John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: The Poems and Lucinas Rape

Infamous for their sexually explicit nature, the poems of the Restoration wit and satirist John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, have been derided, snubbed, and praised as works of great genius. Keith Walker s acclaimed 1984 edition of Rochester s poems has been thoroughly revised and updated to incorporate insights and discoveries made over the past twenty–five years, and includes a text of Rochester s play Lucina s Rape – the brilliant re–working of Fletcher s Jacobean tragedy Valentinian – which has been virtually ignored by modern scholarship. Presented in a text that readily identifies the 1,300 original lines that he introduced, this edition of the scandalously neglected play brings new light to Rochester studies, illuminating the dramatic skill of the great wit.

Retaining all the outstanding features of Walker s book, the poems are presented in versions that were current during Rochester s lifetime and are arranged by genre. There are notes on dating and contemporary allusions, and the introduction includes an outline of Rochester′s life, making this the ideal text for students and scholars.

Notes on This Edition.

Acknowledgments.

List of Illustrations.

Chronology.

Introduction.

Further reading.

Abbreviations.

POEMS.

Love Poems.

Translations.

Prologues and Epilogues.

Satires and Lampoons.

Poems to Mulgrave and Scroope.

Epigrams, Impromptus, Jeux d Esprit, etc..

Poems less securely ascribed to Rochester.

LUCINA S RAPE OR THE TRAGEDY OF VALLENTINIAN.

Introduction.

Text.

Index of Titles and First Lines.

Nicholas Fisher is a visiting research fellow at the Institute of English Studies, University of London. He is the co–editor of a performing edition of the early settings of Rochester s songs, Songs to Phillis (1999), and its expanded version, Singing to Phillis: Settings of Poems by the Earl of Rochester 1647–1680 (2009). He is also the editor of a collection of essays on Rochester, That Second Bottle (2000).

At last, an indispensable edition of Rochester for all scholars and teachers of the Restoration period. The drama Valentinian/Lucina′s Rape is literally a revelation, over one thousand lines of authentic Rochester now visible in bold type. James Grantham Turner, University of California, Berkeley

Fisher s edition of Rochester is not only a fitting and loving tribute to two great Rochesterians, Keith Walker and Harold Love: it is a considerable work of independent scholarship, providing an unmodernized text fully informed by the most authoritative manuscript sources and intelligently annotated. A delicious bonus is the inclusion of Rochester s version of John Fletcher s tragedy Valentinian entitled Lucina s Rape. Rochester is one of the most influential writers not to have appeared extensively in print in his own lifetime. This important edition enables us to understand that influence and evaluate it anew. Brean Hammond, University of Nottingham

"For scholars of seventeenth–century libertine culture and poetry lovers with a penchant for old–school smut, Rochester′s verse holds abiding interest. Walker′s and Fisher′s edition makes these verses accessible to a broad audience, their exhaustive annotations and introductory material offering contextual information invaluable to readers new to this author, or indeed to the seventeenth century." (M/C Reviews, October 2010)