OLDHAM, JOHN

born Aug. 9, 1653, Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire, Eng. died Dec. 9, 1683, Holm Pierrepont, near Nottingham pioneer of the imitation of classical satire in English. Oldham took a B.A. degree at the University of Oxford in 1674 and in 1676 became an usher at Croydon School. His poems attracted the attention of the Earl of Rochester, who visited him at Croydon and is said to have much delighted in his poetry. Oldham's imitation of Moschus' elegy on Bion, written at Rochester's death, contains a touching expression of his gratitude to him. In 1677 he attempted, apparently unsuccessfully, to win recognition at court by writing a poem on the marriage of the Princess Mary to William of Orange. While a resident of London, he was on the fringe of the court wits and met John Dryden, who mourned him in a noble elegy. Oldham has a notable place in the development of Augustan poetry. The four Satyrs Upon the Jesuits (1681), including Garnet's Ghost, previously published as a broadsheet in 1679, constitute his most widely known work. They are forceful but melodramatic, crowded with coarse images and uneven versification, an attempt to imitate the invective of Juvenal. His satires have the novelty of being directed toward general subjects rather than being personal lampoons.