'He that can rail at one he calls his Friend, /Or hear him absent wrong'd, and not defend; /Who for the sake of some ill natur'd Jeast, /Tells what he shou'd conceal, Invents the rest; /To fatal Mid-night quarrels, can betray, /His brave Companion, and then run away; /Leaving him to be murder'd in the Street, /Then put it off, with some Buffoone Conceit; /This, this is he, you shou'd beware of all, /Yet him a pleasant, witty Man, you call /To whet your dull Debauches up, and down, /You seek him as top Fidler of the Town.' Carr Scroope, frequent object of Rochester's scorn, here summarizes the character that has been handed down to posterity: rake-hell, misanthropist, fantasist, orchestrator and recorder of the “dull Debauches” of Restoration London. These dramatic roles, which Rochester himself both contributed to and colluded in, have for some time obscured the writer.