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Frasi di John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester, detto anche Visconte Wilmot e Lord Rochester , è stato un nobile, poeta, drammaturgo, letterato, militare e cortigiano inglese, amico del re Carlo II d'Inghilterra e autore di numerosi componimenti a carattere umoristico e satirico.

Rochester veniva rinomato come un genio nella Corte del re durante la Restaurazione inglese ed era una figura di spicco dei cavalier lyrists, cioè gli scrittori e i poeti che facevano parte della Corte del sovrano Carlo II. Veniva considerato il miglior wit di tutta l'Inghilterra.

Fu anche un protettore degli artisti e noto libertino, tanto da diventare, insieme a personalità come Vanini e de Sade, una delle figure più emblematiche di questo movimento, e da guadagnarsi il soprannome di "Il libertino".

Fu il marito dell'ereditiera Elizabeth Malet, dalla quale ebbe quattro figli. La sua fama si deve anche alle sue numerose amanti, tra cui l'attrice teatrale Elizabeth Barry, alla quale sembra che abbia tenuto in privato delle lezioni di recitazione, rendendola un'attrice brillante, e dalla quale ebbe una figlia.

Rochester era piuttosto famoso nella corte del re e nella nobiltà inglese non solo per il suo eroismo militare e le sue poesie, ma anche per il fatto che abusava degli alcolici e ciò lo rendeva "sfarzosamente gradevole". Tuttavia veniva rinomato non solo per le scorribande ma anche per i guai: venne cacciato e riammesso innumerevoli volte alla corte di re Carlo II, che Rochester aveva satireggiato in modo scurrile. Oltre all'alcol, la distruzione da parte sua di una meridiana regale, una rissa nella quale rimase ucciso un suo amico, Mr Downes, e vari altri avvenimenti lo portarono alla disgrazia. Wikipedia  

✵ 1. Aprile 1647 – 26. Luglio 1680
John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester photo
John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester: 41   frasi 2   Mi piace

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester frasi celebri

“Vorrei essere un cane, una scimmia, o un orso,
O tutto tranne quell'animale vanitoso,
Che è così orgoglioso d'essere razionale.”

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester

vv. 5-7
A Satire Against Mankind

“Siate voi stesso giudice, voglio chiedervi questo,
Qual è la creatura più bassa, l'uomo o la bestia?
Gli uccelli si nutrono di uccelli, le bestie si cacciano tra loro,
Ma solo il barbaro uomo uccide l'uomo.
Spinti da necessità, quelli uccidono per il cibo,
L'uomo manda in rovina l'uomo senza ricavarne vantaggio.”

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester

vv. 127-132
A Satire Against Mankind

“Dunque non mi parlare d'incostanza,
Di cuori falsi e voti infranti;
Se io, per miracolo, posso esserti
Fedele in questo istante lungo una vita,
È tutto ciò che il cielo può concedere.”

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester

da Love and Life, vv. 11-15

“Non è l'attore che piace, ma la parte.”

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester

da Draft of a Satire on Men

“I sensi sono rozzi e ne architetta
Un sesto per dare contro agli altri cinque;
E davanti al certo istinto preferisce
La ragione, che erra cinquanta volte contro una.”

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester

vv. 8-11
A Satire Against Mankind

“Perché tutti gli uomini sarebbero dei vigliacchi se osassero.”

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester

v. 158
A Satire Against Mankind

Questa traduzione è in attesa di revisione. È corretto?

“Osserva il gentil modo che la terra coglie il seme.
Ad ogni grano offre una nascita:
Su essa alcuna precipitazione sta sgradita,
Il suo utero volenteroso li trattiene tutti,
E dovrebbe essere confinata la mia Caelia?
No, vivi la tua potente mente,
E sii la padrona del uomo!”

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester

John Wilmot, II conte di Rochester: Frasi in inglese

“Here lies our sovereign lord the king,
Whose word no man relies on;
He never says a foolish thing,
Nor ever does a wise one.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Written on the Bedchamber Door of Charles II, as quoted in The Book of Days : A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities (1832) by Robert Chambers, Viol. II, July 26, p. 126.

“The world appears like a great family,
Whose lord, oppressed with pride and poverty,
(That to the few great bounty he may show)
Is fain to starve the numerous train below.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Like a Great Family.
Other

“Were I, who to my Cost already am
One of those strange, prodigious Creatures Man,
A Spirit free, to choose for my own Share,
What sort of Flesh and Blood I pleas’d to wear,
I’d be a Dog, a Monkey, or a Bear,
Or any thing, but that vain Animal,
Who is so proud of being Rational.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

ll. 1-7.
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)

“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

As quoted in The New Speaker's Treasury of Wit and Wisdom (1958) by Herbert Victor Prochnow

“Great Negative, how vainly would the Wise
Enquire, define, distinguish, teach, devise,
Didst thou not stand to point their dull Philosophies?Is, or is not, the Two great Ends of Fate,
And, true or false, the Subject of Debate,
That perfect, or destroy, the vast Designs of Fate.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Upon Nothing, ll. 28–33.
Other

“Thou treacherous, base deserter of my flame,
False to my passion, fatal to my fame,
Through what mistaken magic dost thou prove
So true to lewdness, so untrue to love?”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

The Imperfect Enjoyment.
Other

“If you have a grateful heart (which is a miracle amongst you statesmen), show it by directing the bearer to the best wine in town, and pray let not this highest point of sacred friendship be performed slightly, but go about it with all due deliberation and care, as holy priests to sacrifice, or as discreet thieves to the wary performance of burglary and shop-lifting. Let your well-discerning palate (the best judge about you) travel from cellar to cellar and then from piece to piece till it has lighted on wine fit for its noble choice and my approbation.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Letter to the diplomat Henry Savile (1673-1674).
Other

“We have a pretty witty king,
Whose word no man relies on;
He never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

About King Charles II of England, as quoted in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Vol. XLIV (January - June 1857) p. 592; It is said to that this was written on the door of Charles II’s bedchamber, and that on seeing it, the king replied, “This is very true: for my words are my own, and my actions are my ministers’....”
Other

“So, when my Days of Impotence approach,
And I’m by Pox and Wine’s unlucky chance
Driv'n from the pleasing Billows of debauch
On the dull Shore of lazy Temperance;My Pains at least some Respite shall afford
While I behold the Battles you maintain
When Fleets of Glasses sail about the Board,
From whose Broad-sides Volleys of Wit shall rain.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

The Maim'd Debauchee, ll. 13–20.
Other

“Farewell, woman! I intend
Henceforth every night to sit
With my lewd, well-natured friend,
Drinking to engender wit.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Love a woman! Y’are an ass, ll. 9–12.
Other

“Reason, an Ignis fatuus of the Mind,
Which leaves the light of Nature, Sense, behind.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

ll. 12-13.
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)

“There's not a thing on earth that I can name,
So foolish, and so false, as common fame.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Did e'er this Saucy World.
Other

“For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose,
The best good man with the worst-natured muse.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

An allusion to Horace, Satire x. Book i. Compare: "Thou best-humour'd man with the worst-humour'd muse!", Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation, Postscript.
Other

“The clog of all pleasure, the luggage of life,
Is the best can be said for a very good wife.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

On a Wife.
Other

“Lest, once more wandering from that heaven,
I fall on some base heart unblest,
Faithless to thee, false, unforgiven,
And lose my everlasting rest.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Absent from thee, I languish still, ll. 13-16.
Other

“But a meek humble Man of modest Sense,
Who, Preaching Peace, does practice Continence;
Whose pious life’s a proof he does believe,
Mysterious Truths, which no Man can conceive.
If upon Earth there dwell such God-like Men,
I'll here Recant my Paradox to them;
Adore those Shrines of Virtue, homage pay,
And, with the rabble world, their Laws obey.
If such there are, yet grant me This at least,
Man differs more from Man, than Man from Beast.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

ll. 212-221
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)

“It is a good world to live in,
To lend, or to spend, or to give in;
But to beg or to borrow, or to get a man's own,
It is the very worst world that ever was known.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Epigram, sometimes attributed to John Bromfield
Other

“But oh, how slowly minutes roll
When absent from her eyes,
That feed my love, which is my soul:
It languishes and dies.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

The Mistress: A Song, ll. 5–8.
Other

“Thus, Statesman-like, I’ll saucily impose,
And, safe from Danger, valiantly advise;
Sheltered in Impotence, urge you to Blows,
And, being good for nothing else, be Wise.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

The Maim'd Debauchee, ll. 41–44.
Other

“On thy wither’d lips and dry,
Which like barren furrows lie,
Brooding kisses I will pour,
Shall thy youthful heart restore.
(Such kind showers in autumn fall,
And a second spring recall);
Nor from thee will ever part,
Ancient Person of my Heart.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover, ll. 7-14.
Other

“Love, the most generous passion of the mind
The softest refuge innocence can find”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

A Letter from Artemisia in Town to Chloe in the Country (1679)

“Whilst the misguided Follower climbs with Pain,
Mountains of Whimsies, heapt in his own Brain,
Stumbling from Thought to Thought, falls headlong down
Into Doubt’s boundless Sea, where like to drown,
Books bear him up a-while, and make him try
To swim with Bladders of Philosophy.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

ll. 16–21.
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)

“When my young master's worship comes to town,
From pedagogue and mother just fit free,
The heir and hopes of a great famiiy;
Who with strong beer and beef the country rules,
And ever since the Conquest have been fools;
And now, with careful prospect to maintain
This character, lest crossing of the strain
Should mend the booby breed, his friends provide
A cousin of his own to be his bride…”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

A Letter from Artemisia in Town to Chloe in the Country (1679)

“Naked she lay, clasped in my longing arms,
I filled with love, and she all over charms;
Both equally inspired with eager fire,
Melting through kindness, flaming in desire.
With arms, legs, lips close clinging to embrace.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

The Imperfect Enjoyment (published 1680).
Other

“For all Men would be Cowards if they durst:
And Honesty’s against all common Sense.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

ll. 158-159.
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)

“Then Old Age, and Experience, hand in hand,
Lead him to death, and make him understand,
After a Search so painful, and so long,
That all his Life he has been in the wrong.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

ll. 25-29.
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)

“Angels listen when she speaks:
She ’s my delight, all mankind’s wonder;
But my jealous heart would break
Should we live one day asunder.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Song.
Other

“Then talk not of Inconstancy,
False Hearts, and broken Vows;
If I, by Miracle, can be
This live-long Minute true to thee,
‘Tis all that Heav’n allows.”

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John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Love and Life, ll. 11-15.
Other

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