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John Wilmot, 2d Earl of Rochester

Rochester's life was short but adventurous—so adventurous that the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi once considered writing an opera about it. He was a courtier, a soldier, a lover, a gambler, and a poet—the quintessential

Bully, The

by John Wilmot, 2d Earl of Rochester (1647–80)

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9      <date ty="birth" circa="false" suffix="ad">1647</date>
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16

Room, room for a blade of the town

That takes delight in roaring,

And daily rambles up and down,

And at night in the street lies snoring:

That for the noble name of Spark

Dares his companions rally;

Commits an outrage in the dark,

Then slinks into an alley.

To every female that he meets

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