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

Earl of Rochester, John Wilmot

Categories: Poetry

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 here 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.

Read More

Other Subjects

Ben Okri

Ben Okri

Poet and novelist.  Born Nigeria but spent his early childhood in London.  Returned to England to study in the late 1970s.  His 1991 novel 'The Famished Road' won the Booker Prize.

Person, Literature, Poetry, Nigeria

1 memorial
John Masefield

John Masefield

Poet. Born Herefordshire. Orphaned early he was sent to sea, aged 13, to train as an officer and seems to have spent a lot of time reading and writing. Aged 17 he jumped ship in New York where he c...

Person, Poetry, USA

1 memorial
Edward de Vere

Edward de Vere

17th Earl of Oxford. Possibly born at Castle Hedingham, Essex. He wrote poetry  and was a court favourite. Since the 1920s, he has been among the alternative candidates for the authorship of Shakes...

Person, Poetry

2 memorials
Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Poet and writer. Born Anna Letitia Aikin at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire. She had a successful career at a time when women rarely were professional writers. Her writing includes essays, poems ...

Person, Literature, Poetry

1 memorial
Charles Cowden Clarke

Charles Cowden Clarke

Author and Shakespearian scholar. Born in Enfield, at the school run by his father, Reverend John Clarke. John Keats was a pupil at the school for about 7 years (1803-10). Charles taught him and e...

Person, Literature, Poetry, Italy

1 memorial