Restoration Transposed

"The satire 'Timon', attributed to the earl of Rochester and probably written in 1674, exemplifies much that is generally thought to be typical of Restoration poetry.2 Densely packed with cultural allusions and expectations, it is preoccupied with money, sex, eating and drinking, and the pleasures and dangers of contemporary London. The world it inhabits is both cliquey and competitive; other men divide into the speaker's allies and the targets of his abuse, while women are present, if at all, only to be mocked or seduced, or both. This is also a world of casual but intense sociability, as witnessed both by the situational premise of the poem, apparently a street encounter between Timon and his interlocutor, and the prior social interactions that form the main substance of the poem. Timon's chance meeting with the 'dull dining sot', carefully placed 'i'th'Mall' - a new and fashionable venue in the heart of London - leads to his near-forced participation in an impromptu dinner with companions whose wit and judgement fall absurdly short of his own nonchalant but exacting standards.3 Literature and politics are the chief topics of conversation: the sot first tries, unsuccessfully, to