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John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester; of Wadham College, Oxford
After Death nothing is, and nothing, Death;
The utmost limit of a gasp of breath.
Let the ambitious zealot lay aside
His hopes of Heaven, whose faith is but his pride;
Let slavish souls lay by their fear
Nor be concerned which way or where,
After this life they shall be hurled:
Dead, we become the lumber of the world,
And to that mass of matter shall be swept
Where things destroyed, with things unborn are kept;
Devouring time swallows us whole,
Impartial Death confounds Body and Soul,
For Hell, and the foul Fiend that rules
The everlasting fiery gaols,
Devised by rogues, dreaded by fools,
With his grim, grisly dog that keeps the door,
Are senseless stories, idle tales,
Dreams, whimseys, and no more.
Dead, we become the lumber of the world,
And to that mass of matter shall be swept
Where things destroyed, with things unborn are kept;
Devouring time swallows us whole,
Impartial Death confounds Body and Soul,
For Hell, and the foul Fiend that rules
The everlasting fiery gaols,
Devised by rogues, dreaded by fools,
With his grim, grisly dog that keeps the door,
Are senseless stories, idle tales,
Dreams, whimseys, and no more.
Seneca (ca. 4BC- AD 65)
Seneca, Troades, lines 397-408
Post mortem nihil est ipsaque mors nihil,
uelocis spatii meta nouissima;
spem ponant auidi, sollicit metum:
tempus nos auidum denorat et chaos.
tempus nos auidum denorat et chaos.
mors indiuidua est, noxia corpori
nec parcens animae: Taenara et aspero
regnum sub domino limen et obsidens
custos non facili Cerberus ostio
rumores uacui uerbaque inania
et par sollicito fabula somnio.
quaeris quo iaceas post obitum loco?
quo non nata iacent.
"There it was that he laid a good foundation of learning and study, though he afterwards built upon that foundation hay and stubble". Robert Parsons, from A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Rt. Honorable John Earl of Rochester, Oxford, 1680.
Voltaire on Rochester
"THE EARL OF ROCHESTER’S name is universally known. Mr. de St. Evremont has made very frequent mention of him, but then he has represented this famous nobleman in no other light than as the man of pleasure, as one who was the idol of the fair; but, with regard to myself, I would willingly describe in him the man of genius, the great poet. Among other pieces which display the shining imagination his lordship only could boast, he wrote some satires on the same subjects as those our celebrated Boileau made choice of..."
“Hold mighty man, I cry all this we know,
And ’tis this very reason I despise,
This supernatural gift that makes a mite
Think he’s the image of the Infinite;
Comparing his short life, void of all rest,
To the eternal and the ever blest.
This busy, puzzling stirrer up of doubt,
That frames deep mysteries, then finds them out,
Filling, with frantic crowds of thinking fools,
Those reverend bedlams, colleges, and schools;
Borne on whose wings each heavy sot can pierce
The limits of the boundless universe.
So charming ointments make an old witch fly,
And bear a crippled carcass through the sky.
’Tis this exalted power, whose business lies
In nonsense and impossibilities.
This made a whimsical philosopher
Before the spacious world his tub prefer;
And we have modern cloistered coxcombs, who
Retire to think, ’cause they have naught to do.
But thoughts are given for action’s government,
Where action ceases, thought’s impertinent.”
From Rochester's Farewell, 1680:
Tired with the noisome follies of the age,
And weary of my part, I quit the stage;
For who in life's dull farce a part would bear?
Where rogues, whores, bawds, all the head actors are?
Wadham College, not long after Rochester was at the college
Voltaire on Rochester
"THE EARL OF ROCHESTER’S name is universally known. Mr. de St. Evremont has made very frequent mention of him, but then he has represented this famous nobleman in no other light than as the man of pleasure, as one who was the idol of the fair; but, with regard to myself, I would willingly describe in him the man of genius, the great poet. Among other pieces which display the shining imagination his lordship only could boast, he wrote some satires on the same subjects as those our celebrated Boileau made choice of..."
This supernatural gift that makes a mite
Think he’s the image of the Infinite;
Comparing his short life, void of all rest,
To the eternal and the ever blest.
This busy, puzzling stirrer up of doubt,
That frames deep mysteries, then finds them out,
Filling, with frantic crowds of thinking fools,
Those reverend bedlams, colleges, and schools;
Borne on whose wings each heavy sot can pierce
The limits of the boundless universe.
So charming ointments make an old witch fly,
And bear a crippled carcass through the sky.
’Tis this exalted power, whose business lies
In nonsense and impossibilities.
This made a whimsical philosopher
Before the spacious world his tub prefer;
And we have modern cloistered coxcombs, who
Retire to think, ’cause they have naught to do.
But thoughts are given for action’s government,
Where action ceases, thought’s impertinent.”
François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778). Letters on the English.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. Letter XXI—On the Earl of Rochester and Mr. Waller
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