The Complete Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of

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 thirty-three. This edition of Rochester's poetry, brilliantly annotated and introduced by David M. Vieth, has been a classic work for decades. Rochester had many admirers: Graham Greene wrote Lord Rochester's Monkey; Daniel Defoe quoted him often; Tennyson recited his poems; Voltaire admired his satire for 'energy and fire'; Goethe could quote him in English; and Hazlitt said that 'his verses cut and sparkle like diamonds' and that 'his contempt for everything that others respect almost amounts to sublimity'. Book jacket.

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

Preface

xiii

Introduction

xvii

Rochester's Life

xvii

Rochester's Poetry

xxxiii

This Edition

xlii

Rochester Studies 1925--1967

lii

Prentice Work (1665--1671)

Song

3

(1)

(`Twas a dispute' twixt heaven and earth)

A Pastoral Dialogue between Alexis and Strephon

4

(3)

(There sighs not on the plain)

A Dialogue between Strephon and Daphne

7

(3)

(Prithee now, fond fool, give o'er)

Song

10

(1)

(Give me leave to rail at you)

A Song

11

(1)

(Insulting beauty, you misspend)

A Song

12

(1)

(My dear mistress has a heart)

Song

12

(1)

(While on those lovely looks I gaze)

Song

13

(1)

(At last you'll force me to confess)

Woman's Honor

14

(1)

(Love bade me hope, and I obeyed)

The Submission

15

(1)

(To this moment a rebel, I throw down my arms)

Written in a Lady's Prayer Book

16

(1)

(Fling this useless book away)

The Discovery

17

(1)

(Celia, the faithful servant you disown)

The Advice

18

(2)

(All things submit themselves to your command)

Under King Charles II's Picture

20

(1)

(I, John Roberts, writ this same)

Rhyme to Lisbon

20

(1)

(A health to Kate)

Impromptu on Louis XIV

21

(1)

(Lorraine you stole; by fraud you got Burgundy)

Rochester Extempore

22

(1)

(And after singing Psalm the Twelfth)

Spoken Extempore to a Country Clerk after Having Heard Him Sing Psalms

22

(1)

(Sternhold and Hopkins had great qualms)

To My More Than Meritorious Wife

23

(1)

(I am, by fate, slave to your will)

Letter from Miss Price to Lord Chesterfield

24

(1)

(These are the gloves that I did mention)

The Platonic Lady

25

(1)

(I could love thee till I die)

Song

26

(1)

(As Chloris full of harmless thought)

Song

27

(4)

(Fair Chloris in a pigsty lay)

Early Maturity (1672--1673)

Song

31

(1)

(What cruel pains Corinna takes)

Song

32

(1)

(Phyllis, be gentler, I advise)

Epistle

33

(1)

(Could I but make my wishes insolent)

Sab: Lost

34

(1)

(She yields, she yields! Pale Envy said amen)

Two Translations from Lucretius

34

(1)

(Great Mother of Aeneas, and of Love)

(The gods, by right of nature, must possess)

35

(1)

To Love

35

(2)

(O Love! how cold and slow to take my part)

The Imperfect Enjoyment

37

(3)

(Naked she lay, clasped in my longing arms)

A Ramble in St. James's Park

40

(6)

(Much wine had passed, with grave discourse)

On the Women about Town

46

(2)

(Too long the wise Commons have been in debate)

Song

48

(1)

(Quoth the Duchess of Cleveland to counselor Knight)

The Second Prologue at Court to ``The Empress of Morocco,'' Spoken by the Lady Elizabeth Howard

49

(2)

(Wit has of late took up a trick t' appear)

Song

51

(1)

(Love a woman? You're an ass)

Upon His Drinking a Bowl

52

(1)

(Vulcan, contrive me such a cup)

Grecian Kindness

53

(1)

(The utmost grace the Greeks could show)

Signior Dildo

54

(6)

(You ladies all of merry England)

A Satyr on Charles II

60

(5)

(I' th' isle of Britain, long since famous grown)

Tragic Maturity (1674--1675)

Timon

65

(8)

(What, Timon! does old age begin t' approach)

Tunbridge Wells

73

(8)

(At five this morn, when Phoebus raised his head)

Upon His Leaving His Mistress

81

(1)

('Tis not that I am weary grown)

Against Constancy

82

(1)

(Tell me no more of constancy)

Song (early version)

83

(1)

(How happy, Chloris, were they free)

To a Lady in a Letter (final version)

84

(1)

(Such perfect bliss, fair Chloris, we)

Song

85

(1)

(Leave this gaudy gilded stage)

The Fall

86

(1)

(How blest was the created state)

The Mistress

87

(1)

(An age in her embraces passed)

A Song

88

(1)

(Absent from thee, I languish still)

A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover

89

(1)

(Ancient person, for whom I)

Love and Life

90

(1)

(All my past life is mine no more)

Epilogue to ``Love in the Dark,'' As It Was Spoke by Mr. Haines

91

(3)

(As charms are nonsense, nonsense seems a charm)

A Satyr against Reason and Mankind

94

(8)

(Were I who to my cost already am)

Fragment

102

(2)

(What vain, unnecessary things are men)

A Letter from Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country

104

(9)

(Chloe, in verse by your command I write)

A Very Heroical Epistle in Answer to Ephelia

113

(3)

(If you're deceived, it is not by my cheat)

The Disabled Debauchee

116

(2)

(As some brave admiral, in former war)

Upon Nothing

118

(2)

(Nothing! thou elder brother even to Shade)

An Allusion to Horace, the Tenth Satyr of the First Book

120

(9)

(Well, sir, 'tis granted I said Dryden's rhymes)

Disillusionment and Death (1676--1680)

Dialogue

129

(1)

(When to the King I bid good morrow)

To the Postboy

130

(2)

(Son of a whore, God damn you! can you tell)

On the Supposed Author of a Late Poem in Defence of Satyr

132

(2)

(To rack and torture thy unmeaning brain)

Impromptu on Charles II

134

(1)

(God bless our good and gracious King)

Impromptu on the English Court

135

(1)

(Here's Monmouth the witty)

The Mock Song

136

(1)

(I swive as well as others do)

On Cary Frazier

137

(1)

(Her father gave her dildoes six)

On Mrs. Willis

137

(2)

(Against the charms our ballocks have)

Song

139

(1)

(By all love's soft, yet mighty powers)

Epilogue to ``Circe''

140

(1)

(Some few, from wit, have this true maxim got)

On Poet Ninny

141

(1)

(Crushed by that just contempt his follies bring)

My Lord All-Pride

142

(2)

(Bursting with pride, the loathed impostume swells)

An Epistolary Essay from M. G. to O. B. upon Their Mutual Poems

144

(4)

(Dear friend, I hear this town does so abound)

Epigram on Thomas Otway

148

(1)

(To form a plot)

Answer to a Paper of Verses Sent Him by Lady Betty Felton and Taken out of the Translation of Ovid's ``Epistles,'' 1680

149

(1)

(What strange surprise to meet such words as these)

A Translation from Seneca's ``Troades,'' Act II, Chorus

150

(5)

(After death nothing is, and nothing, death)

Poems Possibly by Rochester

To His Sacred Majesty, on His Restoration in the Year 1660

155

(1)

(Virtue's triumphant shrine! who dost engage)

In Obitum Serenissimae Mariae Principis Arausionensis

156

(1)

(Impia blasphemi sileant convitia vulgi)

To Her Sacred Majesty, the Queen Mother, on the Death of Mary, Princess of Orange

157

(2)

(Respite, great Queen, your just and hasty fears)

A Rodomontade on His Cruel Mistress

159

(1)

(Trust not that thing called woman: she is worse)

Against Marriage

159

(1)

(Out of mere love and arrant devotion)

A Song

160

(1)

(Injurious charmer of my vanquished heart)

Epigram on Samuel Pordage

161

(1)

(Poet, whoe'er thou art, God damn thee)

On Rome's Pardons

161

(2)

(If Rome can pardon sins, as Romans hold)

Works Cited by Cue Titles in the Notes

163

(6)

Notes on the Texts, Authorship, and Dates of the Poems

169

(52)

First-Line List of Poems Omitted from This Edition

221

(18)

Indexes

First-Line Index to the Poems

239

(8)

Index of Persons

247

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The Complete Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials