This is the best of many light pieces by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, one of the court wits of Charles II's reign. Of his dissolute life and penitent death an account was given by Burnet in 1680. Speaking of Rochester to Lord Dorset, Pope says:
'They should be considered as holiday writers; as gentlemen that diverted themselves now and then with poetry, rather than as poets.'Spence's Anecdotes ; p. 212.