A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Oldham, John

by John William Cousin

Oldham, John (1653-1683). -- Satirist and translator, s. of a Nonconformist minister, was at Oxf., and was the friend of most of the literary men of his time, by whom his early death from smallpox was bewailed. He made clever adaptations of the classical satirists, wrote an ironical Satire against Virtue, and four severe satires against the Jesuits. He is cynical to the verge of misanthropy, but independent and manly.