Rochester is becoming increasingly recognized as a major poet of the Restoration period. In this work a team of contributors, many of whom have already made contributions to Rochester scholarship and criticism, explore the range and variety of the poet's work. The title is taken from a letter by Rochester to Henry Savile, where he explains "that second bottle...tells us the truth of ourselves, and forces us to speake the truth of others!" The book is split into three sections. The first group of essays offers complementary but contrasting interpretations of love and friendship in Rochester's poems and letters. Next, multidisciplinary essays first survey the extent to which Rochester's love lyrics inspired composers up to a century after his death, and, secondly, explore the satiric significance of the famous "monkey portrait" of the poet in the National Portrait Gallery. The third group of essays focuses on the major satires and Rochester's contribution to the Restoration theatre, before the volume is brought to an end with the Bishop of Oxford's interpretation of the poet's celebrated "death-bed repentance" as convincingly genuine.
- ISBN10 0719056837
- ISBN13 9780719056833
- Publish Date 28 September 2000
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 August 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Manchester University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English