John Oldham

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John Oldham (August 9, 1653 – December 7, 1683) was an English poet.

He was born in Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire and received a B. A. degree from the University of Oxford in 1674. He took a position as an usher at Croyden School, where the Earl of Rochester visited him to compliment him on his poetry.

Oldham was a satirist who imitated the classical satires of Juvenal. His best-known works are A Satire Upon a Woman Who by Her Falsehood and Scorn Was the Death of My Friend, written in 1678 and A Satire against Virtue, written in 1679. His translations of Juvenal were published after his death.

He was domestic chaplain to William Pierrepont, 4th Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull.

He died aged 30 in Holme Pierrepont near Nottingham, of smallpox and a memorial, possibly by Grinling Gibbons exists in St. Edmund's Church, Holme Pierrepont. John Dryden wrote an elegy on his death.

References

• Selected Poetry of John Oldham (1653-1683) at Representative Poetry On-line (includes Biographical information)