Isaac Barrow and the Earl of Rochester

Abstract

The story of the ‘legendarily dissipated’1 Earl of Rochester (1647–80) being ‘outmanoeuvred in repartee’ by the royal chaplain and theologian Isaac Barrow (1630–77) has been an accepted part of Rochester folklore since Vivian de Sola Pinto made reference to it in his revised biography of the poet in 1962.2 Pinto relied on the account supplied by J. H. Overton in his entry for Barrow for The Dictionary of National Biography;3 Overton’s source was a manuscript, now in the British Library, which dates from around the middle of the nineteenth century, and itself seems to be a word for word copy of the entry about Barrow in An Universal Biographical and Historical Dictionary that had been published some years earlier. It forms the earliest and fullest record of the encounter yet discovered: As a proof of [Barrow’s] wit, we are told the following story: Meeting lord Rochester one day at court, his lordship, by way of banter, thus accosted him: ‘Doctor, I am your’s to my shoe tie.’ Barrow, seeing his aim, returned his salute as obsequiously, with ‘My lord, I am your’s to the ground.’ Rochester, improving his blow, quickly returned it, with ‘Doctor, I am your’s to the centre’; which was as smartly followed by Barrow, with ‘My lord, I am your’s to the antipodes.’ Upon which, Rochester, scorning to be foiled by a musty old piece of divinity as he used to call him, exclaimed, ‘Doctor, I am your’s to the lowest pit of hell.’ On which Barrow, turning on his heel, answered, ‘There, my lord, I leave you.’4