The current students of Wadham College like to think of themselves as being the most radical and sexually liberated kids in town, but their collegiate predecessor, John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, would have put them to shame with his bawdy behaviour.
The infamous Rochester once attended Wadham College as a fresh faced undergraduate. A close friend of Charles II, Rochester was the author of many satirical and controversial poems. In his ‘Satyr on King Charles II’ he called the King ‘The proudest, peremptoriest prick alive’ resulting his immediate dismissal from court.
Rochester came to Wadham in 1659, at the grand old age of twelve, where he was supposedly ‘corrupted’. He acquired an M.A. at fourteen, helped by the fact that it was awarded by his uncle, the Earl of Clarendon and Chancellor of the University. At twenty, he married Northern beauty Elizabeth Malet, who had two years earlier been victim of his attempted abduction. Rochester hijacked her carriage late at night and tossed her into a coach. Her father, being less than pleased, kindly placed the Earl in the Tower of London.
Rochester led a scandalous life at court filled with debauchery, drunkenness and deviancy. Another Elizabeth in his life, mistress Elizabeth Barry, was a theatrical protégé who became the most successful actress of the Restoration period. Rochester became the source of inspiration for many playwrights, such as Aphra Behn, who based her protagonist in The Rover on him. Horace Walpole describes him as ‘a man whom the muses were fond to inspire but ashamed to avow’.
The crux of his career came in 1676. A midnight brawl with the guards got out of hand when the Earl’s companion was killed with fear causing Rochester to flee the crime scene. Subsequently he led a life in the shadows, taking on the personality of quack doctor ‘Doctor Bendo’. Using this pseudonym, Rochester ‘treated’ infertility amongst women, becoming effectively a backstairs sperm donor. ‘Mrs Bendo’ allowed for Rochester to enter the chambers of young women without qualms. It might not surprise readers to hear that Rochester died at 33 from syphilis, gonorrhoea and alcohol abuse.
His most famous play is Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery – a culturally pre-emptive title given Wadham’s indeterminate sexual preferences. Its literary offspring proved too depraved for contemporary audiences and were removed from the public domain. His appeal remains, with a recent copy of the play recently sold for £45,600. The Libertine, starring Johnny Depp and ex-Wadhamite Rosamund Pike, was based on his life.
Rochester is the quintessential Wadham alumnus, marrying the dichotomous ‘ladhamite’/ ‘sodomite’. Current students, having gazed over his eventful life might find themselves rather innocent by comparison.
