![J](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/J._Hughes_%28poet%29.jpg)
John Hughes (29 January 1677 – 17 February 1720) was an English poet, essayist and translator. Various of his works remained in print for a century after his death, but if he is remembered at all today it is for the use others made of his work. Texts of his were set by the foremost composers of the day and his translation of the ''Letters of Abelard and Heloise'' was a major source for Alexander Pope's ''
Eloisa to Abelard
''Eloisa to Abelard'' is a verse epistle by Alexander Pope that was published in 1717 and based on a well-known medieval story. Itself an imitation of a Latin poetic genre, its immediate fame resulted in a large number of English imitations thro ...
''.
Life and work
Hughes was born in
Marlborough, Wiltshire
Marlborough ( , ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the England, English Counties of England, county of Wiltshire on the A4 road (England), Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath, Somerset, Bath. Th ...
, the elder son of John Hughes, clerk in the Hand-in-Hand Fire Office, Snow Hill, London, and his wife Anne Burges, daughter of Isaac Burges of Wiltshire. He was educated in London, receiving the rudiments of learning in private schools.
Emerging from education with an interest in all the arts, Hughes had to earn his living as a secretary at the
Board of Ordnance
The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence ...
. His poetry often dealt with patriotic themes and was judiciously dedicated to political lords but did not obtain for him a sinecure until late in his life. In fact his literary ability was mediocre, but he retained the friendship of such leading
Augustan writers as
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard S ...
,
Richard Steele
Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Anglo-Irish writer, playwright, and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine ''The Spectator''.
Early life
Steele was born in Du ...
and
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
. He was in the company of all these as a contributor to
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
, and also wrote essays for several other periodicals of the day. In one on "The Inventory of a Beau" he describes a picture of himself as a young man about town wearing "a well trimmed blue suit, with scarlet stockings rolled above the knee, a large white
peruke
A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona ...
, and a flute half an
ell
An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", and ...
long". His portrait by
Godfrey Kneller
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723), was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to Kingdom of England, English and Br ...
some two decades later is more restrained, except for the length of the wig.
As an amateur musician, Hughes mixed with composers and took part in the musical politics of the time, championing those who opposed over-dependence on the Italian language for singing. To prove his point he wrote many
cantata
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.
The meaning of ...
s taking the form of
recitative
Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repea ...
passages interspersed by sung airs. His first set of six "after the manner of the Italians" was prefaced by a defence of the use of English for such compositions, pleading that comprehension of the words adds to the pleasure, and that recitative provides variety. The cantatas were set by
Johann Christoph Pepusch
Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667 – 1752), also known as John Christopher Pepusch and Dr Pepusch, was a German-born composer who spent most of his working life in England. He was born in Berlin, son of a vicar, and was married to Margherita de l ...
, for whom Hughes wrote many more, as well as an ode for the birthday of the Princess of Wales and the masque "Apollo and Daphne". He also wrote cantatas for
Johann Ernst Galliard
Johann Ernst Galliard (?1666/?1687–1749 ) was a German composer.
Galliard was born in Celle, Germany to a French wig-maker. His first composition instruction began at age 15. Galliard studied composition under Jean-Baptiste Farinel, the direc ...
, as well as the opera ''Calypso and Telemachus''. This had an introduction that repeated much the same points as the earlier preface to the cantatas, with the addition of a vigorous commendation by Topham Foot asserting that, with the advent of "our own British Muse",
::Th'Italian opera sure will quit the Stage
::And Charms Superior fix the flutt'ring Age.
::Musick and Verse no longer disagree,
::Nor Sense is now a Foe to Harmony.
Single cantatas by Hughes were also set by
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer.
Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...
,
Nicola Francesco Haym
Nicola Francesco Haym (6 July 1678 – 31 July 1729) was an Italian opera librettist, composer, theatre manager and performer, literary editor and numismatist. He is best remembered for adapting texts into libretti for the London operas of Georg ...
and
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...
, and an "Ode in Praise of Music" was performed in 1703 in a setting by
Philip Hart
Philip Aloysius Hart (December 10, 1912December 26, 1976) was an American lawyer and politician. A Democrat, he served as a United States Senator from Michigan from 1959 until his death from cancer in Washington, D.C. in 1976. He was known as t ...
. The ode was another favourite form used by Hughes, written in the
pindarics Pindarics (alternatively Pindariques or Pindaricks) was a term for a class of loose and irregular odes greatly in fashion in England during the close of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. Abraham Cowley, who published fifteen ''Pindariq ...
popularised by
Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley (; 161828 July 1667) was an English poet and essayist born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his ''Works'' published between 1668 and 1721.
Early ...
, although in this particular he was at odds with his Augustan friends.
Besides dramatic compositions for music, Hughes had been trying his hand at plays since his schooldays, and had also translated scenes or whole plays from other languages, but he never had success in this form until the very end of his life, when his tragedy, ''
The Siege of Damascus
''The Siege of Damascus'' is a 1720 tragedy by the British writer John Hughes. It was inspired by Simon Ockley's 1708 study '' Conquest of Syria'', and focuses specifically on the Siege of Damascus in 634.
Originally staged at the Theatre Royal ...
'', was put on at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...
in February 1720. News of its successful first performance only reached the author on the night that he died, of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, in London. Many more performances and revivals followed through the course of the century.
Among his scholarly work can be included his contributions to
White Kennett
White Kennett (10 August 166019 December 1728) was an English bishop and antiquarian. He was educated at Westminster School and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where, while an undergraduate, he published several translations of Latin works, including ...
's ''Complete History of England'' (1706) and his own six-volume edition of ''The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser'' (1715). He also translated
Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle's ''Dialogues of the Dead'' (1708), a work that a century later was to serve as the model for Landor's ''
Imaginary Conversations
''Imaginary Conversations'' is Walter Savage Landor's most celebrated prose work. Begun in 1823, sections were constantly revised and were ultimately published in a series of five volumes. The conversations were in the tradition of dialogues with ...
''. But his most successful work was the ''Letters of Abelard and Heloise'' (1713), translated from a French version, of which there were numerous new editions for over a century. Its popularity can partly be explained by its having served as the basis for Pope's "
Eloisa to Abelard
''Eloisa to Abelard'' is a verse epistle by Alexander Pope that was published in 1717 and based on a well-known medieval story. Itself an imitation of a Latin poetic genre, its immediate fame resulted in a large number of English imitations thro ...
", and that poem was eventually added to Hughes work in later editions.
As Richard Steele noted in his article on the death of Hughes, he was in ill-health through much of his life. After his death from
consumption
Consumption may refer to:
*Resource consumption
*Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically
* Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms
* Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
, he was buried under the
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
of
St. Andrew, Holborn. His brother-in-law collected his poetry and some essays in 1735 and Samuel Johnson devoted a short article to him in the ''
Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
''Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets'' (1779–81), alternatively known by the shorter title ''Lives of the Poets'', is a work by Samuel Johnson comprising short biographies and critical appraisals of 52 poets, most of whom lived during th ...
''.
[Many biographical and bibliographical details are taken from the article on the poet in the 1900 ''Dictionary of National Biography'']
Bibliography
* ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (1900)
"Hughes, John"* Hughes, John, ''Poems on Several Occasions'' (1735)
vol.1an
vol.2* Johnson, Samuel, ''Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets'' (1799–81)
"John Hughes"
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, John
1677 births
1720 deaths
English translators
English male poets
English male non-fiction writers