Product Description

John Wilmot, the notorious Earl of Rochester, was the darling of the polished, profligate court of Charles II. One of the finest poets of the Restoration, patron to important playwrights, model for countless witty young rakes in Restoration comedies, he lived a full but short life, dying in 1680 (with a dramatic deathbed renunciation of his atheism) at the age of 33. This edition of Rochester's poetry is annotated and introduced by David M. Vieth. Rochester had many admirers: Graham Greene wrote "Lord Rochester's Monkey"; Daniel Defoe quoted him often; Tennyson recited his poems; Voltaire admired Rochester's satire for "energy and fire"; Goethe could quote Rochester in English, and Hazlitt said that "his verses cut and sparkle like diamonds" and "his contempt for everything that others repsect almost amounts to sublimity".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76403 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Kathleen Ferguson, Irish Times
"‘Bawdy in thought, precise in words.’… His love poems are tender, explicit, and funny."

About the Author
David M. Vieth was professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Customer Reviews

Oh You Wicked, Wicked Earl, You
The Earl of Rochester lived a life worthy of Tom Jones. He was indeed a deabauched libertine, slightly less worthy of censure than the Marquis de Sade. Yet he was something that De Sade was not, a great wit. Though nowhere near the range or genius of Pope or Swift, he nevertheless compiled a great body of satirical poetry in the Juvenalian tradition. His "Satyre Against Mankind," Like Swift's Houyhnhnms chapters, present human beings in their true place in nature, despite all the panegyrics and biblical references placing us at the top of the chain. If you are lover of satire, as I am, and don't mind observations that place us amongst the lower orders rather than atop some Parnassian peak, give this volume a try.

Oh, Get real !
Yes, Rochester is a poet who is well worth reading but this edition is, quite simply, hopelessly out-dated & thus really inaccurate & all but useless. Given Harold Loves' much more recent and fulsome edition for O.U.P & Nicholas Fischers' forthcoming revision of Walkers' edition for Blackwell one really can't recommend this dated piece of rubbish.
(By the way, Loves' edition is now accepted as the standard text by most scholars.)