Lord Rochester in the Restoration World

Matthew C. Augustine, Steven N. Zwicker

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781107064393
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316309414
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester (1647–1680), the notorious and brilliant libertine poet of King Charles II's court, has long been considered an embodiment of the Restoration era. This interdisciplinary collection of essays by leading scholars focuses new attention on, and brings fresh perspectives to, the writings of Lord Rochester. Particular consideration is given to the political force and social identity of Rochester's work, to the worlds - courtly and theatrical, urban and suburban - from which Rochester's poetry emerged and which it discloses, and not least to the unsettling aesthetic power of Rochester's writing. The singularity of Rochester's voice - his 'matchless wit' - has been widely recognised; this book encourages the continued appreciation of all the ways in which Rochester reveals the layered and promiscuous character of literary projects throughout the whole of a brilliant, abrasive, and miscellaneous age.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Note on texts and sources
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 John Wilmot and the writing of 'Rochester'
• Chapter 3 From script to print: marketing Rochester
• Chapter 4 Trading places: Lord Rochester, the laureate and the making of literary reputation
• Chapter 5 Lord Rochester: a life in gossip
• Chapter 6 Rochester and the satiric underground
• Chapter 7 Rochester, the theatre and Restoration theatricality
• Chapter 8 Rochester and the play of values
• Chapter 9 Sexual and religious libertinism in Restoration England
• Chapter 10 Sex and sovereignty in Rochester's writing
• Chapter 11 Rochester, Behn and Enlightenment liberty
• Chapter 12 Unfit to print: Rochester and the poetics of obscenity
• Chapter 13 The perspective of Rochester's letters
• Chapter 14 Rochester and rhyme
• Index