John Dryden's MacFlecknoe: University Notes

"All humane things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, Monarchs must obey."

 MacFlecknoe: Study Circle

Satire-->Mock heroic --->poetic style---> As a poet--->Coronation--->speech --->Shadwell as a writer--->Description Scene.--->Character Of Shadwell -->Imagery--->Allusion

Shadwell as a writer: Although Shadwell has been satirized and reduced to a manikin , the fact that Shadwell was in realty a literary rival and competitive dramatist. Shadwell openly acknowledged his literary feud with the English poet John Dryden. His satire The Medal of John Bayes (1682) contains his strongest attack against Dryden, who counteracted with Mac Flecknoe, or a Satire on the True Blue Protestant Poet, T.S. (1682). Shadwell succeeded Dryden as poet laureate in 1688. In his own right made Dryden harp on what he deemed to line literary flaws or demerits. Such remarks regarding Shadwell’s lacuna are interspersed throughout the text of MacFlecknoe though they reach their concentrated essence, climactic perfection in the final coronation speech of Flecknoe.

Coronation speech- para5.6 of coronation: The poem includes a coronation speech where Shadwell is crowned as the monarch of dullness. Dryden uses this moment to highlight Shadwell's lack of originality and creativity in his works.

Imagery: Imagery in poetry add to the contriteness, sentient and sensible quality endowed by vivid souse impression, especially by means of visual. Imagery in MacFlecknoe  suggests, not new of vistas of imagination but the inferiority of Shadwell, the image are generally heroic, in comparison with which, Shadwell appears to be a pigmy. There are yet others images which serve to mock the locale and the coronation process of Shadwell. Finally, the images of magnificent writers proving incomparably greater than Shadwell who cannot ‘transfuse’ their blood reduces him to creative manikin. 

Allusion:- Although it is modern poetry which is renowned for the allusiveness and complexity which the modernist poet T.S. Eliot so considerate, it is the poetry of Dryden which may claim to be the true forerunner of the souse allusiveness of modern poetry, for its allusiveness is comparable to that should be dubbed ‘the poetry of allusion’, perhaps more appropriately, ‘the poetry of mock-heroic allusions’. 

Satire: "MacFlecknoe" is a satirical poem that mocks and ridicules the incompetence of Thomas Shadwell, a contemporary playwright and poet. Through humor and wit, Dryden exposes Shadwell's shortcomings as a writer and poet.

Mock Heroic: The poem employs the mock-heroic style, where Dryden elevates the trivial and mundane aspects of Shadwell's life to epic proportions. Shadwell's coronation as the king of dullness becomes a grandiose event in this satirical mode.

Poetic Style: Dryden's poem is written in heroic couplets, a common style of the Restoration period. He uses this structured verse form to deliver his satire with precision and sharpness.

As a Poet: Dryden, as the poet, takes on the persona of a mock-heroic narrator to lampoon Shadwell's literary endeavors, painting him as the epitome of mediocrity.

Description Scene: Dryden provides a vivid and comical description of Shadwell's coronation ceremony, employing vivid imagery and exaggerated details to satirize the event.

Character of Shadwell: Dryden caricatures Shadwell's character, depicting him as a bumbling and uninspiring figure, unfit to be a literary leader. The poem presents Shadwell as a symbol of literary dullness.

"MacFlecknoe" is a classic example of Dryden's mastery of satire and mock-heroic style, where he uses sharp wit, humor, and literary devices to lampoon a fellow writer, making it a memorable work in the genre of Restoration satire.

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