ife, his faith and doctrine justifies?" It goes on to say that they are all vain and prefer a luxurious life as opposed to a pious one. It shows how angry he was with the behaviour of these clergymen who people relied on to give them spiritual guidance, but later caused Rochester to write, in To the Postboy," I have blasphemed my God and libeled Kings". This proves that his writing is not just pornography, written with the intention of making his friends laugh. It shows the serious side to John Wilmot that people at the time may not have been entirely aware of. Also, the fact that during the time he was writing, he was unable to show his work to many people and those who may have seen it could have got the wrong idea about what he was trying to say. They could also have been offended by his description of an event that could otherwise be quite amusing. This is not difficult with some of the work - it can be misleading because the obscenity tends to veil the ideas that are behind it, blinding a judgmental reader to its true intentions. In poems such as 'Timon', this becomes a problem. The poem is actually a social commentary and satire on the time, mentioning some famous (or infamous) historical figures of the time, such as 'Mother Mosley', Falkland, and Sir John Suckling. There are also mentions of literary works that were circulating, including one by John Crowne, who actually dedicated a play to Rochester in 1672 - 'The History of Charles the Eighth of France'. However, the fact that Rochester brings into play a variety of obscenities concerning sexual activity and prostitutes could cause the reader to lose sight of the fact that Rochester appeared to be well read and quite popular amongst other authors at the time he was writing. This would be unfortunate, because often his poetry is both interesting and amusing. On the other hand, they are successful in conveying Rochester's true beliefs about the time - his atheism, his views on Ch...
