The Complete Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

by Earl of Rochester; Edited and with an introduction by David M. Vieth

• ISBN13: 9780300097139
• ISBN10: 0300097131
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-11-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

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