JOH! MEMOIRS OF Mr. JOHN OLDHAM. OHN OLDHAM, the delight of his witty contemporaries, who stiled him The Darling of the Muses, was born August 9, 1653, at Shipton, near Tedbury, in Gloucestershire, where his father, John Oldham, was a non-conformist minister; his grandfather was also a John Oldham, and rector of Nun-Eaton, in the same county. Oldham, the person now treated of, after having received the rudiments of his education, was sent to Edmund-Hall, in Oxford; where he was soon discovered to have a taste for poetry: nor was he long a student before great proofs appeared of his proficiency in Latin and Greek. He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in May, 1674, but, at the request of his father, he left the College, much against his own inclination, before he had compleated the degree by determination. The death of his beloved friend Mr. Charles Morwent, the following year, rendering his home comfortless, he accepted of an invitation to Croydon in Surrey, to officiate as usher of the charity-school there: here it was that the Earls of Rochester and Dorset, Sir Charles Sedley, with other witty and literary characters of that age, having accidentally seen some of his poems in manuscript, paid an elegant tribute to obscure merit, by a familiar visit to him. As Oldham had no previous intimation of this honour, it was productive of a whimsical mistake; the servant, sent with a verbal message to our humble poet, delivering it to the master of the school instead of the usher, the pedagogue, unconscious of his own dulness, or the genius of his assistant, arrogated to himself the invitation of these men of rank, and repaired to the appointment. The meeting between him and the wits may be better conceived than described; after mutual embarrassment, and some laughter, it ended with a candid confession on the master's part, that he was incompetent to their conversation, and on their's that the invitation was not intended for him, but for Mr. Oldham, his sprightly usher; who soon arrived, and, by the charms of his unpremeditated sallies, confirmed them in the opinion they had already conceived of him from his writings. To this interview was our poet indebted for his introduction to the most celebrated wits of the time, and for the friendship and patronage of many persons of the first distinction. Among other advantages which he derived from these connections, may be particularized his becoming tutor to the grand-sons of Sir Edward Thurland, a Judge, near Reigate, in Surrey; and afterwards to the son of Sir William Hicks, who resided near the metropolis. By the advice of Dr. Richard Lower, an eminent physician, he applied himself to the study of Physic, in which he made a tolerable progress; but his attachment to the muses prevented his deriving any solid advantage from his medical acquisitions. He was strongly pressed by his pupil, Mr. Hicks, to accompany him to Italy, which he politely but imprudently, declined doing; being ambitious of displaying his poetical talents in London, and not chusing to forego the society of Lord Rochester, Mr. Dryden, and other votaries of Bacchus, Venus, and Apollo; with whom he now lived upon the most intimate terms. He was also highly caressed by William, Earl of King F ston, who proposed making him his domestic chaplain; which office, from an idea of illiberal treatment sometimes experienced by gentlemen in that situation, he thankfully refused to accept. Lord Kingston, nevertheless, took him under his protection; and he lived with that nobleman in the most perfect harmony, esteem, and friendship, at Holme-Pierpoint in Nottinghamshire; where he died of the small pox, December 9, 1683, in the 31st year of his age. His last funeral rites were paid him by his noble patron, the Earl of Kingston; who also caused an elegant monument to be erected to his memory, bearing this inscription. M. S. Joh. Oldhami Poetæ Propria satis consecrabunt carmina. Quem inter primos Honoratissimi Gulielmi Comitis Et in Colestem transtulit chorum. Anno Dom. 1683. Ætatis 30. The poems of John Oldham are so well known, and their reputation so firmly established, that enumeration of, or panegyric on them, are alike unnecessary: that he possessed a versatility of talent, the slightest inspection of his writings will shew, but satire was his darling theme; in which he ranks with Donne and Churchill: Dryden lamented his being too " little "and too lately known" to him; and Waller paid the following tribute to his memory at Wilton, the year after his decease. HAIL, gen'rous Poet, whom great Wilmot lov'd, |