John Oldham

The son of a Presbyterian clergyman, the much-lamented John Oldham was educated by his father and at St. Edmund Hall Oxford (B.A. 1674). He taught as an usher in Whitgift's School, Croydon (1675-78) and afterwards as a tutor for Sir Edward Thurland, among others (1678-82). Oldham lived just long enough to win the admiration of Rochester, Dryden, and the first wits of his age.

TEXT RECORDS:

1681Bion. A Pastoral, in imitation of the Greek of Moschus, bewailing the Death of the Earl of Rochester.
1681Horace his Art of Poetry, imitated in English.
1681 ca.Virgil. Eclogue VIII. The Enchantment.
1683A Satire. The Person of Spencer is brought in.

PUBLICATIONS:

Upon the marriage of the Prince of Orange. 1677.
Garnet's ghost, addressing the Jesuits. 1679.
A Pindarick ode describing the excellency of true virtue. 1679.
A satyr against vertue. 1679.
The clarret drinker's song. 1680.
Satyrs upon the Jesuits. 1681.
Some new pieces never before publisht. 1681.
Anacreon done into English [Oldham et. al.] 1683.
Poems and translations. 1683.
Remains. 1684.
Works of Mr. John Oldham in verse and prose. 1684.
A second musical entertainment perform'd on St Cecilia's day. 1685.
Works. 2 vols, 1722.
Compositions in prose and verse, ed. Edward Thompson. 3 vols, 1770.
Poems, ed. Harold F. Brooks and Raman Selden. 1987.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Tetbury Grammar School
St. Edmund Hall Oxford
Bachelor of Arts

schoolmaster
tutor
poet

John Dryden
Thomas D'Urfey
Earl of Rochester
Thomas Flatman
Nahum Tate

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687); [Portrait in Works]; Blount, De re poetica (1694); Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721); Biographia Britannica (1747-66) 5:3265-68; Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753); James Granger, Biographical History (1769; 1824) [portrait]; Memoir by Edward Thompson in Poems (1770); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789-97); Francis Godolphin Waldron, in Biographical Mirror (1795, 1798) [portrait]; "John Oldham" European Magazine 47 (January 1805) 4-5; William Taylor of Norwich, "Remarks on the Poems of Oldham" Monthly Magazine 27 (November 1809) 161; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Bliss, Athenae Oxonienses (1815); Joseph Spence, Anecdotes (1820); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); William Cullen Bryant, "Oldham's Poems" Old and New (September 1872) in Prose Works (1884); The English Poets, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Harold F. Brooks, "Bibliography of Oldham" Oxford Bibliographic Society Proceedings 5 (1940); Harold F. Brooks, "The Imitation in English Poetry" Review of English Studies 25 (1949) 124-40; Sutherland, OHEL (1969); Harold F. Brooks, "Oldham and Phineas Fletcher: An unrecognized Source for Satyrs upon the Jesuits" Review of English Studies 22 (1971) 410-22; James Zigerell, John Oldham (1983); Poems, ed. Harold F. Brooks (1987); Spenser Encyclopedia, "Oldham" (1990) 517-18; Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for John Oldham:

1.	1684  John Dryden, "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham" Oldham, Remains (1684) no sig.
2.	1684  Thomas Flatman, "On the Death of Mr. John Oldham. Pindaric Pastoral Ode" Oldham, Remains (1684) sigs. A-A2.
3.	1684  Nahum Tate, "In Memory of the Author" Oldham, Remains (1684) sig. A2-A2v.
4.	1684  Thomas D'Urfey, "On the ensuing Poems of Mr. John Oldham, and the Death of his good Friend the ingenious Author" Oldham, Remains (1684) sigs. A2v-A3v.
5.	1685  Anonymous, "A Pastoral on the Death of Mr. Oldham" Sylvae: or, The Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies (1685) 468-74.
6.	1700  Samuel Cobb, in Poetae Britannici (1700) 17-18.
7.	1709  William Coward, in Licentia Poetica Discuss'd (1709) 73.
8.	1709  Isaac Watts, "Burning several Poems of Ovid, Martial, Oldham, Dryden, &c." Watts, Horae Lyricae (1709) 221-22.
9.	1712  Bezaleel Morrice, in Essay on the Poets (1712; 1721) 27.
10.	1728 ca.  Alexander Pope, 1728-20 ca.; Spence, Anecdotes, ed. Singer (1820) 19.
11.	1779  Vicesimus Knox, in Essays Moral and Literary (1779) 2:153.
12.	1791  William Gifford, in The Baviad (1791) 45.
13.	1805  Anonymous, "John Oldham" European Magazine 47 (January 1805) 4-5.
14.	1806  William Taylor of Norwich to Robert Southey, 3 June 1806; in Robberds, Memoir of William Taylor (1843) 135-36.
15.	1808  Walter Scott, in Life of Dryden (1808; 1834) 239.
16.	1824  Bryan Waller Procter, in Effigies Poeticae, or, the Portraits of the British Poets (1824) 55.
17.	1872  William Cullen Bryant, in "Oldham's Poems" 1872; Prose Works (1884) 1:127-28.
18.	1880  A. W. Ward, in The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions, ed. Thomas Humphry Ward (1880) 2:432-33.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Oldham:

1.	1687  William Winstanley, Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687) 212-13.
2.	1690  Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 2:751-52
3.	1720  Giles Jacob, in Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of our most considerable English Poets (1720) 120-25.
4.	1753  Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 2:337-43.
5.	1769  James Granger, in Biographical History of England (1769; 1824) 5:251.
6.	1776  John Nichols, Note in Original Works of William King (1776) 3:54n.
7.	1789  Anonymous, in Bell's Classical Arrangement of Fugitive Poets (1789-97) 18:163-64.
8.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 23:329-31.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1678  Ben Jonson:   John Oldham, "Upon the Works of Ben. Johnson. Written in 1678. Ode" Oldham, Poems, and Translations (1683) 69-86.
2.	1683  Samuel Butler:   John Oldham, in "A Satyr" Poems and Translations (1683) 173-74.
3.	1683  Edward Howard:   John Oldham, in "A Satyre" Oldham, Poems and Translations (1683) 169.
4.	1683  Samuel Pordage:   John Oldham, in "A Satyr" Poems and Translations (1683) 169.
5.	1683  Francis Quarles:   John Oldham, in "A Satyr" Poems and Translations (1683) 169-70.
6.	1683  Sir Charles Sedley:   John Oldham, in "A Satire" Oldham, Poems, and Translations (1683) 175.