John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: The Poems and Lucinas Rape

Infamous for their sexually explicit nature, the poems of the Restoration wit and satirist John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, have been derided, snubbed, and praised as works of great genius. Keith Walker s acclaimed 1984 edition of Rochester s poems has been thoroughly revised and updated to incorporate insights and discoveries made over the past twenty–five years, and includes a text of Rochester s play Lucina s Rape – the brilliant re–working of Fletcher s Jacobean tragedy Valentinian – which has been virtually ignored by modern scholarship. Presented in a text that readily identifies the 1,300 original lines that he introduced, this edition of the scandalously neglected play brings new light to Rochester studies, illuminating the dramatic skill of the great wit.

Retaining all the outstanding features of Walker s book, the poems are presented in versions that were current during Rochester s lifetime and are arranged by genre. There are notes on dating and contemporary allusions, and the introduction includes an outline of Rochester′s life, making this the ideal text for students and scholars.

Note on This Edition ix

Acknowledgments x

Chronology xii

Introduction xvii

Further Reading xxviii

Abbreviations xxxii

POEMS

Juvenilia 1

Love Poems 5

Translations 56

Prologues and Epilogues 61

Satires and Lampoons 68

Poems to Mulgrave and Scroope 111

Epigrams, Impromptus, Jeux d esprit, etc. 131

Poems Less Securely Attributed to Rochester 138

LUCINA S RAPE OR THE TRAGEDY OF VALLENTINIAN 161

Index of Proper Names 253

Index of Titles and First Lines 257

Nicholas Fisher is an associate research fellow at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. He has co–edited a performing edition of the early settings of Rochester s songs, Songs to Phillis (1999), and has edited a collection of essays on the poet, That Second Bottle (2000).  He is currently completing a bibliography of the printed editions of Rochester′s work.

Keith Walker taught at University College, London from 1966 to 1996. Over the course of his notable career he produced distinguished editions of the works of many of the major Restoration and Eighteenth–Century writers, including The Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1984), on which this new edition is based.