," fays Swift, "was fent me over, by a friend of mine, the works of John "Hughes, Efquire. They are in profe and verse. "I never heard of the man in my life, yet I find your name as a fubfcriber. He is too grave a 66 poet for me; and I think among the Mediocrifts "in profe as well as verfe."

To this Pope returns: "To answer your quef “tion as to Mr. Hughes; what he wanted in genius, "he made up as an honeft man; but he was of the " class you think him."

In Spence's Collections Pope is made to speak of him with ftill lefs refpect, as having no claim to poetical reputation but from his tragedy.

SHEFFIELD,

DUKE OF

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

JOHN SHEFFIELD, defcended from a long

feries of illuftrious ancestors, was born in 1649, the fon of Edmund earl of Mulgrave, who died in 1658. The young lord was put into the bands of a tutor, with whom he was fo little fatisfied, that

he

He got rid of him in a fhort time, and at an age not exceeding twelve years, refolved to educate himself. Such a purpose, formed at fuch an age, and fuccefsfully profecuted, delights as it is strange, and inftructs as it is real.

His literary acquifitions are more wonderful, as thofe 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 feventeen on-board the fhip in which prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle failed, with the command of the fleet; but by contrariety of winds they were reftrained from action. His zeal for the king's fervice was recompenfed by the command of one of the independent troops of horse, then raised to protect the coaft..

Next year he received a fummons to parliament, which, as he was then but eighteen years old, the earl of Northumberland cenfured as at leaft inde

cent, and his objection was allowed. He had a quarrel with the earl of Rochefter, which he has perhaps too oftentatiously related, as Rochester's furviving fifter, the lady Sandwich, is faid to have told him with very fharp reproaches.

When another Dutch war (1672) broke out, he went again a volunteer in the fhip which the celebrated lord Offory commanded; and there made, as he relates, two curious remarks:

"I have obferved two things, which I dare af"firm, though not generally believed. One was, "that the wind of a cannon bullet, though flying "never fo near, is incapable of doing the leaft "harm; and indeed, were it otherwife, no man "above deck would efcape. The other was, tliat

66 a great

a great hot may be fometimes avoided, even "as it flies, by changing one's ground a little; "for, when the wind fometimes blew away the "fmoke, it was fo clear a fun-fhiny day, that we "could easily perceive the bullets (that were halffpent) fall into the water, and from thence bound "up again among us, which gives fufficient time "for making a ftep or two on any fide; though, "in fo fwift a motion, 'tis hard to judge well in "what line the bullet comes, which, if mistaken, may by removing coft a man his life, inftead of "faving it."

His behaviour was fo favourably reprefented by lord Offory, that he was advanced to the command of the Katharine, the beft fecond-rate fhip in the

navy.

He afterwards raised a regiment of foot, and commanded it as colonel. The land-forces were fent afhore 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 promise of a garter, which he obtained in his twenty-fifth year. He was likewife made gentleman of the bedchamber.

He afterwards went into the French fervice, to learn the art of war under Turenne, but staid only a fhort time. Being by the duke of Monmouth oppofed in his pretenfions to the first troop of horseguards, he, in return, made Monmouth fufpected by the duke of York. He was not long after, when the unlucky Monmouth fell into difgrace, recompenfed with the lieutenancy of Yorkshire and the government of Hull.

Thus

Thus rapidly did he make his way both to military and civil honours and employments; yet, baly as he was, he did not neglect his ftudies, but at leaft cultivated poetry; in which he must have been early confidered as uncommonly fkilful, if it be true which is reported, that, when he was yet not twenty years old, his recommendation advanced Dryden to the laurel.

The Moors having befieged Tangier, he was fent (1680) with two thousand men to its relief. A ftrange story is told of the danger to which he' was intentionally expofed in a leaky fhip, to gratify fome refentful jealoufy of the king, whose health he therefore would never permit at his table till he faw himfelf in a fafer place. His voyage was profperously performed in three weeks, and the Moors without a contest retired before him.

In this voyage he compofed the Vifion; a licen tious poem, fuch as was fashionable in thofe times, with little power of invention or propriety of fentiment.

At his return he found the king kind, who perhaps had never been angry; and he continued a wit and a courtier as before.

At the fucceffion of king James, to whom he was intimately known, and by whom he thought himself beloved, he naturally expected still brighter fun-fhine; but all know how foon that reign began to gather clouds. His expectations were not difappointed; he was immediately admitted into the privy-council, and made lord chamberlain. He accepted a place in the high commiffion, without knowledge, as he declared after the Revolution, of its illegality. Having few religious fcruples, he attended