{"id":2962,"date":"2010-09-04T10:27:37","date_gmt":"2010-09-04T14:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/?p=2962"},"modified":"2010-09-04T10:33:59","modified_gmt":"2010-09-04T14:33:59","slug":"2nd-earl-of-rochester-the-libertine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2010\/09\/2nd-earl-of-rochester-the-libertine\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Earl of Rochester: The Libertine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Whilst touring the national portrait gallery, one notices a few immediate similarities:\u00a0 first, virtually all subjects are men.\u00a0 Second, all subjects are white.\u00a0 Within these two parameters, however, the paintings were fairly diverse.\u00a0 Subjects ranged from masters of the arts to pioneers of the sciences and then, predictably, to the useless courtiers.<\/p>\n

Among these portraits, one caught my attention.\u00a0 The 2nd<\/sup> Earl of Rochester, John Wilmot, proved to be a very interesting character.\u00a0 Known for his poetry, Rochester\u2019s verses ranged from the deeply philosophical and biting satire to obscene sexual fantasies.\u00a0 Charles II was at times one of Rochester\u2019s closest allies and bosom buddies, for both indulged in similarly licentious and flamboyant social lifes, but at other times proved to be the direct target of Rochester\u2019s biting wit.\u00a0 Given these two extremes, it is easy to see why the \u201cMerry Monarch\u201d Charles II endured a strong love\/hate relationship with Rochester, banishing him from Court about once per year.<\/p>\n

Rochester died at the age of thirty three.\u00a0 The cause is believed to have been venereal disease.\u00a0 After being a staunch atheist his entire life, Rochester converted to Christianity on his deathbed, after he overcame a long torrent of alcoholic abuse.<\/p>\n

Rochester\u2019s portrait, like the poet himself, is deeply satirical.\u00a0 The portrait\u2019s inclusion of a monkey, which is squatting on a pile of books handing Rochester a mangled page of verse, proves to be a deliciously self-mocking bit of wit, for Rochester then bestows upon the animal the laurels of a poet.\u00a0 This commentary of Rochester\u2019s proves to hold true to the poet\u2019s general outlook on life.\u00a0 In his most popular poem, and easily most controversial, \u201cA Satyre against Reason and Mankind,\u201d Rochester condemns the \u201creason\u201d of mankind and praises the instincts of animals, concluding them to be logical, whereas men use their wits and reason out of fear and lust for power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whilst touring the national portrait gallery, one notices a few immediate similarities:\u00a0 first, virtually all subjects are men.\u00a0 Second, all subjects are white.\u00a0 Within these two parameters, however, the paintings were fairly diverse.\u00a0 Subjects ranged from masters of the arts to pioneers of the sciences and then, predictably, to the useless courtiers. Among these portraits, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6696],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2010-luke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}