If you were asked to recall an English poet famed for his excesses and his bad behavior, you would probably think of Byron. A few might instead choose Coleridge and his opium, drunk by the pint. Both artists survive for posterity on the strength of their poetry, as much as their reputation.
But there is a story of another English poet who was certainly too much into women, wine, and drugs. He was debauched enough to earn a bad reputation, and he lived and died a hundred years before Byron or Coleridge were born. He was, perhaps, the great libertine of the age.
John Wilmot, or Lord Rochester, was a popular English poet and the courtier of the restoration court of King Charles II. The king, returned to rule in 1660 after the execution of his father in 1649 (hence “restoration”) was in something of a party mood.
Charles led the country in embracing a new freedom, reacting against the Puritanical restrictions which had corseted the country for decades. Rochester was only too happy to join his king in this new wave of excess, earning himself a name for his rakish lifestyle, and his poetry, in that order.
He burned through his life at a rapid pace, dying at only 33 due to some venereal disease. But the impression that he built over these 33 years of his life shines brightly to this day. Was he truly as bad as everyone said he was?
