John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe

Jerome Donnelly (University of Central Florida)

Ed. by Janet Todd, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1676

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)
Satire

Resources

Mac Flecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel are John Dryden’s two greatest satires; whereas the latter combines comedy with serious political discussion, Mac Flecknoe is comic throughout. Yet the best comedy can be serious business, as is the case with this poem. Sometimes incorrectly trivialized as nothing more than a narrow lampoon against the playwright Thomas Shadwell, Mac Flecknoe is much more than this as Dryden actually makes of his rival dramatist a literary portent and excoriates both him and his literary productions as exhibits of a bad taste that threatens cultural standards.

In a later reference to the poem, Dryden called it a “Varronian” satire (after the Roman satirist Marcus T…

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1963 words

Citation: Donnelly, Jerome. "Mac Flecknoe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 November 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3801, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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