rence of Eudocia would have been reasonable, i his mifery would have been juft, and the b 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 lofe the benefit of his work, complied with the alteration.

He was now weak with a lingering.confumption, and not able to attend the rehearfal; 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,

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," 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 poet for

me; and I think among the mediocrifts, "in profe as well as verfe."

To this Pope returns: "To answer your "question as to Mr. Hughes; what he want"ed 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 fpeak of him with ftill less respect, as having no claim to poetical reputation but from his tragedy.

SHEF

SHEFFIELD,

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

JOHN

SHEFFIELD, defcended from

a long feries of illustrious ancestors, was born in 1649, the fon 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 fhort 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 ftrange, and inftructs as it is real.

His literary acquifitions are more wonderful, as thofe years in which they are commonly made were fpent 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 Albe

marle

marle failed, with the command of the fleet; but by contrariety of winds they were reftrained 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.

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 indecent, and his objection was allowed. He had a quarrel with the earl of Rochester, 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 ship which the celebrated lord Offory commanded; and there made, as he relates, two curious remarks.

"I have obferved two things, which I "dare affirm, though not generally believed. "One was, that the wind of a cannon-bul"let, though flying never fo near, is in"capable of doing the least harm; and, in

5

deed,

"deed, were it otherwife, no man above "deck would efcape. The other was, that

a great shot may be fometimes avoided, " even as it flies, by changing one's ground "a little; for, when the wind fometimes "blew away the fmoak, it was fo clear a "fun-fhiny day that we could easily perceive "the bullets (that were half-fpent) fall "into the water, and from thence bound

up

again among us, which gives fufficient "time for making a step 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 cost "'à 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 beft fecond-rate ship in the navy.

He afterwards raised a regiment of foot, and commanded it as colonel. The landforces 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