Tag Archives: materialism

Playing Cards in Rape of the Lock

By Robin Bates | Published: October 1, 2009

The rules for ombre and how the hands are played in “Rape of the Lock.” Altogether brilliant.

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Obama as Wycherley’s Country Wife

By Robin Bates | Published: September 15, 2009

As I teach William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, I am struck by the resemblances between Restoration society and our own.The play was written in 1676 during the age of Charles II, and in some ways our worlds couldn’t be more dissimilar.This was a monarchy and a very formal society in which sincerity was viewed with […]

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Empty Sex in an Empty World

By Robin Bates | Published: September 11, 2009

John Wilmot, by Jacob Huysmans (1675) I’m have just finished teaching Lord Rochester and, as always, it has been an adventure.   I sometimes think I get more embarrassed than the students by his explicit sexual language.   My women students (they’re all women in this class) are more tolerant of his diatribes against their gender than I […]

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