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-       Earl of Roscommon[1]

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[1] Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, was born in Ireland about 1630. He was a nephew of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, and was educated partly under a tutor at his uncle’s seat in Yorkshire, partly at Caen in Normandy and partly at Rome. After the Restoration he returned to England, and was well received at court. In 1649 he had succeeded to the earldom of Roscommon, which had been created in 1622 for his great-grandfather, James Dillon; he was now put in possession by act of parliament of all the lands possessed by his family before the Civil War.

Disputes with the Lord Privy Seal about his Irish estates necessitated his presence in Ireland, where he gave proof of some business capacity. On his return to London he was made Master of the Horse to the Duchess of York. He was twice married, in 1662 to Lady Frances Boyle, widow of Colonel Francis Courtenay, and in 1674 to Isabella Boynton.

Roscommon’s reputation as a didactic writer and critic rests on his blank verse translation of the Ars Poetica (1680) and his Essay on Translated Verse (1684). The essay contained the first definite enunciation of the principles of “poetic diction,” which were to be fully developed in the reign of Queen Anne. Roscommon, who was fastidious in his notions of “dignified writing,” was himself a very correct writer, and quite free from the indecencies of his contemporaries. He formed a small literary society which he hoped to develop into an academy with authority to formulate rules on language and style, but its influence only extended to a limited circle, and the scheme fell through after its promoter’s death. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1685.  (Source: Encylopedia Brittanica, 1911)