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A rake, short for rakehell (analogous to "hellraiser"), is a historic term applied to a man who is habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanising. Often a rake was also prodigal who wasted his (usually inherited) fortune on gambling, wine, women and song, incurring lavish debts in the process. Comparable terms are "libertine" and "debauchee." The Restoration rake was a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat whose heyday was during the English Restoration period (1660–1688) at the court of Charles II. They were typified by the "Merry gang" of courtiers, who included as prominent members the Earl of Rochester; George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham; and the Earl of Dorset, who combined riotous living with intellectual pursuits and patronage of the arts. At this time the rake featured as a stock character in Restoration comedy.〔Harold Weber, ''The restoration rake-hero : transformations in sexual understanding in seventeenth-century England'' (Univ. Wisc., 1986; ISBN 0-299-10690-X).〕〔See generally, Jean Gagen, "Congreve's Mirabell and the Ideal of the Gentleman", in ''PMLA'', Vol. 79, No. 4 (Sep. 1964), pp. 422–427.〕〔David Haldane Lawrence (2007) "Sowing Wild Oats: The Fallen Man in Late-Victorian Society Melodrama", ''Literature Compass'' vol. 4 no. 3, pp. 888–898 (2007)〕 After the reign of Charles II, and especially after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the cultural perception of the rake took a dive into squalor. The rake became the butt of moralistic tales in which his typical fate was debtor's prison, venereal disease, or, in the case of William Hogarth's ''A Rake's Progress'', insanity in Bedlam.〔John Harold Wilson, ''A Rake and His Times'' (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Young, 1954).〕 ==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 King Charles himself, 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.〔Fergus Linnane (2006) ''The Lives of the English Rakes''. London, Portrait: 19–20〕 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 some were also duelists but not to the approval of King Charles. Highlights 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 the lowlight was Buckingham killing Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury in a duel for the latter's wife.〔Graham Parry (1986) "Minds and Manners 1660–1688" in ''Stuart England'' edited by Blair Worden. London, Guild Publishing: 176–8〕 In 1682 Thomas Wharton, 5th Baron Wharton, broke into a church at night and relieved himself against the communion table and in the pulpit.〔Kenyon, J.P. ''The Stuarts'' Fontana Edition 1966 p.188〕 A later group of aristocratic rakes were associated with the Hell Fire Club in the eighteenth century. These included Francis Dashwood and John Wilkes.〔Fergus Linnane (2006) ''The Lives of the English Rakes''. London, Portrait: 113–166〕 Other rakes include Colonel Charteris; Cagliostro, Lord Byron, John Mytton, Giacomo Casanova, Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun; the Marquis de Sade and Beauchamp Bagenal. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rake (character)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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