The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VIII. The Age of Dryden.
§ 23. Hughes
John Hughes belongs, in point of time, to the next period, but his manner is emphatically that of the restoration. Besides the operas Calypso and Telemachus (1712) and Apollo and Daphne (1716), he wrote a piece called The Siege of Damascus, which was produced on the day of the author’s death (17 February, 1720), and was received with much approval. It owes much to D’Avenant’s The Siege (printed 1673); and its success, as well as that of Hughes’s other dramatic efforts, depends largely on the opportunities for spectacular display which it affords. His plays, nevertheless, show considerable power of construction, and are often forcibly and picturesquely written.