John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

The Earl of Rochester
Portrait by Peter Lely, 1677
Born(1647-04-01)1 April 1647
Died26 July 1680(1680-07-26) (aged 33)
Cause of deathBelieved to be complications from syphilis[1]
Resting placeSpelsbury, Oxfordshire, England
Alma materWadham College
University of Oxford
Notable work
Style2nd Earl of Rochester, 2nd Baron Wilmot of Adderbury, 3rd Viscount of Athlone (peerage of Ireland)
SpouseElizabeth Malet
Children
Parents

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1 April 1647 – 26 July 1680) was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court, who reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era.[3] Rochester embodied this new era, and he became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as for his poetry, although the two were often interlinked.[3] He died as a result of a sexually transmitted infection 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.

  1. ^ Christopher Hill reviews 'The Letters of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester' edited by Jeremy Treglown · LRB 20 November 1980
  2. ^ John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (2013). Selected Poems. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-164580-8.
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference autogenerated11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Cerisia Cerosia | Anna Livia, that superfine pigtail to" (PDF). 22 June 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  5. ^ a b "A Martyr to Sin". The New York Times.

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