Ribald Classic: Essay On Woman
March, 1975
On November 15, 1763, the assembled House of Lords listened to Lord Sandwich read a long, indecent poem called "Essay on Woman." It was, of course, a parody of Alexander Pope's famous "Essay on Man" and was purported to have been written by John Wilkes. His lordship was trying to add some weight to the charge of seditious libel against Wilkes and—as one of the most dissolute, foulmouthed noblemen in England—thoroughly enjoyed this effort to do his old friend in. Lord Lyttleto...
