ROCHESTER, JOHN WILMOT, second Earl of, has left a name notorious for wit and profligacy. He was b. April 10, 1647, at Ditchley, Oxfordshire, his father being Henry, first earl, better known as the lord Wilmot of Clarendon's History. He was entered of Wadham college, Oxford, when only 12 years of age; and at 14 was, with other persons of rank, made M.A. by lord Clarendon in person. After traveling in France and Italy, he attached himself to the court, and rose high in favor with Charles II., who made him one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber, and comptroller of Woodstock park. In 1665 be went to sea in the fleet commanded by the earl of Sandwich, and behaved at Bergen with great intrepidity. His account of the attack is described in a letter to his mother given in Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical I3iography. He had entered into a formal engage ment with his friend Mr. Windham, " not without the ceremonies of religion, that if either of them died, lie should appear, and give the other notice of the future state, if there was any." Windham was killed in the action, but did not afterward disturb the repose of his friend. Rochester incurred the displeasure of the king. and was committed to the tower, for the forcible abduction of a celebrated beauty and heiress, Miss 3Iallett, who was rescued by her friends, but whom he subsequently married before he was 20 years old. His wit and love of pleasure made him the favorite of a dissolute court. He
once harangued the populace as a mountebank from a stage on Tower hill, and is said to have occasionally persuaded the " merry monarch" to disguise his rank, and accom pany him in the pursuit of frolic and adventure. His genius and activity of mind led him to withdraw at times from scenes of gallantry and licentious merriment. He culti vated the muses with success, and Anthony Wood speaks of him as the greatest scholar among the nobility of his day. As he grew older, he gave less of his time to study, and more to the company of vicious companions, and indulgence in wine. His constitution being undermined by excess and voluptuousness, he died. at the early age of 34. Bishop Burnet has left an interesting account of his death under the title of Some Passages of the Life and Death of John Earl of Rochester, from which it appears that he became a sincere convert to the truth of Gliristia,nity, and sincerely repented his immoral and dis solute courses. He wrote some love-songs, an elegant Imitation of Horace on Lucilius, a Satire against Nan, in which he is much indebted to Boileau, and an Essay on Nothing, which is perhaps his best performance.