Restoration Libertines and the Clash of their Weltanschauungen: Reason, Faith, and Human Nature in Buckingham's and Rochester's Writings
Abstract
Like libertinism in general, its heterogeneous and unstable Restoration variety had at its heart an outlook in conflict with the norm and is herein examined in the light of its intellectual value and critical input. The present paper contrasts A Satyr against Reason and Mankind by John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester (1647-80), and To Mr.
Clifford, on his Humane-Reason by George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham (1628-87). Belonging to Charles II's merry gang, the duo had much in common, including a grand gusto for all pleasurable pastimes, such as intellectual, literary in particular, pursuits.
However, as the paper aims to demonstrate, the two famous libertines of the Restoration age differed greatly in their professed views on reason, faith, and man. Whereas the skeptical earl draws a grim portrayal of his fellow-creatures and shatters the concept of reason in its conventional understanding, the duke's paradigm is a reworking of traditional Christian ideas, emancipated by rationalist thought and tolerationist beliefs.
Importantly, Buckingham's writings disrupt the widely accepted antireligious and antirationalist construct of the Restoration libertine, whose categorizations seem to require further analysis and refinement.