King Charles II
The Earl wrote several poems in which King Charles II pops up, but the notorious is “A Satyr on Charles II.” Thinking he was giving the king a copy of rather ribald poem about a new sex toy making its way from Italy to England, Wilmot instead accidentally handed the sitting King a poem about his sexual excesses with the implication that the mistresses of the monarch were sucking the treasury dry.
Corinna
Corinna is a female who appears in several poems including “To Corinna” and perhaps his famous work, “The Perfect Enjoyment.” She is a woman of voracious sexual appetite whose sensual carnality is the cause for the premature ending of that enjoyment which proves not as enjoyable as it might well have been. Corinna is based on no one in particular; the name traces back through pastoral poetry by a number of poets.
John Roberts
John Roberts appears by name in a short poem of barely four lines. He takes credit for writing, pasting, plastering and framing something in honor of Charles II. He never appears again. It is thought that Roberts was a servant of the Earl.
King Louis XIV
Rochester was among the those alongside English Ambassador Ralph Montagu when they introduced to the King. At some point thereafter, Louis sent word of his refusal to meet with the poet. This insult was met in turn by Rochester with a couple publicly accusing the King of having procured Lorraine and Burgundy through underhanded means and implying that the debt owed for payment for Flanders would prove hardly worth the cost.
Sir Carr Scroope
Scroope is proof enough to beware getting into public feuds. Scroope was a literary wannabe, a dandy and the inexplicable target of Rochester’s public venom. The most famous attack against Scroope is as the title character in the Earl’s poem “On Poet Ninny.” Scroope, however, eventually managed to get the last laugh as nobody alive today would even know he was had it not been for Rochester’s singling him out for fustigation.
