John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

John Wilmot (1 April 1647 – 26 July 1680) was an English poet and courtier of
The Right Honourable
King Charles II's Restoration court. The Restoration reacted against the "spiritual
John Wilmot
authoritarianism" of the Puritan era.[3] Rochester embodied this new era, and he
became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as his poetry, although the two
were often interlinked.[3] He died as a result of venereal disease at the age of 33.

Rochester was described by his contemporary Andrew Marvell as "the best

English satirist," and he is generally considered to be the most considerable poet
and the most learned among the Restoration wits.[4] His poetry was widely
censored during the Victorian era, but enjoyed a revival from the 1920s onwards,
with reappraisals from noted literary figures such as Graham Greene and Ezra
Pound.[5] The critic Vivian de Sola Pinto linked Rochester's libertinism to
Hobbesian materialism.[5]

During his lifetime, Rochester was best known for A Satyr Against Reason and
Mankind, and it remains among his best-known works today.

Portrait by Peter Lely, 1677

Born 1 April 1647
Contents Ditchley,
Life Oxfordshire,
Upbringing and teens England
Twenties and last years
Died 26 July 1680
Death
(aged 33)
Works Woodstock,
Reception and influence Oxfordshire,
In popular culture England
References Cause of Believed to be
Further reading death complications from
External links syphilis[1]
Resting Spelsbury,
place Oxfordshire,
Life England
Alma mater Wadham College
Upbringing and teens University of Oxford
Notable work A Satyr Against
John Wilmot was born at Ditchley House in Oxfordshire on 1 April 1647. His
Reason and
father, Henry, Viscount Wilmot, was created Earl of Rochester in 1652 for his
Mankind
military service to Charles II during the King's exile under the Commonwealth.
A Letter From
Paul Davis describes Henry as "a Cavalier legend, a dashing bon viveur and war-
Artemesia
hero who single-handedly engineered the future Charles II's escape to the
An Allusion to
Horace
Continent (including the famous concealment in an oak tree) after the disastrous A Ramble in St
battle of Worcester in 1651".[3] His mother, Anne St. John, was a strong-willed James' Park[2]
Puritan from a noble Wiltshire family.[5] The Imperfect
Enjoyment[3]
From the age of seven, Rochester was privately tutored, two years later attending
Style 2nd Earl of
the grammar school in nearby Burford.[6] His father died in 1658, and John
Rochester, 2nd
Wilmot inherited the title of the Earl of Rochester in April of that year.[3] In
Baron Wilmot of
January 1660, Rochester was admitted as a Fellow commoner to Wadham
Adderbury, 3rd
College, Oxford, a new and comparatively poor college.[7] Whilst there, it is
Viscount of Athlone
said, the 13-year-old "grew debauched". In September 1661 he was awarded an
(peerage of Ireland)
honorary M.A. by the newly elected Chancellor of the university, Edward Hyde,
Earl of Clarendon, a family friend.[8] Spouse(s) Elizabeth Wilmot,
Countess of
As an act of gratitude towards the son of Henry Wilmot, Charles II conferred on Rochester
Rochester an annual pension of £500. In November 1661 Charles sent Rochester
Children Charles Wilmot, 3rd
on a three year Grand Tour of France and Italy, and appointed the physician
Earl of Rochester
Andrew Balfour as his governor.[9] This exposed him to an unusual degree to
(1671—1681), Lady
European (especially French) writing and thought.[10] In 1664 Rochester
Anne Wilmot, Lady
returned to London, and made his formal début at the Restoration court on
Elizabeth Wilmot,
Christmas Day.[3][11]
Lady Malet Wilmot,
It has been suggested by a number of scholars that the King took a paternal role one illegitimate
in Rochester's life. Charles II suggested a marriage between Rochester and the daughter from Mrs
wealthy heiress Elizabeth Malet. Her wealth-hungry relatives opposed marriage Elizabeth Barry
to the impoverished Rochester, who conspired with his mother to abduct the Parent(s) Henry Wilmot, 1st
young Countess. Samuel Pepys described the attempted abduction in his diary on Earl of Rochester,
28 May 1665: Anne St. John

Thence to my Lady Sandwich's, where, to my shame, I had not

been a great while before. Here, [I told] her a story of my Lord
Rochester's running away on Friday night last with Mrs. 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.[12]

Elizabeth Wilmot (Malet) by Peter

18-year-old Rochester spent three weeks in the Tower, and was only released
Lely
after he wrote a penitent apology to the King.[3]

Rochester attempted to redeem himself by volunteering for the navy in the

Second Dutch War in the winter of 1665, serving under the Earl of Sandwich.[13] His courage at the Battle of Vågen, serving on
board the ship of Thomas Teddeman, made him a war hero.[13] Pleased with his conduct, Charles appointed Rochester a
Gentleman of the Bedchamber in March 1666, which granted him prime lodgings in Whitehall and a pension of £1,000 a year.[14]
The role encompassed, one week in every four, Rochester helping the King to dress and undress, serve his meals when dining in
private, and sleeping at the foot of the King's bed.[3] In the summer of 1666, Rochester returned to sea, serving aboard
HMS Victory under Edward Spragge.[13] He again showed extraordinary courage in battle, including rowing between vessels
under heavy cannon fire, to deliver Spragge's messages around the fleet.[15][16]

Upon returning from sea, Rochester resumed his courtship of Elizabeth Malet.[17] Defying her family's wishes, Malet eloped with
Rochester again in January 1667, and they were married at the Knightsbridge chapel.[18] They had four children: Lady Anne
Wilmot (1669—1703), Charles Wilmot (1671—1681), Lady Elizabeth Wilmot (1674—1757) and Lady Malet Wilmot (1676—
1708/1709).

In October 1667, the monarch granted Rochester special licence to enter the House of Lords early, despite being seven months
underage.[3] The act was an attempt by the King to bolster his number of supporters among the Lords.[19]

Teenage actress Nell Gwyn "almost certainly" took him as her lover; she was later to become the mistress of Charles II.[3] Gwyn
remained a lifelong friend and political associate, and her relationship with the King gave Rochester influence and status within
the Court.[3]

Twenties and last years

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).[20] The Merry Gang flourished for about 15 years after 1665 and included Henry Jermyn; Charles Sackville, Earl of
Dorset; John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave; Henry Killigrew; Sir Charles Sedley; the playwrights William Wycherley and George
Etherege; and George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Gilbert Burnet wrote of him that, "For five years together he was
continually Drunk… [and] not… perfectly Master of himself… [which] led him to… do many wild and unaccountable things."[8]
In 1669 he committed treason by boxing the ears of Thomas Killigrew in sight of the monarch and was banned from the court,
although the King soon called for his return.[3]

In 1673, Rochester began to train Elizabeth Barry as an actress.[3] She went on to become the most famous actress of her age.[3]
He took her as his mistress in 1675.[3] The relationship lasted for around five years, and produced a daughter, before descending
into acrimony after Rochester began to resent her success.[3] Rochester wrote afterwards, "With what face can I incline/To damn
you to be only mine?… Live up to thy might mind/And be the mistress of mankind".

When the King's advisor and friend of Rochester, George Villiers, lost power in 1673, Rochester's standing fell as well.[3] At the
Christmas festivities at Whitehall of that year, Rochester delivered a satire to Charles II, "In the Isle of Britain" – which criticized
the King for being obsessed with sex at the expense of his kingdom.[3] Charles' reaction to this satirical portrayal resulted in
Rochester's exile from the court until February.[3] During this time Rochester dwelt at his estate in Adderbury.[3] Despite this, in
February 1674, after much petitioning by Rochester, the King appointed him Ranger of Woodstock Park.[3]

In June 1675 "Lord Rochester in a frolick after a rant did ... beat downe the dyill (i.e. sundial) which stood in the middle of the
Privie Garding, which was esteemed the rarest in Europ". 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: "'What… doest
thou stand here to fuck time?' Dash they fell to worke".[8] It has been speculated that the comment refers not to the dial itself,
which was not phallic in appearance, but a painting of the King next to the dial that featured his phallic sceptre.[21] Rochester fled
the court again.[3]

Rochester fell into disfavour again in 1676. 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.[22] Following this incident, Rochester briefly fled to Tower Hill, where he impersonated a mountebank "Doctor
Bendo". 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.[23] On occasion,
Rochester also assumed the role of the grave and matronly Mrs. Bendo,
presumably so that he could inspect young women privately without
arousing their husbands' suspicions.[24]

Death
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
(Bright's disease)[25] His mother had him attended in his final weeks by
her religious associates, particularly Gilbert Burnet, later Bishop of
Portrait of the poet by Jacob Huysmans
Salisbury.

After hearing of Burnet's departure from his side, Rochester muttered his
last words: "Has my friend left me? then I shall die shortly." In the early
morning of 26 July 1680, Rochester died "without a shudder or a
sound".[26] He was buried at Spelsbury church in Oxfordshire.

A deathbed renunciation of libertinism and conversion to Anglican

Christianity, Some Passages of the Life and Death of the Honourable John
Wilmot Earl of Rochester, was published by Reverend Burnet.[27] Because
this account appears in Burnet's own writings, its accuracy has been
disputed by some scholars, who accuse Burnet with having shaped the The coffin of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of
account of Rochester's denunciation of libertinism to enhance his own Rochester in its vault in Spelsbury church,
reputation. On the other hand Graham Greene, in his biography of Wilmot, Oxfordshire.

calls Burnet's book "convincing". [28]

Works
Three major critical editions of Rochester in the twentieth century have
taken very different approaches to authenticating and organizing his canon.
David Vieth’s 1968 edition adopts a heavily biographical organization,
modernizing spellings and heading the sections of his book "Prentice The coffin plate removed from the coffin of
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester from
Work", "Early Maturity", "Tragic Maturity", and "Disillusionment and
his burial vault under the north aisle of
Death". Keith Walker’s 1984 edition takes a genre-based approach,
Spelsbury church, Oxfordshire
returning to the older spellings and accidentals in an effort to present
documents closer to those a seventeenth-century audience would have
received. Harold Love’s Oxford University Press edition of 1999, now the scholarly standard, notes the variorum history
conscientiously, but arranges works in genre sections ordered from the private to the public. Scholarship has identified
approximately 75 authentic Rochester poems.[29]

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. 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:

We have a pretty witty king,

Whose word no man relies on,
He never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one[32]
Rochester's manor house in
To which Charles supposedly replied, "That's true, for my words are my own, Adderbury, Oxfordshire
but my actions are those of my ministers".[33]

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 (1675), one of the few poems he published (in
a broadside in 1679), 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. In addition to an interest in actresses, he wrote an adaptation of Fletcher's Valentinian
(1685), a scene for Sir Robert Howard's The Conquest of China, a prologue to Elkanah Settle's The Empress of Morocco (1673),
and epilogues to Sir Francis Fane's Love in the Dark (1675), Charles Davenant's Circe, a Tragedy (1677). 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. On 16
December 2004 one of the few surviving copies of Sodom was sold by Sotheby's for £45,600.[34]

"[Rochester's] letters to his wife and to his friend Henry Savile… show an admirable mastery of easy, colloquial prose."[35]

Reception and influence

Rochester was the model for a number of rake heroes in plays of the period, such
as Don John in Thomas Shadwell's The Libertine (1675) and Dorimant in
George Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676).[3] Meanwhile he was eulogised by
his contemporaries such as Aphra Behn and Andrew Marvell, who described
him as "the only man in England that had the true vein of satire".[36] Daniel
Defoe quoted him in Moll Flanders, and discussed him in other works.[37]
Voltaire, who spoke of Rochester as "the man of genius, the great poet", admired
his satire for its "energy and fire" and translated some lines into French to
"display the shining imagination his lordship only could boast".[38]

By the 1750s, Rochester's reputation suffered as the liberality of the Restoration

era subsided; Samuel Johnson characterised him as a worthless and dissolute
rake.[39] Horace Walpole described him as "a man whom the muses were fond to Portrait of John Wilmot by Sir Peter
inspire but ashamed to avow".[40] Despite this general disdain for Rochester, Lely, Dillington House
William Hazlitt commented that his "verses cut and sparkle like diamonds"[41]
while his "epigrams were the bitterest, the least laboured, and the truest, that ever
were written".[42] Referring to Rochester's perspective, Hazlitt wrote that "his contempt for everything that others respect almost
amounts to sublimity".[42] Meanwhile, Goethe quoted A Satyr against Reason and Mankind in English in his Autobiography.[43]
Despite this, Rochester's work was largely ignored throughout the Victorian era.

Rochester's reputation would not begin to revive until the 1920s. Ezra Pound, in his ABC of Reading, compared Rochester's
poetry favourably to better known figures such as Alexander Pope and John Milton.[44] Graham Greene characterised Rochester
as a "spoiled Puritan".[45] Although F. R. Leavis argued that "Rochester is not a great poet of any kind", William Empson
admired him. More recently, Germaine Greer has questioned the validity of the appraisal of Rochester as a drunken rake, and
hailed the sensitivity of some of his lyrics.[46]

Rochester was listed #6 in Time Out's "Top 30 chart of London's most erotic writers". Tom Morris, the associate director, of the
National Theatre said ‘Rochester reminds me of an unhinged poacher, moving noiselessly through the night and shooting every
convention that moves. Bishop Burnett, who coached him to an implausible death-bed repentance, said that he was unable to
express any feeling without oaths and obscenities. He seemed like a punk in a frock coat. But once the straw dolls have been
slain, Rochester celebrates in a sexual landscape all of his own.’[47]

In popular culture
A play, The Libertine (1994), was written by Stephen Jeffreys, and staged by the Royal Court Theatre. The 2004 film The
Libertine, based on Jeffreys' play, starred Johnny Depp as Rochester, Samantha Morton as Elizabeth Barry, John Malkovich as
King Charles II and Rosamund Pike as Elizabeth Malet. Michael Nyman set to music an excerpt of Rochester's poem "Signor
Dildo" for the film.[48]

The play The Ministry of Pleasure by Craig Baxter also dramatises Wilmot's life and was produced at the Latchmere Theatre,
London in 2004.

Rochester is the central character in Anna Lieff Saxby's 1996 erotic novella, No Paradise but Pleasure.

The story of Lord Rochester’s life in Susan Cooper-Bridgewater’s Historical Fiction ‘Of Ink, Wit and Intrigue – Lord Rochester in
Chains of Quicksilver', 2014. ISBN 978-1783063-079

Nick Cave's 2004 song "There She Goes, My Beautiful World", from the album Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus, includes
the lines 'John Wilmot penned his poetry / Riddled with the pox'.

References
1. Christopher Hill reviews 'The Letters of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester' edited by Jeremy Treglown · LRB 20
November 1980 (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v02/n22/christopher-hill/reason-love-and-life)
2. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (2013). Selected Poems (https://books.google.com/books?id=12nqhQYU-vwC).
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-164580-8.
3. Paul Davis, ed. (2013). Selected Poems: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (https://books.google.com/books?id=12
nqhQYU-vwC). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-164580-8.
4. http://cerisia.cerosia.org/articles/251/Longman%20Anthology%20Instructors%20Manual/Restoration/76-
JohnWilmot_IM.pdf
5. "A Martyr to Sin" (https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/20/specials/greene-monkey.html). The New York Times.
6. James William Johnson (2004). A Profane Wit: The Life Of John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester (https://books.google.
com/books?id=sxrjd1kvZlQC). University Rochester Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-58046-170-2.
7. James William Johnson (2004). A Profane Wit: The Life Of John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester (https://books.google.
com/books?id=sxrjd1kvZlQC). University Rochester Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-58046-170-2.
 8. Frank H. Ellis, "Wilmot, John, second earl of Rochester (1647–1680)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 12 July 2012 (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/arti
cle/29623,)
9. Johnson, James William (2004). A Profane Wit: The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (https://books.google.
com/books?id=sxrjd1kvZlQC). University Rochester Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-58046-170-2.
10. Treglown, Jeremy. "Rochester and the second bottle." Times Literary Supplement [London, England] 10 Sept.
1993: 5. Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive. Web. 11 Dec. 2012.
11. https://archive.org/details/letterswrittento00balf
12. Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete 1665 N.S. at Project Gutenberg Samuel Pepys, entry for 26 May 1665,
Diary of Samuel Pepys May 28, 1665. Accessed May 5, 2007
13. Gilbert Burnet; Samuel Johnson; Robert Parsons (1782). Some passages in the life and death of John Earl of
Rochester, written by his own direction on his death-bed ...: with a sermon, preached, at the funeral of the said
Earl, by the Rev. Robert Parsons (https://books.google.com/books?id=oV02AAAAMAAJ). T. Davies. p. 6.
14. Frank H. Ellis, "Wilmot, John, second earl of Rochester (1647–1680)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,
Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 4 April 2013 (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/articl
e/29623,)
15. Johnson, James William (2004). A Profane Wit: The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (https://books.google.
com/books?id=sxrjd1kvZlQC). University Rochester Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-58046-170-2.
16. Ballantyne, Iain; Eastland, Jonathan (2005). Warships of the Royal Navy: HMS Victory. Barnsley, Yorkshire: Pen
and Sword Maritime. p. 28. ISBN 1844152936.
17. Johnson, James William (2004). A Profane Wit: The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (https://books.google.
com/books?id=sxrjd1kvZlQC). University Rochester Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-58046-170-2.
18. Notes and Queries (2011) 58 (3): 381–386. doi: 10.1093/notesj/gjr109
19. Johnson, James William (2004). A Profane Wit: The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (https://books.google.
com/books?id=sxrjd1kvZlQC). University Rochester Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-58046-170-2.
20. Google books (https://books.google.com/books?id=zH5E68nMhn8C&pg=PA272) Charles Beauclerk, Nell Gwyn:
Mistress to a King (New York: Grove, 2005), 272.
21. Wilmot, John (2002). The Debt to Pleasure. New York: Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 0-415-94084-2.
22. Johnson, Profane Wit, 250-53
23. Timbs, John. Doctors and patients, or, Anecdotes of the Medical World and Curiosities of Medicine. London:
Richard Bentley and Son (1876), p. 151.
24. Alcock, Thomas. "Epistle Dedicatory" to Lord Rochester, The Famous Pathologist or The Noble Mountebank. Ed.
and introd. Vivian de Sola Pinto. Nottingham: Sisson and Parker (1961), pp. 35–38
25. Richards, Carol (2011). Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: the Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester.
26. Johnson, Profane Wit, 327–43
27. Norton, D. A History of the English Bible as Literature Cambridge 2000 pp. 172–3 ISBN 0-52177807-7
28. Greene, Graham (1974). Lord Rochester's Monkey, being the Life of John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester.
New York: The Bodley Head. p. 208
29. Black, Joseph Laurence (2006). The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (https://books.google.com/books?id
=9hCFl3-l33AC&pg=PA231). The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. 3. Broadview Press. p. 232.
ISBN 978-1-55111-611-2.
30. Alexander Pope, "First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace", line 108.
31. Rochester composed at least 10 versions of Impromptus on Charles II luminarium.org (http://www.luminarium.or
g/eightlit/rochester/wilmotbib.htm)
32. Papers of Thomas Hearne (17 November 1706) quoted in Doble, C. E. (editor) (1885) Remarks and Collections
of Thomas Hearne Volume 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press for the Oxford Historical Society, p. 308
33. A thorough discourse concerning this epigram and the king's response can be found from the 19th to 21st
paragraph of the Foreword of "The Tryal of William Penn and William Mead" [1] (https://archive.org/stream/cu319
24028831175#page/n17/mode/2up)
34. "IN BRIEF: Trump picks new 'Apprentice'; Bawdy 17th century play auctioned" (https://web.archive.org/web/2008
1222034741/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2004/12/17/artsbriefs041217.html). CBC News. 17 December 2004.
Archived from the original (http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2004/12/17/artsbriefs041217.html) on 22 December 2008.
35. Luebering, J.E. (2014). Authors of the Enlightenment: 1660 to 1800 (https://books.google.com./books?id=ZQ6cA
AAAQBAJ&pg=PA77) (1 ed.). Britannica Educational Publishing. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-62275-010-8. Retrieved
24 February 2019.
36. The Project Gutenberg eBook of Andrew Marvell, by Augustine Birrell (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17388/1738
8-h/17388-h.htm)
37. Moll Flanders at Project Gutenberg Daniel Defoe, The Life And Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
38. Great Books Online (http://www.bartleby.com/34/2/21.html/), François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778).
"Letter XXI—On the Earl of Rochester and Mr. Waller" Letters on the English. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14,
Bartleby.com, Accessed 15 May 2007
39. David Farley-Hills (1996). Earl of Rochester: The Critical Heritage (https://books.google.com/books?id=qEkrEsLzj
HcC&pg=PA8). Psychology Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-415-13429-3.
40. Horace Walpole, A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, 1758.
41. William Hazlitt, Select British Poets (1824)
42. William Hazlitt,
Lectures on the English Poets at Project Gutenberg
43. Notes and Queries, No.8, 22 December 1849 at Project Gutenberg Goethe quotes Rochester without
attribution.
44. Pound, Ezra. ABC of Reading (1934) New Directions (reprint). ISBN 0-8112-1893-7
45. Lord Rochester's Monkey: Being the Life of John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester by Graham Greene Review
by: G. S. Avery The Modern Language Review , Vol. 70, No. 4 (October 1975), pp. 857-858
46. Germaine Greer reviews ‘The Works of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester’ edited by Harold Love · LRB 16
September 1999 (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v21/n18/germaine-greer/doomed-to-sincerity)
47. John O‘Connell (28 February 2008). "Sex and books: London's most erotic writers" (http://www.timeout.com/lond
on/books/sex-and-books-londons-most-erotic-writers). Time Out. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
48. "Signior Dildo by Lord John Wilmot - All Poetry" (http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/16673-Lord-John-Wilmot-Signor-Dil
do). Oldpoetry.com. Retrieved 12 June 2011.

Further reading
Some Account of the Life and Death of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (https://archive.org/details/someaccountlif
e00burngoog) by Gilbert Burnet (Munroe and Francis, 1812)
Greene, Graham (1974). Lord Rochester's Monkey, being the Life of John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester.
New York: The Bodley Head. ASIN B000J30NL4.
Lamb, Jeremy (2005). So Idle a Rogue: The Life and Death of Lord Rochester (New ed.). Sutton. pp. 288 pages.
ISBN 0-7509-3913-3.
Larman, Alexander (2014). Blazing Star: The Life And Times of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Head of Zeus.
ISBN 9781781851098.
Wilmot, John (2002). David M. Vieth (ed.). The Complete Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (New ed.).
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 256 pages. ISBN 0-300-09713-1.
Wilmot, John (2002). The Debt to Pleasure. New York: Routledge. pp. 140 pages. ISBN 0-415-94084-2.
Combe, Kirk (1998). A Martyr for Sin: Rochester's Critique of Polity, Sexuality, and Society. Newark, DE:
University of Delaware Press. p. 186. ISBN 0-87413-647-4.

External links
 Ynys-Mon, Mark, ed. Poems and a short Biography (http://www.druidic.org/roc-bio.htm) at druidic.org. (The
biography was the original source of this article.)
Works related to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester at Wikisource
Works by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (https://www.gutenberg.org/author/Wilmot,+John) at Project
Gutenberg
Works by or about Earl of Rochester (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Rocheste
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2%20AND%20Rochester%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive
Works by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (https://librivox.org/author/5330) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)

Peerage of England
Preceded by Earl of Rochester Succeeded by
Henry Wilmot 1658–1680 Charles Wilmot

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Wilmot,_2nd_Earl_of_Rochester&oldid=912849224"

This page was last edited on 28 August 2019, at 08:06 (UTC).

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