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

Francis Bret Harte

Francis Bret Harte

American writer, best know for his accounts of pioneering life in California. Born New York. Came to London in 1885 via Germany and Glasgow. Buried at Frimley, Surrey. Some sources, contradicti...

Person, Literature, Poetry, USA

1 memorial
Charles Williams

Charles Williams

Writer on literature and theology, novelist and poet. Born Charles Walter Stansby Williams, 3 Spencer Road. He worked for the Oxford University Press (OUP) in various capacities for most of his lif...

Person, Literature, Poetry, Religion

1 memorial
Vivian Forbes

Vivian Forbes

Painter and poet. Born London.  Served in the Royal Fusiliers in WW1. Had a close relationship with Glyn Philpot and on Philpot's death, Forbes died by suicide, the day after the funeral. The pict...

Person, Art, Poetry

1 memorial
John Keats

John Keats

Born 24 Moorfields Pavement Row, Finsbury. This was the Swan and Hoop pub, where his father worked as a stableman and later managed the inn. Baptised at St Botolphs. 1815-16 trained at Guy’s Hospit...

Person, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Italy

8 memorials
Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri

Italian poet, writer, and philosopher. Unusually for the time he wrote in Italian rather than Latin. His Divine Comedy is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and th...

Person, Philosophy, Poetry, Italy

1 memorial