To further explore the metaphorical language surrounding consumption, the body, trade, and virtues and vices, we examined some of the important literature of the Restoration. One author—John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester—is known for writing rather lewd poetry which criticized England, politically and socially.
In reading a selection of Rochester’s poetry, we were struck by the role of disease. Words such as “scurvy,” “purge,” and “spew’ help to convey, in verse, Wilmot’s opinion that “humanity’s our worst disease.” In relation to some of our early findings, this is linked to the idea of the body politic, and Rochester portrays a symbiotic relationship between humans and the economy.
“Must we not pay a debt to pleasure too?”
Pleasure and sexual relations also take on a transactional nature, and love and sex are used as symbols throughout the selection of poetry we read. The use of bodily terms in a pejorative manner and the saturation of erotic metaphor contributed to the impressions of obscenity surrounding his works. He relates very intangible concepts, like economics and virtue and vice to the very tangible of the human body and humanity through personification.
“for wits are treated just like common whores”
Using literature as a lens for seeing how a different segment of society than lawmakers or philosophers of the time or historians later, allows us both to see some common societal critiques, and to delve into the metaphorical language of consumption and related concepts.
We recognize the limitations of our historical knowledge of this period in England but hope to use some further historical research to better contextualize our findings in the other fields which we are exploring. Looking into this poetry was a point of beginning for the literature side our research and prompted our team to investigate other types of written works, such as the Restoration Comedy.
