Pike, Rosamund 362
Pinto, Vivian de Sola 359; Enthusiast in Wit 359
Pitts, Warden 30
playhouses 69
Poems on Several Occasions 338
poetry/poets 95, 136; Restoration courtier 95–6
Pope, Alexander 133, 350–1; ‘Imitations of Horrace’ 351; ‘On Silence’ 351
Pope, Walter 40
Popish Plot 269–73, 275, 276, 278, 282, 285, 286, 301, 307, 340,
341–2
Portsmouth, Duchess of see Kérouaille, Louise de
Portugal 61–2
Pound, Ezra 358
Povey, Thomas 261
Presbyterianism 9, 13
Prinz, Johannes 358
prostitutes 116
Protectorate 14, 18–19, 20, 24, 27, 28, 30, 34, 51, 63 see also Cromwell, Oliver
Puritans 10, 16, 66, 359
R
Radcliffe, Dr Alexander 313, 316
‘Regime de Vivre’ 71–2, 204
Rehearsal, The 133–4, 135
Reresby, Sir John 66, 112
Revenge, HMS 84
Roberts, Jane 264, 265, 298, 320
Rochester, Elizabeth (daughter by Barry) 276–7
Rochester, 1st Earl of see Wilmot, Henry (Rochester’s father)
Rochester, 2nd Earl of (John Wilmot)
¶ EARLY YEARS: awarded degree of Master of Arts 38; birth 6–7; childhood and upbringing 17, 27; doubts over paternity 7; education and schooldays 17–18, 22–3, 27, 240; and European grand tour 39–46; granting of pension by Charles II 38, 60; growth of debauchery 35, 39; at Oxford University 28, 29–39; relationship with and influence of Whitehall on 32–4; time spent at French court 41–4; visits Italy 44–6
¶ ADULT LIFE: abilities and attributes x, 41, 106, 302, 322; aborted duel with Mulgrave 123–4, 126, 192, 288; accused of libelling Charles’ mistress Louise and attempts to refute 210–13, 214; advancement at court and court appointments 91, 92, 106, 116, 153, 171–2, 203; appearance 7, 35, 106; arrival at court 47; attempt to woo Elizabeth Malet 91–2, 94–5, 97, 98–101; Ballers involvement 116, 129, 204; banishments from court and returns to royal favour ix, 86–7, 167, 168, 171–2, 194, 206–7, 219, 221, 233; Bendo persona and cures offered ix–x, 227–33, 234, 349; birth of children and fatherhood 122, 152, 172, 214, 239–40, 283, 321–2; bisexuality of 72, 169–70, 283–5; blackmail attempt lodged against by a ‘Mr P’ 307–8, 309; and Buckingham’s release from prison 243, 244; and Clarendon’s downfall 109; comparison to Byron 354–6; contempt for organized religion 187–8, 197, 303; correspondence with Barry 202, 208, 220, 221, 234, 236, 244, 252, 256–7, 276; correspondence with Blount 274, 304; correspondence with Savile 138, 158–9, 170, 260–2, 263, 264–5, 278–80, 283–6, 308, 333; correspondence with wife 105, 117, 121, 122, 143, 146, 147–8, 151, 152–3, 172, 203–4, 239, 254, 283, 309; criticism of Whitehall society and royal court 191–2, 194, 201; death rumour 216–17, 280; death and elegies to x, 326–7, 331, 336–8; deathbed conversion and penitence 313–23, 324, 324–5, 334, 335–6, 349, 356, 359; denigration of in Mulgrave/Dryden’s ‘An Essay upon Satire’ 286–9; destruction of Charles’s sundial 206–7, 292, 348; destruction of written work by mother after death 332–3; disguises and role-playing 105, 119, 157, 300, 348; dispute with Dunbar 158; dramatic and fictional representation of 359–63; and drinking 32, 35, 138, 157, 158, 300; end of affair with Barry 256, 276–7; Epsom affair and murder of Downs 222–3, 224, 229, 245–6, 288, 348; in exile at Adderbury after dismissal from court 167–9, 170–1, 218; failed abduction of future wife ix, 78–81, 86, 92; financial affairs 115, 151, 172, 203–4, 208, 214; and Du Puis murder rumour 245–6; forming closer relationship with family in later years 282–3; funeral and Parsons’ sermon 333–6; Graham Greene’s interest in 358–9; House of Lords participation 109, 115, 242, 272, 278, 306; ill-health 130, 145, 152, 159, 233, 251, 252–3, 255, 257, 261, 265, 282, 301, 306, 309, 313; im-peachment of Danby involve-ment 277–8; and impotence 129, 135, 145, 164; lam-poon-ing of 204; linking of name with brutal attack against Dryden 291–2; lodging built at Whitehall 201; love affair with Barry 160–1, 162, 170, 172, 202–3, 208, 220–1, 234, 236, 238–9, 242, 244, 252, 255, 256; marriage to and relationship with Elizabeth 79 100–2, 105, 113–14, 117–18, 145–6, 147, 152–3, 233–4, 254, 283, 348; mental state in final days 319; as mentor to young playwrights 204–5; musings on death and afterlife 85, 263, 300; outrageous and obscene behaviour 102, 130, 219, 247, 252; pet monkey 183; and philosophy 141, 170, 182, 306; plotting to ruin reputation of by enemies 252, 253; and Popish Plot 271, 272–4, 278, 285, 308; portraits of 106–7, 251, 356–7; possession of by devil accusation 167–8; posthumous reputation and view of 347–59; quarrels with Scrope 216, 244–6; relationship with Balfour 40; relationship with Behn 235; relationship with Buckingham 111, 138, 240, 252; relationship with Charles II 4, 38, 81, 82, 86, 119–20, 166–7, 212–14, 239, 318, 348; relationship and conversations with Burnet 186, 297–304, 306; relationship with Dryden ix, 134, 157, 214–16, 291–2; relationship with Savile 138, 170, 212, 213, 253, 260, 308; relationship with valet (Belle Fasse) 283–5; and religion x, 17, 45, 89, 263, 299, 301, 302–4, 314–17, 319; return visits to Adderbury 203, 236; Second Anglo-Dutch War naval involvement and gallant conduct by x, 83–6, 92–3, 94, 209; seduction of innkeepers’ wives 348–9; seizure of illegitimate daughter from Barry and taken to live with other children 276–7; sexual activities x, 46, 116–17, 126, 129, 158; striking Killigrew incident and dispatched to French court 120–2, 124; support of Earl of Arran and aborted duel with Seymour 306–7; supports Nell Gwyn in her Irish land claim 242–3; syphilis x, 39, 126, 138, 152, 157, 185, 217, 233, 251, 263, 264, 293; theatre interest 157, 160, 201; Tower of London incarcerations ix, 77, 81, 241; tutoring Barry story 159–60; Victorian view of 356; will 331–2
¶ POETRY AND WRITINGS 89–90, 96–7, 117–18, 127, 160–1, 168, 169, 355, 363–4; adaptation of Fletcher’s Valentinian 97; ‘Alexander Bendo’s Bill’ 230; ‘An Allusion to Horace’ 23, 140, 201, 205, 214–15, 216; ascribing Sodom to debate 149–51, 162, 205, 214; assessment of 289–90; Chloris songs 127–9, 135; coarsen-ing of verse 127; collaboration with Fane on Love in the Dark 204; critical interest in twentieth century 358–9; criticism of by Johnson 353; decline in output 237; ‘The Disabled Debauchee’ xv–xvi, 72, 174, 208–10, 261; ‘The Discovery’ 97, 98; Dryden and Mulgrave’s criticism of 288–9; ‘An Epistolary Essay from MG to OB upon their Mutual Poems’ 290; ‘Fair Chloris in a pigsty lay’ 128; ‘The Fall’ 115; first poem attributed to 36–7; forgery of (1761) 352; gift for metaphor and imagery 184; ‘Give me leave to rail at you’ 97–8; greatest love lyric 114; growing reputation at court as a poet 175; hatred of cant and bigotry in works of 185; ‘The Imperfect Enjoyment’ 129, 135–7, 143, 145, 235; ‘Impia blasphemi’ 37; influence of Hobbes 182; ‘Love and Life’ 182; masculine frailty and sexual frustration as central feature of 135–6; monkey as key motif in later work 107; ‘My Lord All-Pride’ 280–2, 286; ‘On Poet Ninny’ 246; ‘On the Supposed Author of a Late Poem in Defence of Satyr’ 245; as playwright 205–6; Pope’s view of 350–1; posthumous view of 351–4, 357, 359; publishing of Poems on Several Occasions after death 338; qualities 209; ‘A Ramble in St James’s Park’ 23, 140–5, 172–3; ‘A Satire against Reason and Mankind’ 32, 43, 107, 173, 177, 181–98, 210, 242, 289, 297–8, 299, 331, 351, 357; ‘A Satire on Charles II’ 163–5, 166, 210, 262; and ‘Signior Dildo’ 162–3, 289; ‘A Song of a Young Lady to her Ancient Lover’ 237–8; and ‘Timon’ 172, 174–7, 185, 214; ‘To Her Sacred Majesty, the Queen Mother’ 37–8; ‘To the Postboy’ 205, 223–4; ‘A Translation from Seneca’s Troades’ 304–6; treatment of love in 100–1; and ‘Tunbridge Wells’ 172–4, 190; ‘’Twas a dispute twixt heaven and earth’ 96–7; ‘Upon his drinking a bowl’ 161; ‘Upon Nothing’ 258–9, 351, 353, 354; view of by Hazlitt 354; view of in Enlightenment France 351–2; Voltaire’s view of 3
51–2; ‘While on those lovely looks I gaze’ 100–1
Rochester (play) 360
‘Rochester’s Farewell’ 318
Rome: visiting of by Rochester during Grand Tour 45
Royal Charles (ship) 92, 108, 164
Royal Society 30
Royalists 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 18–21, 24, 30, 51–2
Rump Parliament 11, 28, 31, 53
Rupert, Prince 6, 60, 91, 92
Russell, Ken ix
S
Sackville, Charles see Buckhurst, Lord Charles
St John, Joanna 317, 321
St John, Sir John 6
St John, Sir Walter 214
St Paul’s Cathedral 93
Sandwich, 2nd Earl of 83
Sandwich, 3rd Earl of 341
Satan/Satanism 167–8
Savile, George see Halifax, Marquess of
Savile, Henry 77, 129, 219, 237, 260–3; attempt to seduce Elizabeth Percy 139; correspondence with Rochester 138, 158–9, 170, 260–2, 263, 264–5, 278–80, 283–6, 308, 333; death 347; in France 265, 278–9, 280; ill-health 260; regret at not being at Rochester’s bedside during final illness 318; relationship with Rochester 138, 170, 212, 213, 253, 260, 308; and syphilis 263, 264
Savile, Sir William 77
Scottish Covenanters 13
scrofula 151
Scroggs, Chief Justice William 342
Scrope, Sir Carr 216, 244, 246; ‘In Defence of Satire’ 245, 253; Rochester’s satires on 216, 244–5, 253
Sealed Knot group 19
Sedley, Charles 73–4, 95
Seneca: Troades 304
Seymour, Sir Edward 306–7
Shadwell, Thomas 201; The Libertine 201–2; The Medal of John Bayes 134; The Sullen Lovers 246
Shaftesbury, Earl of (Anthony Ashley Cooper) 241, 271, 272, 273, 275
Sheffield, John see Mulgrave, Earl of
Sheffield, Edmund 123
Shepherd, Fleetwood 162, 213 or Sheppard p. 162
Short, Thomas 313, 316
Smith, William 269
Sodom 148–51, 162, 205, 214
sodomy 35, 72
Solemn League and Covenant 13
Sorceau, Claude 67
Southey, Robert 215
Spain: relations with England 61
Spragge, Sir Edward 92, 116
Sprat, Thomas 112
Stafford-Clark, Max 361
Stage Beauty 362
Sternhold, Thomas 89
Stillingfleet, Edward 196, 197–8
Stuart, Frances 87
Suckling, John 95
syphilis 137–8, 144, 263–4; treatments for 263–4
T
Tennyson, Alfred 184, 357
Test Act (1673) 272
theatres 69, 134, 139 see also individual names
Thistlethwayte, Robert 31
Thomson, Father 271
Thurloe, John 20, 21–2
Tiddiman, Sir Thomas 84
Tonge, Israel 270
Tower of London 77
Tower Street (London) 227
Triple Alliance 125
Trosse, George 29
V
Vaughan, John see Lisburne, Viscount
Venice 45
Verdi, Oberto 360
Verney, Jack 257
Verney, Sir Ralph 14, 101, 257, 306
Versailles, Palace of 42
Vieth, David M. 359
Villiers, Barbara see Castlemaine, Barbara
Villiers, Sir Edward 19
Villiers, George see Buckingham, Duke of
Voltaire 351–2, 356
W
Wadham College (Oxford) 28, 29–30, 36
Wagstaffe, Joseph 19–20, 21
Wakeman, Sir George 342
Walker, Keith 361
Waller, Edmund: ‘St James’s Park’ 140
Walpole, Horace 333, 352
Walter, Lucy 6, 62, 371
Warre, Sir John 125
Wedderburn, Sir John 40
Weston, John 19
Wharton, Anne 355; eulogy to Rochester 337–8
Whig party 162
Whitehall, Robert 32–6, 87, 210, 247, 342
Whitgreave, Thomas 3
Wilkins, John 29–30
William and Mary 339
Williamson, Sir Joseph 213
Wilmot, Anne (née St John) (Rochester’s mother) 8–9, 24, 146, 152–3, 171, 203, 258, 316–17, 341; attempt to keep Ditchley Park out of Commonwealth hands 9, 13–14; character 9; death 341; destruction of son’s written work 332–3, 338; first marriage 6, 8; marriage to Wilmot 6, 7, 16–17; and marrying of grand-daughters 341; relation-ship with daughter-in-law 101, 146, 152–3, 340; and son’s deathbed conversion 317, 318, 319, 321, 334
Wilmot, Anne (Rochester’s daughter) 122, 239, 331, 341
Wilmot, Charles (Rochester’s son) 124, 151, 152, 239–40, 283, 321–2, 340–1
Wilmot, Elizabeth (née Malet) (Rochester’s wife): and Catholicism 271, 315, 322; correspondence with husband 105, 117, 121, 122, 143, 146, 147–8, 151, 152–3, 172, 203–4, 239, 254, 283, 309; death 340; and death of husband 340; failed abduction of by Rochester ix, 79–81, 86, 92; marriage to and relationship with Rochester 79, 100–2, 105, 113–14, 117–18, 145–6, 147, 152, 233–4, 254; and mother-in-law 146, 152–3, 340; poetry written 98–9, 146–7; and Popish Plot 340; reconversion to Protestantism 325, 340; Rochester’s attempt to woo 78–9, 91–2, 94–5, 97, 98–101; and Rochester’s will 332
Wilmot, Elizabeth (Rochester’s daughter) 172, 341
Wilmot, Elizabeth (Rochester’s illegitimate daughter) 255, 276, 331
Wilmot, Francis (Rochester’s brother) 6
Wilmot, Henry (Rochester’s brother) 6
Wilmot, Henry (Rochester’s father) 16–17, 123, 316; character and appearance 5, 7–8; and Charles I 11–12; created Earl of Rochester 5; death 24; escape from London after Charles II’s defeat and life on the run (1651) 1–4; escape to France 4–5, 16–17; involved in plot to return Charles II to throne 23–4; life before escape to France 6–8; marriages and birth of children 6; rebellion against Cromwell and defeat (1655) 19–21; relationship with Charles II 1–3, 6, 11–12
Wilmot, John see Rochester, 2nd Earl of
Wilmot, Malet (Rochester’s daughter) 214, 341
Wilmot, Sir Robert 356
Windham, George 84–5
Winnington Bridge, Battle of (1660) 51–2
Wiseman, Richard: Several Surgical Treatises 263–4
Wissing, William 106
witchcraft 10, 189
Wood, Anthony à 7, 31, 33, 34, 35–6, 182, 338, 349
Woodstock Lodge 145, 252, 332, 343, 347
Worcester, Battle of (1651) 1, 4, 13
Wren, Christopher 30, 39, 148, 188, 343
Wright, John Michael 107
Wycherley, William 139–40, 201; The Country Wife 201; Love in a Wood 139–40; The Plain Dealer 240–1
Y
York, Duchess of see Mary of Modena
York, James, Duke of 4, 162, 271, 275, 282, 342
About this Book
The life of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester – dashing Restoration dandy, scabrous satirist and pornographic poet – was short in duration and long on scandal. His misdeeds embraced the abduction of his future wife; banishment from the court of Charles II; a poetic output that includes some of the most explicit verse in the English language – and a smorgasbord of sex. He died agonizingly of syphilis at the age of thirty-three, having ‘swived more whores more ways than Sodom’s walls e’er knew’.
Co-existing with the libertine of legend, however, is another Rochester: a naval officer who served his country with courage; a devoted (if inconstant) husband, father and lover; a man of deep intellectual cur
iosity at the heart of a cultural golden age; and a poet who explored the preoccupations of the time with both verbal wit and original thought and whose love lyrics are among the most beautiful of the period.
In this, the first truly comprehensive biography of Rochester, Alexander Larman explores not only the life, poetry and legacy of a remarkable and complex man, but also paints a vivid portrait of an era rich in literary achievement, architectural innovation, philosophical investigation, hard living and strong wine: a world of dangerous but thrilling contradictions, which would change the face of England forever
To download a free copy of the works of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, visit: www.headofzeus.com/rochester
Reviews
‘Steeped in sin and style, as the man and his times dictate, Alex Larman’s biography of the original rake Lord Rochester makes for a dazzling debut. Along with the “lavish voluptuousness” of the man himself (as Dr Johnson has it), he gives us the melancholy, decency and intellectual brilliance of Wilmot and makes reasonable claim for him as more poet than polecat, as much libertarian as libertine.’
Ian Kelly, author of Casanova
‘Lord Rochester and the court of Charles II in which he cavorted come riotously to life in Alex Larman’s splendid new work. This is a window into the topsy-turvy world of the Restoration – dazzling and debauched, enlightened and devout. Blazing Star is a rich, witty and erudite biography from a brilliant new voice in English history.’
Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets
‘Larman charts the peerless peer’s merry road to hell with a dash and dexterity even his subject might have admired.’
Lisa Hilton, author of Mistress Peachum’s Pleasure
About the Author
ALEX LARMAN has written extensively about literature and the arts for publications including the Guardian, New Statesman, The Spectator, the Daily Telegraph, the Erotic Review and the Observer, and has written a radio play, Jack and Archie, about the relationship between C.S. Lewis and John Betjeman. Blazing Star is his first book. He was born in 1981 and was educated at Winchester and Oxford, where he read English and graduated with a First. He lives in London with his fiancée Nancy, and can be followed on twitter at @alexlarman
Blazing Star Page 44