John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (April 1, 1647 - July 26, 1680) was an English nobleman, a friend of King Charles II, and the writer of much satirical and bawdy poetry. Image File history File links John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, detail of portrait NPG 804 at National Portrait Gallery. ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... // Events March 14 - Thirty Years War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm. ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... Events First Portuguese governor was appointed to Macau The Swedish city Karlskrona was founded as the Royal Swedish Navy relocated there. ... The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the Windows of the Lodge of the Heralds. ... Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 30 January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ... Link titleSatire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Obscenity has several connotations. ...

Rochester was born in Ditchley, Oxfordshire, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford. Having carried out the Grand Tour, he became the toast of the Restoration court and a patron of the arts. He married an heiress, Elizabeth Malet, but had many mistresses, including the actress Elizabeth Barry. Shortly before his death, he had a theistic change of heart, largely thanks to the influence of Bishop Gilbert Burnet. Oxfordshire (abbreviated Oxon, from Latin Oxonia) is a county in South East England, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. ... Wadham College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... For the bicycle racing term Grand Tour, see Grand Tour (cycling). ... The English Restoration or simply Restoration was an episode in the history of Great Britain beginning in 1660 when the monarchy was restored under King Charles II after the English Civil War. ... Elizabeth Barry changed like Nature which she represents, from Passion to Passion, from Extream to Extream, with piercing Force and with easy Grace. Elizabeth Barry (1658–November 7, 1713) was an English actress. ... Gilbert Burnet (September 18, 1643-March 17, 1715) was a Scottish divine and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. ...

Rochester's most famous verse concerned King Charles II, his great friend. In reply to his jest that:

"He never said a foolish thing, nor ever did a wise one",

Charles is reputed to have said:

"That is true -- for my words are my own, but my actions are those of my ministers."

Rochester's mother was a Parliamentarian by descent and inclined to Puritanism for possibly expedient reasons. His father, a hard-drinking Royalist from Anglo-Irish stock, had been created Earl of Rochester in 1652 for military services to Charles II during his exile under the Commonwealth; he died abroad in 1658, two years before the restoration of the monarchy in England. A parliamentarian is a specialist in parliamentary procedure. ... The Puritans were members of a group of radical Protestants which developed in England after the Reformation. ... The noun or adjective, Royalist, can have several shades of meaning. ... The title Earl of Rochester was created twice in the Peerage of England. ... // Definition and linguistics The original phrase common wealth or the common weal is a calque translation of the Latin term res publica (public matters), from which the word republic comes, which was itself used as a synonym for the greek politeia as well as for the republican (i. ...

At twelve Rochester matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, and there, it is said, "grew debauched". At fourteen he was conferred with the degree of M.A. by the Earl of Clarendon, who was Chancellor to the University and Rochester's uncle. After a tour of France and Italy, Rochester returned to London, where he was to grace the Restoration Court. Courage in sea-battle against the Dutch made him a hero. Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... The title Earl of Clarendon was created in 1776 for Thomas Villiers. ... Chancellor (Latin: cancellarius), an official title used by most of the peoples whose civilization has arisen directly or indirectly out of the Roman empire. ... St. ...

In 1667 he married Elizabeth Malet, a witty heiress whom he had attempted to abduct two years earlier. Pepys describes the event in his diary, 28 May 1665: "Thence to my Lady Sandwich's, where, to my shame, I had not been a great while before. Here, upon my telling her a story of my Lord Rochester's running away on Friday night last with Mrs Mallet, the great beauty and fortune of the North, who had supped at Whitehall 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 footmen, 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 success) was taken at Uxbridge; but the lady is not yet heard of, and the King mighty angry and the Lord sent to the Tower." Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (February 23, 1633 - May 26, 1703) was a 17th century English civil servant, famous for his diary. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... Events March 4 - Start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War March 6 - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society begins publication March 16 - Bucharest allows Jews to settle in the city in exchange of annual tax of 16 guilders June 3 - The Duke of York defeats the Dutch Fleet off the... Whitehall, London, looking south towards the Houses of Parliament For other places with the same name see Whitehall (disambiguation) Whitehall is a road in London, the capital of the United Kingdom, running two-thirds of the distance from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Square; the other third constitutes Parliament Street. ... The name Charing Cross, now given to a district of central London in the City of Westminster, comes from the original hamlet of Charing, where King Edward I of England placed a memorial to his wife, Eleanor of Castile. ... Uxbridge is a place in the London Borough of Hillingdon in west London. ...

Rochester's life is 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 called them) who flourished for about fifteen years after 1665. As well as Wilmot they 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, Duke of Buckingham. Andrew Marvell (March 31, 1621 – August 16, 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, and the son of an Anglican clergyman. ... Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (24 January 1638- 29 January 1706) was an English poet and courtier, son of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset (1622_1677). ... John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby (7 April 1648-24 February 1721), English statesman and poet, was the son of Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave, and succeeded to that title on his father’s death in 1658. ... Sir Charles Sedley (c. ... William Wycherley in 1675. ... Sir George Etherege (1635? - 1692) was an English dramatist. ... The titles Marquess and Duke of Buckingham have been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. ...

In banishment from Court for a scurrilous lampoon on Charles II, Rochester set up as "Doctor Bendo", a physician skilled in treating barrenness; his practice was, it is said, "not without success". He was deeply involved with the theatre and was himself the model for the witty and poetry-reciting rake Dorimant in Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676). According to an often repeated anecdote, his coaching of his mistress Elizabeth Barry began her career as the greatest actress of the Restoration stage. Modern scholars, however, have little faith in this story, which was first told much later (see Elizabeth Barry). Elizabeth Barry changed like Nature which she represents, from Passion to Passion, from Extream to Extream, with piercing Force and with easy Grace. Elizabeth Barry (1658–November 7, 1713) was an English actress. ...

At the age of thirty-three, as Rochester lay dying — from syphilis, it is assumed — his mother had him attended by her religious associates; a deathbed renunciation of atheism was published and promulgated as the conversion of a prodigal. This became legendary, reappearing in numerous pious tracts over the next two centuries. Depression-era U.S. poster advocating early syphilis treatment Syphilis (historically called lues) is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that is caused by a spirochaete bacterium, Treponema pallidum. ... Atheism is the state either of being without theistic beliefs, or of actively believing in the non-existence of deities. ...

Rochester's own writings were at once admired and infamous. Posthumous printings of his play Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery gave rise to prosecutions for obscenity, and were destroyed. On 16 December 2004 a copy of Sodom (characterized as the world's first known piece of printed pornography) was sold by Sotheby's for £45,600. During his lifetime, his songs and satires were known mainly from anonymous broadsheets and manuscript circulation; most of Rochester's poetry was not published under his name until after his death. The play Sodom is not known definitively to be the work of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. ... Obscenity has several connotations. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pornography (from Greek πορνογραφια pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of harlots) (also informally referred to as porn or porno) is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but (according to some) distinct from, erotica. ... Sothebys is a noted auction house. ...

Rochester has not lacked distinguished admirers. Defoe quoted him widely and often. Tennyson would recite from him with fervour. Voltaire admired Rochester's satire for 'energy and fire' and translated some lines into French to 'display the shining imagination his lordship only could boast'. Goethe could quote Rochester in English, and cited his lines to epitomise the intensely 'mournful region' he encountered in English poetry. William Hazlitt judged that 'his verses cut and sparkle like diamonds', while 'his contempt for everything that others respect almost amounts to sublimity'. Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe ( 1660 – April 24, 1731) was an English writer and journalist, who first gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (August 6, 1809 - October 6, 1892) is generally regarded as one of the greatest English poets. ... Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 - 18 September 1830) was an English writer remembered for his humanistic essays. ...

The film "The Libertine," which was shown at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival, and which to date, has yet to be released in the U.S., chronicles Rochester's life, with Johnny Depp as Rochester, Samantha Morton as Elizabeth Barry, John Malkovich as King Charles II, and Rosamund Pike as Elizabeth Malet. This is a list of film-related events in 2004. ... The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is generally considered to be one of the five top film festivals in the world. ... Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II, widely known as Johnny Depp (born June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky), is an American film actor. ... Samantha Morton in In America Samantha Morton (born May 13, 1977 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England) is a British actress. ... John Malkovich at the Grimme Online Award 2005 at Schloss Bensberg. ... Rosamund Pike Rosamund Pike (born January 27, 1979) is a British actress born in London. ...

References

The above is largely taken from mym's Rochester Pages by permission of the copyright holder (=mym).