Excerpt from Rochester and Other Literary Rakes of the Court of Charles II: With Some Account of Their Surroundings The frivolities and the vices of the Court of Charles II. are notorious; but, in contemptuously dismissing its courtiers from notice with short and scanty mention, students of their period have, perhaps, scarcely given sufficient recognition to the existence among them of a set of more or less literary rakes, of whom Rochester may be selected as one of the most characteristic. It will not be pretended in these pages that this little clique of writing and rhyming companions of Charles II. had an important influence on English literature; yet they probably exercised upon it an influence of some sort; and their appearance in a Court abandoned to pleasure was somewhat phenomenal. In a study of the rakish side of the Court of Charles II., and even in a study of the literary aspects of that rakishness, it will be necessary to enter some unsavoury places, and to mix among some questionable companions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.