existence remains in his satires and lampoons, but the obscenity depicting Rochester's disquiet with the world at large becomes more of an issue in a later poem - A Satyr on Charles II. The title is self evident, but the reasons for Rochester writing it are more complex. Rochester was supported by a pension from the king, but despite this, he still wants to make his vies known, if not to the king, then at least to his closest friends. The fact that he relied on Charles II for monetary needs (his) makes the fact that he was dissatisfied all the more apparent. It is obvious from the poem that he feels the king is not a good statesman, that in fact his "...prick, like thy buffoons at Court, Will govern thee because it makes thee sport." (A Satyr on Charles II: 14 -15)He takes the idea of the king being led by his penis rather than his skills as a monarch further later in the poem:"'Tis sure the sauciest prick that e'er did swive,The proudest peremptoriest prick alive...Restlessly he rolls about from whore to whore,A merry monarch, scandalous and poor."(A Satyr on Charles II: 16-17, 20-21)Rochester is being obscene because it emphasises the way he feels the king is behaving - that he is wasting his time on prostitutes and good living instead of concentrating on his conflict with Louis XIV. It gives the effect that perhaps he was looking for - it is shocking to think of one's monarch in terms of a Casanova type character, as opposed to a stately and dignified ruler. It is evidently motivated by events within the world at large. This is not the only poem in which his coarse language makes a mockery out of the king and other people in the court. It shows that he has a darker side to his work, which reveals itself in these lampoons. The poems also highlight his atheism and disbelief in religion. The whole period for Rochester is one of hypocrisy and dissimulation. His anxiety and disquiet becomes apparent in "Satyr against Reason and Mankind",...
