91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Person    | Male  Born 10/4/1647  Died 26/7/1680

Earl of Rochester, John Wilmot

Categories: Poetry

Earl of Rochester, John Wilmot

Poet, wit and courtier. Born Ditchley, Oxfordshire. The picture source website contains an example of his poetry: "Imperfect Enjoyment" - not for the prudish. Died at his grace and favour home at High Lodge, Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

Samuel Johnson on Rochester: "in a course of drunken gaiety and gross sensuality, with intervals of study perhaps yet more criminal, with an avowed contempt of decency and order, a total disregard to every moral, and a resolute denial of every religious observation, he lived worthless and useless, and blazed out his youth and health in lavish voluptuousness".

There seems be a common consensus that Rochester was responsible for the attack on Dryden in 1679 but we are not sure what the evidence is.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Earl of Rochester, John Wilmot

Commemorated ati

John Dryden attacked

Odd that the plaque gives the 19th and not the 18th as the date.

91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Other Subjects

Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan

Poet, writer, playwright. Born Dublin. Irish republican and, aged 16 - 23, volunteer in the IRA. He once described himself as a "a drinker with a writing problem". Collapsed in a Dublin bar and die...

Person, Literature, Poetry, Theatre, Ireland

1 memorial
Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray

Poet.  Born Cornhill.  Wrote ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ and the lesser-known ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes’ about Horace Walpole's cat. Died Cam...

Person, Poetry

2 memorials
Austin Dobson

Austin Dobson

Poet and essayist. Born Henry Austin Dobson at Plymouth, Devon. He spent his entire working life at the Board of Trade. His first poems were published in 1868. In 1876 he and a group of other poets...

Person, Literature, Poetry

1 memorial
Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Poet. Born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, which is now a themed holiday rental. Died at St Vincents Hospital, in New York City during a lecture tour of the United States. He is buried at Laugharne,...

Person, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Wales

6 memorials
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

Poet, novelist and short story writer. Born Massachusetts. Came to England and met Ted Hughes at a celebration for a poetry magazine in Cambridge. Married him on 16 June 1956 at St George the Marty...

Person, Literature, Poetry, Seriously Famous, USA

1 memorial