John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester Biography
Rakehell, Repentant, and Celebrated Poet of Restoration England
Oct 26, 2009
John Wilmot was born in 1647 to Anne St. John and Henry Wilmot (1st Earl of Rochester), and died young in 1680. He received an education following the tradition of 17th-century aristocracy, studying under a home tutor before going to university – in his case, Wadham College in Oxford. By the time young Rochester made his debut in London society, Charles II was four years on his restored throne. The extravagant and creative atmosphere of Restoration London fed his already ravenous penchant for satire, and before long he was one of the most celebrated – if feared – poets of his day.
The Poetry of a "Profane Wit"
Diarist John Evelyn, in an entry from the year 1670, refers to the Earl of Rochester as a most "profane wit." Undoubtedly, this is due both to the Earl's rakish antics about town and to his candid recreations of those antics within his poems. As a libertine, Rochester lived excessively, spending much of his purse on wine and women and all the physical gratification he could attain. Such a pleasure-driven life led to his high level of cynicism toward the Church, the State, and the faculty of human reason.
Rochester's best-known poems play up this cynicism in the form of satire, as he wields unflattering language and unabashed criticism to challenge the social norms of his day. Among these poems are "The Imperfect Enjoyment," "Satire Against Reason and Mankind," "Disabled Debauchee," and "A Letter From Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country." While these pieces were excluded from the English literary canon for centuries, they were both popular and influential during the Restoration period – rivaling even the long-canonized works of then poet laureate John Dryden.
Rochester and His Contemporaries
Given his excess of charm, wit, and devilish good looks, the Earl of Rochester quickly became member and head of a coterie of courtier poets called the "Court Wits." These men wrote songs and satires to amuse themselves and each other, and on many occasions they wrote lampoons to amuse or aggravate the public. Such skilled poets and playwrights as Sir George Etherege and Sir Charles Sedley were among the Court Wits, but none were feared or admired more than Rochester.
Rochester's wit was sharp and merciless. He censures the works of his contemporaries in several of his poems; for instance, "My Lord All-Pride" attacks John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave for believing himself to be a better poet than his work evidenced, and "An Allusion to Horace" picks on none other than Restoration poet laureate John Dryden. These censures often caused bitter literary feuds which resulted in strings of attacks-in-verse as well as personal enmity.
Sickness, Repentance and Death
By the late 1670s, Rochester had made more enemies than friends, and his physical health was failing, likely due to complications of syphilis and possibly liver failure. As he lay on his deathbed, the Earl told his biographer Gilbert Burnet that he regretted his life of debauchery and converted back to his Christian faith. John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester died in July of 1680, leaving behind a wife and five children, four of which were legitimate.
References
The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. E.S. de Beer (Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1955).
Burnet, Gilbert, Some Passages on the Life and Death of the Right Honourable John Earl of Rochester (London: 1680).
Wilson, John Harold, The Court Wits of the Restoration (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1948).
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