Rake (character) - in History

In History

The defining period of the rake was at the court of Charles II in the late seventeenth century. Dubbed the "Merry Gang" by poet Andrew Marvell, their members included George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, Sir Charles Sedley, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, and the playwrights William Wycherley and George Etherege. Following the tone set by the monarch himself, these men distinguished themselves in drinking, womanising and witty conversation, with the Earl of Rochester outdoing all the rest. Many of them were inveterate gamblers, brawlers and duellists also. Lowlights of their careers include Sedley and the Earl of Dorset preaching naked to a crowd from an alehouse balcony in Covent Garden, as they simulated sex with each other, and Buckingham killing the Earl of Shrewsbury in a duel for the latter's wife.

A later group of aristocratic rakes were associated with the Hell Fire Club in the eighteenth century. These included Francis Dashwood and John Wilkes.

Other rakes include Colonel Charteris; Cagliostro, Lord Byron, John Mytton, Giacomo Casanova, Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun; the Marquis de Sade and Beauchamp Bagenal.