Abstract

This study is an exploration of the socio-economic implications of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester's libertine poetic expression in the context of his function as a Restoration court poet at the junction of the incipient economic revolution and the final decline of the political and ideological influence of the aristocracy. This is achieved by locating his place in literary history through comparison with earlier Renaissance writers and his interpretation of established literary forms, especially those traditionally associated with court literature. The specific topics explored are Rochester's use of Augustan wit as a function of aristocratic authority, and his transformation of the pastoral idiom in light of the changing perception of property in the late seventeenth century.