Mac Flecknoe - 1091 Words

Sashanka S. Das, 4028, B.A. (H), English, IInd year Q. Write on John Dryden’s ‘Mac Flecknoe’ as a satire. A. John Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe, as part of his corpus of satirical verse, is a short piece, and not as overtly political as, say, Absalom and Achitophel. It does aim to censure through indirect ridicule rather than direct condemnation, but, being a censorious poem directed specifically at an individual subject, Dryden’s literary rival Thomas Shadwell, it seems more a lampoon, as defined in Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary, than a proper, high satire. The object of this essay will be, therefore, to locate Mac Flecknoe, in the tradition of late 17th-century satire. Mac Flecknoe revolves around the succession of Richard†¦show more content†¦Michael Seidel calls this assertion that â€Å"bad art is bad succession† the greatest satirical strength of Mac Flecknoe. The subtitle of the poem, which calls Shadwell a â€Å"True-Blew Protestant Poet†, introduces the issue of Protestant-Catholic tensions, and through association, makes radical Protest antism â€Å"a code for vulgar art†. The three main issues that Mac Flecknoe deals with are thus established to be literature, politics and religion. Dryden had idealized a satiric structure of one main argument, with others complementing it, in his Discourse Concerning the Origin and Progress of Satire, and so he makes Shadwell’s literary character the foremost concern of Mac Flecknoe, with the other two underlying it. The chosen idiom for its mockery is that of the mock-heroic; the familiar panegyric use of the heroic style is turned to satiric purposes. From the sententious opening couplet onward, the mock-heroic conception of the poem is clear. Dryden goes about â€Å"comparing small men to giants† – Flecknoe is compared to Augustus Caesar, John the Baptist and the prophet Elijah, and Shadwell to Arion, Ascanius, Romulus, Elisha and even Christ. These, and other instances of dignified, laudatory imagery, are used in the most undignified contexts, and as praises of the most unflattering characteristics. The use of the heroic couplet is central to this: its structure allows the sharp, ironical comparison of the solemn and theShow MoreRelatedImagery in Mac Flecknoe787 Words   |  4 PagesThe title of Dryden’s poem Mac Flecknoe initiates the theme of familiar succession thus presenting many father/son or successor pairs. The poem begins with a mock sentential in the ponderous, aphoristic manner of a heroic poetry, gradually unveils the pathetic monarch of â€Å"Nonsense Absolute†. The first four lines which open the poem are in the high style with a delicate Horatian irony controlling the mock heroic inversions of terms. In the opening twenty lines of the poem Dryden introduces the readersRead MoreMac Flecknoe as a Satire2412 Words   |  10 PagesWritten about 1678 and   published in 1682 Mac Flecknoe  (full title:  Mac Flecknoe; or, A satyr upon the True-Blew-Protestant Poet, T.S.[1]) is a verse  mock-hero ic  satire  written by  John Dryden. It is a direct attack on  Thomas Shadwell, another prominent poet of the time. As an English poet, John Dryden is classified as classic writer. When compared to romantic verses, Dryden’s poems, found lacking that love of nature. His verses are commonly simple. He loved to apply intellectual approach. BrowerRead More Similar Attitudes Toward Machinery, Language, and Substance in Wordsworth, Pope and Dryden1262 Words   |  6 PagesWordsworth, Pope and Dryden William Wordsworth’s â€Å"Preface to Lyrical Ballads† is from the Romantic Period of British literature, while Alexander Pope’s â€Å"The Rape of the Lock† and John Dryden’s â€Å"Mac Flecknoe† are both from the Neoclassical Period; â€Å"The Rape of the Lock† is from the Augustan Age, while â€Å"Mac Flecknoe† is from the Restoration (â€Å"Literary†). Despite these discrepancies in the time periods that their respective works were produced, however, Wordsworth, Pope, and Dryden express similar attitudesRead MoreThe Changing Face of Love in English Literature1528 Words   |  7 Pagesthe writings. The works of this time seem to center themselves upon more academic subjects. While Swift is very concerned with politics and social class, other authors are analyzing and satirizing the works of other authors, as Dryden does in â€Å"Mac Flecknoe† and as Pope accomplishes in â€Å"The Rape of the Lock† in whic h he satires the epic poem. The writers of this era have begun to write about writing and many of their works are nonfiction pieces. Unlike their predecessors, who created characters andRead MoreThe Age Of Dryden By Charles Dryden1323 Words   |  6 Pagesof others. Yet picking up a hint here reading between the lines there one can see what the temperament was that made this passion the thing by which he lived (dobree 289) Dryden s greatest achievements were in satiric verse: the mock-heroic Mac Flecknoe, a more personal product of his Laureate years, was a lampoon circulated in manuscript and an attack on the playwright Thomas Shadwell. Dryden s main goal in the work is to satirize Shadwell, ostensibly for his offenses against literature but