John Hughes (poet)

John Hughes (1677–1720) was an English poet also noted for his editing of and commentary on the works of Edmund Spenser. Writing at the very end of 17th Century and at the beginning of the 18th, he also translated French drama and poetry, including Moliere. Hughes was a favorite of the nobility and aristocracy, which probably accounted for his popularity. Subscribers to his volumes included the Dukes of Buckingham, Bedford, Bridgewater, and Buccleugh, as well as Levett Blackborne, grandson of Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London. Samuel Johnson included Hughes in his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets in 1781 but Swift and Pope thought both his verse and prose mediocre.