OLDHAM, JOIN, 1653-83; b. England; educated at Oxford, where he won distinc tion by his proficiency and, Greek, and by his English poetry. Want of means forced him to university' in 1674, and he soon secured employment as an usher at the free rehool in Croydon Surrey. The first of his published poems was a Pindaric ode, on the death of his friend, Richard Morwent; it is rich in comparisons, and shows a tenderness in strong contrast with the fierce satire of his later He continued to cultivate poetry as a relief from the drudgery of " beating Greek and Latin for his life," as he describes it; and some of his MS. poems attracted the notice of the reigning London wits, sir Charles Sedley, the earl of Dorset, and the earl of Rochester, who paid him a Visit at Croydon. By their influence he was made tutor to the sons of sir Edward Thurlow, i'vith whom he lived till 1680. At this time he was engaged upon his ..-Wires upon the Jesuits, which appeared in 1679, when the excitement in regard to the so-called " Popish plot" was at its height. They are full of bitterness and Protestant rancor, and
gained for Oldham a high reputation. While tutor to the son of sir William Hicks, he became acquainted with Dr. Richard Lower, a famous London physician, and was induced to study medicine; but he abandoned it at the end of a year and, settling in London, devoted himself to literature. He was an intimate friend of Dryden and the other wits and satirists of the clay. He refused the post of private chaplain to the earl of Kingston, who was his patron, and bad proposed to have him enter holy orders. His last poem is called A Sunday Thought in Sickness, and is of a devotional character. His poems are forcible and vehement, but defective in versification. Oldham, in the opinion of Hallam, " ranks next to Dryden; he is spirited and pointed, but his versification is too negligent, and his subjects temporary."