escaped that fatal rock, on which he afterwards split,
upon his return to court, where love and pleasure kept their perpetual
rounds, under the smiles of a prince, whom nature had fitted for all
the enjoyments of the most luxurious desires. In times so dissolute as
these, it is no wonder if a man of so warm a constitution as
Rochester, could not resist the too flattering temptations, which were
heightened by the participation of the court in general. The uncommon
charms of Rochester's conversation, induced all men to court him as a
companion, tho' they often paid too dear for their curiosity, by being
made the subject of his lampoons, if they happened to have any
oddities in their temper, by the exposing of which he could humour his
propensity to scandal. His pleasant extravagancies soon became the
subject of general conversation, by which his vanity was at once
flattered, and his turn of satire rendered more keen, by the success
it met with.

Rochester had certainly a true talent for satire, and he spared
neither friends nor foes, but let it loose on all without
discrimination. Majesty itself was not secure from it; he more than
once lampooned the King, whose weakness and attachment to some of his
mistresses, he endeavoured to cure by several means, that is, either
by winning them from him, in spite of the indulgence and liberality
they felt from a royal gallant, or by severely lampooning them and him
on various occasions; which the King, who was a man of wit and
pleasure, as well as his lordship, took for the natural sallies of his
genius, and meant rather as the amusements of his fancy, than as the
efforts of malice; yet, either by a too frequent repetition, or a too
close and poignant virulence, the King banished him [from] the court
for a satire made directly on him; this satire consists of 28 stanzas,
and is entitled The Restoration, or the History of the Insipids; and
as it contains the keenest reflexions against the political conduct,
and private character of that Prince, and having produced the
banishment of this noble lord, we shall here give it a place, by which
his lordship's genius for this kind of writing will appear.

The RESTORATION, or The History of INSIPIDS, a LAMPOON.

I.

Chaste, pious, prudent, Charles the second,
The miracle of thy restoration,
May like to that of quails be reckon'd,
Rain'd on the Israelitish nation;
The wish'd for blessing fr