John Wilmot 2d earl of Rochester

John Wilmot Rochester, 2d earl of 1647-80, English poet and courtier, b. Ditchley, Oxfordshire. Most notorious and dissolute of the Restoration rakes, he lost the favor of Charles II on several occasions because of his recklessness. His most celebrated poem is his Satyr Against Mankind (1675). Although his poetry is primarily characterized by its wit, its polish, and its licentiousness, an undercurrent of piety runs through much of his work. In the last years of his life, Rochester underwent a religious conversion.

Bibliography: See his Complete Poems, ed. by D. M. Vieth (1968); V. de S. Pinto, Enthusiast in Wit (1962); D. H. Griffin, Satires Against Man (1974); G. Greene, Lord Rochester's Monkey (1974).

Rochester, John Wilmot, second earl of (1647–80), lyric poet, satirist, and a leading member of the group of ‘court wits’ surrounding Charles II. He fought with conspicuous gallantry in the naval wars against the Dutch. He married the heiress, Elizabeth Malet; he also had several mistresses, including Elizabeth Barry, and moved in fashionable London circles.

Although Dr Johnson dismissed Rochester's lyrics, their wit and emotional complexity give him some claim to be considered one of the last important metaphysical poets and he was one of the first of the Augustans, with his social and literary verse satires. He wrote scurrilous lampoons, dramatic prologues and epilogues, ‘imitations’ and translations of classical authors, and several other brilliant poems such as his tough self-dramatization ‘The Maimed Debauchee’ and the grimly funny ‘Upon Nothing’. Although his output was small he produced an important body of poems. Marvell admired him, Dryden, Swift, and Pope were all influenced by him (he was Dryden's patron for a time), and he has made an impression on many subsequent poets.

Rochester is famous for having, in Johnson's words, ‘blazed out his youth and health in lavish voluptuousness’. He became very ill in his early thirties and G. Burnet superintended and subsequently wrote up the poet's death-bed conversion.