John Wilmot would label Lance Armstrong as a “knave of the first rate” for his doping and bullying.
John Wilmot would understand the obsession of America’s gun extremists.
Perhaps some of the conservative antipathy to Obama is because he is seen as just taking over when he promised to work for social justice.
Sex without love, the subject of several sex comedies this past summer, was also an issue explored by poets and playwrights in the British Restoration.
Posted in Friends with Benefits (film), Libertine (film), No Strings Attached (film), Olds (Sharon), Wilmot (John), Wycherley (William) | Also tagged Against Constancy, Comedy, Country Wife, Film, Friends with Benefits, Libertine, No Strings Attached, sex, Sex without Love, Sharon Olds, William Wycherley |
John Wilmot’s poetry stands as a warning against living only for self.
Jean Honore Fragonard, The Bolt (1776) Yesterday I wrote about Aphra Behn giving us images of women’s sexual liberation in her 1677 play The Rover. But there is a dark undertone that differentiates the play from male-authored Restoration comedies. Behn’s play may not be as polished as the plays of William Wycherley and George Etherege. [...]
Aphra Behn, by Mary Beale I am having a great deal of fun teaching Aphra Behn’s play The Rover this week. Written in 1677 during the reign of Charles II, it is a rollicking sex comedy that proved to be very popular. A woman writing for the stage was in itself extraordinary. That the play [...]
John Wilmot, by Jacob Huysmans (1675) I’m have just finished teaching Lord Rochester and, as always, it has been an adventure. I sometimes think I get more embarrassed than the students by his explicit sexual language. My women students (they’re all women in this class) are more tolerant of his diatribes against their gender than I [...]
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester Once again the poetry of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, is proving to be a jolt to my students. I always start my course “Couples Comedy in the Restoration and 18th Century” with this 17th century libertine, and the poetry does not hold back. Rochester freely uses the “f” word, [...]
