a wit must rest, in the present day, chiefly
upon productions which have long since been condemned as unreadable.
Strange to say, when not under the influence of wine, he was a constant
student of classical authors, perhaps the worst reading for a man of his
tendency: all that was satirical and impure attracting him most.
Boileau, among French writers, and Cowley among the English, were his
favourite authors. He also read many books of physic; for long before
thirty his constitution was so broken by his life, that he turned his
attention to remedies, and to medical treatment; and it is remarkable
how many men of dissolute lives take up the same sort of reading, in the
vain hope of repairing a course of dissolute living. As a writer, his
style was at once forcible and lively; as a companion, he was wildly
vivacious: madly, perilously, did he outrage decency, insult virtue,
profane religion. Charles II. liked him on first acquaintance, for
Rochester was a man of the most finished and fascinating manners; but at
length there came a coolness, and the witty courtier was banished from
Whitehall. Unhappily for himself, he was recalled, and commanded to wait
in London until his majesty should choose to readmit him into his
presence.

Disguises and practical jokes were the fashion of the day. The use of
the mask, which was put down by proclamation soon after the accession of
Queen Anne, favoured a series of pranks with which Lord Rochester,
during the period of his living concealed in London, diverted himself.
The success of his scheme was perfect. He established himself, since he
could not go to Whitehall, in the City. 'His first design,' De Grammont
relates, 'was only to be initiated into the mysteries of those fortunate
and happy inhabitants; that is to say, by changing his name and dress,
to gain admittance to their feasts and entertainments.... As he was able
to adapt himself to all capacities and humours, he soon deeply
insinuated himself into the esteem of the substantial wealthy aldermen,
and into the affections of their more delicate, magnificent, and tender
ladies; he made one in all their feasts and at all their assemblies; and
whilst in the company of the husbands, he declaimed against the faults
and mistakes of government; he joined their wives in railing against the
profligacy of the court ladies, and in inveighing against the king's
mistresses: he agreed with them, that the industrious poor were to pay
for these