caa a22 4500 388018003 CHVBK 20180307124916.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199804 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1086/386155 doi S0021937100023467 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1086/386155 Cowan Brian Reasonable Ecstasies: Shaftesbury and the Languages of Libertinism [Elektronische Daten] [Brian Cowan] Anthony Ashley Cooper, the third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), would have recoiled at any implication that he was a libertine. His antipathy to libertinism is obvious, and examples are plentiful in his writings. His major work, the Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), consistently uses the words "libertine” and "rake” as insults; in all of his writings sensual pleasures are disparaged as base and animalistic threats to human virtue. And despite the third earl's widespread reputation as a freethinker in matters religious, he always insisted that liberty of thought did not imply a freedom from moral restraint. Certainly Shaftesbury's early reputation was more that of a shy and unsociable recluse rather than that of a rakish mondain. In 1721, John Toland thought it necessary to defend his late friend from accusations of unsociability, not of licentiousness. He claimed that Shaftesbury's enemies "gave out that he was too bookish, because not given to play, nor assiduous at court; that he was no good companion, because not a rake nor a hard drinker, and that he was no man of the world, because not selfish nor open to bribes.” Toland also remarked how Shaftesbury frowned upon the "extravagant liberties” taken by "both sexes” even without having lived "to see masquerades, or the ancient Bacchanals revived, nor to hear of promiscuous clubs.” Indeed, Lord Ashley's own private papers reveal that he was quite uncomfortable in the polite world of England's social elite; he much preferred the pastoral tranquillity of his Dorset estate and the relaxed company of his most trusted friends. Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1998 The Journal of British Studies Cambridge University Press 37/2(1998-04), 111-138 0021-9371 37:2<111 1998 37 JBR https://doi.org/10.1086/386155 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1086/386155 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Cowan Brian NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- The Journal of British Studies Cambridge University Press 37/2(1998-04), 111-138 0021-9371 37:2<111 1998 37 JBR CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge