Lord Rochester: Everymans Poetry

Ditchley Manor House, Oxfordshire, England birth. Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England death. Oxford University Wadham College. John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, was famous at the 17th century English court for his drunkenness, witty conversation, and extravagant behavior as part of a "Merry Gang" as Andrew Marvell called them of aristocrats and playwrights. He had very early an inclination to intemperance He lost all sense of religious restraint; and, finding it not convenient to admit the authority of laws which he was resolved not to obey, sheltered his wickedness behind infidelity.

As he excelled in that noisy and licentious merriment which wine incites, his company eagerly encouraged him in excess, and he willingly indulged it; till, as he confessed to Dr. Burnet, he was for five years together continually drunk, or so much inflamed by frequent ebriety [sic], as in no interval to be master of himself.

In this state he played many frolicks, which it is not for his honour that we should remember He often pursued low amours in mean disguises, and always acted with great exactness and dexterity the characters which he assumed. Thus in a course of drunken gaiety, and gross sensuality, with intervals of study perhaps yet more criminal, with an avowed contempt of all decency and order, total disregard to every moral, and a resolute denial of every religious obligation, he lived worthless and useless and blazed out his youth and his health in lavish voluptuousness; till, at the age of one and thirty, he had exhausted the fund of life, and reduced himself to a state of weakness and decay.

Dr Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets.

John Wilmot (1647–1680)

But looking more closely, a reader finds brilliant poems that are fresh and frank. Like William Hogarth, an English artist of slightly later times, Rochester exposed the lewd, selfish, scheming world that flourished all around him.

One of his poetic themes: Rochester wrote of himself as a ridiculous, trapped man. Many others, he said, saw themselves as privileged, entitled to anything. John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester, was born in to an aristocratic family in England. Rochester abducted Elizabeth Mallet , heiress and poet; they married and she controlled his finances.

He was never financially secure or independent.

Publisher Series by cover

They wrote one book of poems. He wrote hundreds of poems and satires. John Wilmot died in , at This text was copied from Wikipedia on 12 December at 6: The Restoration reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Lord Rochester's contemporary Andrew Marvell described him as "the best English satirist," and he is generally considered to be the most considerable poet and the most learned among the Restoration wits.

Paul Davis describes Henry as "a Cavalier legend, a dashing bon viveur and war-hero who single-handedly engineered the future Charles II's escape to the Continent including the famous concealment in an oak tree after the disastrous battle of Worcester in ". John , was a strong-willed Puritan from a noble Wiltshire family.

From the age of seven, Rochester was privately tutored, two years later attending the grammar school in nearby Burford. In September he was awarded an honorary M. It has been suggested by a number of scholars that the King took a paternal role in Rochester's life. Her wealth-hungry relatives opposed marriage to the impoverished Rochester, who conspired with his mother to abduct the young Countess.

Lord Rochester (Everyman's Poetry Library #19) by John Wilmot

Samuel Pepys described the attempted abduction in his diary on 28 May Thence to my Lady Sandwich's, where, to my shame, I had not been a great while before. Mallett, the great beauty and fortune of the North, who had supped at White Hall with Mrs. Stewart, and was going home to her lodgings with her grandfather, my Lord Haly, by coach; and was at Charing Cross seized on by both horse and foot men, and forcibly taken from him, and put into a coach with six horses, and two women provided to receive her, and carried away.

Upon immediate pursuit, my Lord of Rochester for whom the King had spoke to the lady often, but with no successe [ sic ] was taken at Uxbridge; but the lady is not yet heard of, and the King mighty angry, and the Lord sent to the Tower.

Rochester attempted to redeem himself by volunteering for the navy in the Second Dutch War in the winter of , serving under the Earl of Sandwich. Upon returning from sea, Rochester resumed his courtship of Elizabeth Malet. In October , the monarch granted Rochester special licence to enter the House of Lords early, despite being seven months underage. Teenage actress Nell Gwyn "almost certainly" took him as her lover; she was later to become the mistress of Charles II.

Rochester's life was divided between domesticity in the country and a riotous existence at court, where he was renowned for drunkenness, vivacious conversation, and "extravagant frolics" as part of the Merry Gang as Andrew Marvell described them. Gilbert Burnet wrote of him that, "For five years together he was continually Drunk In , Rochester began to train Elizabeth Barry as an actress. When the King's advisor and friend of Rochester, George Villiers , lost power in , Rochester's standing fell as well. In June "Lord Rochester in a frolick after a rant did John Aubrey learned what Rochester said on this occasion when he came in from his "revells" with Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, and Fleetwood Sheppard to see the object: Rochester fell into disfavour again in During a late-night scuffle with the night watch, one of Rochester's companions was killed by a pike-thrust.

Rochester was reported to have fled the scene of the incident, and his standing with the monarch reached an all-time low. Under this persona, he claimed skill in treating "barrenness" infertility , and other gynecological disorders. Gilbert Burnet wryly noted that Rochester's practice was "not without success", implying his intercession of himself as surreptitious sperm donor. Bendo, presumably so that he could inspect young women privately without arousing their husbands' suspicions. By the age of 33, Rochester was dying, from what is usually described as the effects of syphilis , gonorrhea , or other venereal diseases , combined with the effects of alcoholism.

Carol Richards has disputed this, arguing that it is more likely that he died of renal failure due to chronic nephritis as a result of suffering from Bright's disease. After hearing of Burnet's departure from his side, Rochester muttered his last words: On the other hand Graham Greene, in his biography of Wilmot, calls Burnet's book "convincing". Three major critical editions of Rochester in the twentieth century have taken very different approaches to authenticating and organizing his canon.

Scholarship has identified approximately 75 authentic Rochester poems.

• Account Options.
• Complete Poems and Plays - John Wilmot Earl of Rochester - Google Книги;
• See a Problem??
• Complete Poems and Plays.
• Lord Rochester: Everyman's Poetry - Google Книги.
• Poe: Poems.
• Stress Management A Holistic Approach.

Rochester's poetic work varies widely in form, genre, and content. He was part of a "mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease", [30] who continued to produce their poetry in manuscripts, rather than in publication.

Account Options

As a consequence, some of Rochester's work deals with topical concerns, such as satires of courtly affairs in libels , to parodies of the styles of his contemporaries, such as Sir Carr Scroope. He is also notable for his impromptus, [31] one of which is a teasing epigram on King Charles II:.

To which Charles supposedly replied, "That's true, for my words are my own, but my actions are those of my ministers". Rochester's poetry displays a range of learning and influences. These included imitations of Malherbe , Ronsard , and Boileau. He also translated or adapted from classical authors such as Petronius , Lucretius , Ovid , Anacreon , Horace , and Seneca.

Rochester's writings were at once admired and infamous. A Satyr Against Mankind , one of the few poems he published in a broadside in , is a scathing denunciation of rationalism and optimism that contrasts human perfidy with animal wisdom. The majority of his poetry was not published under his name until after his death. Because most of his poems circulated only in manuscript form during his lifetime, it is likely that much of his writing does not survive.

Burnet claimed that Rochester's conversion experience led him to ask that "all his profane and lewd writings" be burned; it is unclear how much, if any, of Rochester's writing was destroyed. Rochester was also interested in the theatre. The best-known dramatic work attributed to Rochester, Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery , has never been successfully proven to be written by him. Posthumous printings of Sodom , however, gave rise to prosecutions for obscenity , and were destroyed.

Rochester's letters to his wife and to his friend Henry Savile show an admirable mastery of easy, colloquial prose.

Naz rated it it was amazing Jul 08, Bethan rated it liked it Nov 10, Sammie rated it it was ok Jul 27, Filjan rated it did not like it Aug 22, Jamie Rabic rated it liked it Jun 09, Anthony H added it Jul 10, Opuscule added it Jun 21, Rosemary Gallagher added it Jun 21, Jen marked it as to-read Sep 11, Jerry Goodenough added it Nov 04, Rowan Tepper marked it as to-read Aug 17, Shelley marked it as to-read Oct 04, Ron added it Feb 19, Thomas marked it as to-read Mar 20, Chambers marked it as to-read May 21, Purley College marked it as to-read Sep 16, Jesse Baer marked it as to-read Apr 05, Lourdes added it Jul 04, Tim marked it as to-read Jan 05, Carlos marked it as to-read Jan 20, Sarah Edwards added it Jul 24, Yinzadi marked it as to-read Oct 17, Jason marked it as to-read Jun 27, Papiroflexia added it Jan 06, Diana marked it as to-read Nov 25, Ishani Reddy marked it as to-read Nov 25, Lisa Brady-ydrogo marked it as to-read Nov 20, Alex added it Mar 13, Harrison is currently reading it Aug 25,