Libertinism in Restoration Poetry: Aphra Behn and Lord Rochester Amelia Coen College

‘Woman, a pleasing but a short-lived flow’r,/ Too soft for business and too weak for pow’r:/ A wife in bondage, or a neglected maid;/ Despised, if ugly; if she’s fair, betrayed.’(MARY LEAPOR) Trinity 2017.

Mary Leapor draws upon the notion of pleasure (through referring to the ‘pleasing nature of women), a key concept in Libertine ideology. Libertinism values pleasure, particularly sensual gratification, above morality and rationality. This essay will discuss gendered attitudes towards Libertinism in restoration poetry, arguing that Aphra Behn demonstrates the double-standard of Libertinism that excludes women from the liberty of sexual pleasure, a concept Leapor refers to here through stating, ‘despised, if ugly; if she’s fair, betrayed.’ I will also discuss the pessimistic language in Leapor’s statement, reflecting on the general nihilism present in both Behn’s and John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester’s poetry.

Perhaps most striking about Leapor’s verse statement is that it demonstrates a female writer discussing the objectification of women from an objective and detached perspective; Leapor’s speaker denies agency to women as ‘woman’, ‘wife’, and ‘maid’ are all the objective nouns of the statement. This is reminiscent of...