The Tavern Scene from A Rake's Progress by William Hogarth.

A rake is a stock character, a man who wastes his (usually inherited) fortune on "wine, women, and song," incurring lavish debts in the process. The rake is also frequently a cad: a man who seduces a young woman and impregnates her before leaving, often to her social or financial ruin. To call the character a rake calls attention to his promiscuity and wild spending of money; to call the character a cad implies a callous seducer who coldly breaks his victim's heart. The tavern scene from The Rakes Progress by William Hogarth (eighteenth century) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... The tavern scene from The Rakes Progress by William Hogarth (eighteenth century) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Plate 3 - Tom succumbs to the pleasures of the flesh at The Rose Tavern, Drury Lane. ... William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745 William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... A stock character is a fictional character that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. ... For other uses, see inheritance (disambiguation). ... Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of grapes and grape juice. ... Image of a nude woman on the Pioneer plaque sent to outer space. ... A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ... Debt is that which is owed. ... Seduction is the process of deliberately enticing another person into an act (see motivation). ...

During the Restoration period 1660-1688, the word was used in a glamorous sense: the Restoration rake is a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat typified by Charles II's courtiers, the Earl of Rochester and the Earl of Dorset, who combined riotous living with intellectual pursuits and patronage of the arts. The Restoration rake is celebrated in the Restoration comedy of the 1660s and 1670s. 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. King Charles II The English Restoration or simply Restoration was an episode in the history of Great Britain beginning in 1660 when the monarchy was restored under King Charles II after the English Civil War. ... Charles II or The Merry Monarch (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland from 30 January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ... For other people of this name, see John Rochester. ... Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (24 January 1638 – 29 January 1706) was an English poet and courtier, son of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset (1622–1677). ... Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. ... The term Glorious Revolution refers to the generally popular overthrow of James II of England in 1688 by a conspiracy between some parliamentarians and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau. ... A debtors prison is a prison for people unable to pay a debt to another. ... Sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), also known as sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), are diseases that are commonly transmitted between partners through some form of sexual activity, most commonly vaginal intercourse, oral sex, or anal sex. ... William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745 William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... Plate 3 - Tom succumbs to the pleasures of the flesh at The Rose Tavern, Drury Lane. ... Agnolo Bronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (1540/45), Detail Insanity, or madness, is a semi-permanent, severe mental disorder typically stemming from a form of mental illness. ... The Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, which has been variously known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is the worlds oldest psychiatric hospital. ...

The rake is often portrayed as a heavy drinker or gambler. An earlier form of the word was rake-hell, a form reshaped by folk etymology to mean someone who stokes the fires of Hell, making them hotter. The actual etymology of the word is from the Old Norse reikall, meaning "vagrant" or "wanderer;" this was borrowed into Middle English as rakel. Folk etymology (or popular etymology) is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore, as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. ... Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180) Hell, according to many religious beliefs, is a place and/or a state of painful suffering. ... Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ... This is the approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century. ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion in 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the...

Well known fictional rakes and cads include:

• Dorimant, the hero of The Man of Mode by George Etherege, based upon the historical Earl of Rochester mentioned below
• Compeyson, the man who jilted Miss Havisham in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Rodolphe Boulanger, Madame Bovary's principal lover.
• Harry Paget Flashman, chief character of a series of novels by George MacDonald Fraser
• Don Juan
• Lupin III, protagonist of an anime series.
• Tom Rakewell, the protagonist of William Hogarth's series of paintings, A Rake's Progress.
• The Prodigal Son, one of Jesus' parables.

Historical figures who have informed the stock character include: Sir George Etherege (1635? - c. ... Miss Havisham. ... Great Expectations Great Expectations is a Bildungsroman (a novel tracing the life of the protagonist) by Charles Dickens and first serialized in All the Year Round from December 1860 to August 1861. ... Charles Dickens was a prolific writer who was almost always working on a new installment for a story and rarely missed a deadline. ... Madame Bovary book cover Madame Bovary is a novel by Gustave Flaubert that raised a scandal when it was first published in 1857 and is now seen as one of the first modern realistic novels. ... Cover of Flashman Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman V.C. K.C.B. is a fictional character originally created by the author Thomas Hughes in his semi-autobiographical work Tom Browns Schooldays, first published in 1857. ... George MacDonald Fraser (born 1926 in Carlisle, England) is a writer of Scottish descent. ... Don Juan is a legendary fictional libertine, whose story has been told many times by different authors. ... Lupin III or Lupin the 3rd (ルパン三世, Lupin the 3rd, not Lupin 3) is an anime and manga series originally created by manga artist Kazuhiko Katō (加藤一彦) under the pen name Monkey Punch (モンキーパンチ) in 1967 as a part of Weekly Manga Action . ... // Atom, star of the long-running science fiction series Mighty Atom (also known as Astro Boy to Western audiences). ... William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745 William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... Plate 3 - Tom succumbs to the pleasures of the flesh at The Rose Tavern, Drury Lane. ... The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) by Pompeo Batoni The Prodigal Son, also known as The Lost Son is one of the best known parables of Jesus. ... Jesus (8-2 BC/BCE– 29-36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity. ... An ill digested lesson The Governess. ...

• Cagliostro
• Lord Byron
• Giacomo Casanova
• Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset
• John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
• Sir Charles Sedley
• John Wilkes
• The Hellfire Club
• The Marquis de Sade
• Hugh Hefner

The stock character of the rake can be contrasted with some others. The town drunk is frequently intoxicated, and impoverished by heavy drinking, but here the focus is on the character's alcoholic state rather than on sexual excess; the town drunk is typically older than the rake. The fop and the dandy spend too much money on clothes and fancy living, but the stereotype would have them less sexually effective than the rake. Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, born Giuseppe Balsamo became a roving adventurer, freemason and alchemist in the late 18th century. ... Lord Byron, English poet Lord Byron (1803), as painted by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, (January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824) was the most widely read English language poet of his day. ... Giacomo Casanova Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (April 2, 1725, Venice – June 4, 1798, Dux, Bohemia, (now Duchcov, Czech Republic) was a famous Venetian adventurer and writer. ... Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (24 January 1638 – 29 January 1706) was an English poet and courtier, son of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset (1622–1677). ... For other people of this name, see John Rochester. ... Sir Charles Sedley (c. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Hellfire Club was an exclusive English club that met irregularly from 1746 to around 1763, run by Sir Francis Dashwood. ... Portrait of the Marquis de Sade by Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo (c. ... Hugh Hefner was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 9, 1926 and grew up in a very typically Methodist repressed home with no show of affection of any kind. He went to Sayre Elementary School, and Steinmetz High School in Chicago. ... The depraved inhabitants of a tavern, from a nineteenth century temperance play. ... Alcoholism is the compulsive consumption of alcohol. ... FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is an XSL-FO processor written in Java, which provides the feature to convert XSL-FO files to PDF or direct-printable-files. ... Sporty Parisian dandies of the 1830s: a girdle was required to achieve this silhouette. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

See also

• Playboy