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Title:-“Mac Flecknoe; or, A satyr upon the True-Blew-Protestant Poet, T.S.” was a

lampoon by John Dryden against the poet laureate Thomas Shadwell who

superseded him in 1669.

Meanings:- Mac means ‘son of’. So, MacFlecknoe means ‘Son of Flecknoe’, while the

word ‘True-Blew’ means an extreme ‘Whig Blue’ which was the colour of the Tories.

Context & Background story:- Richard Flecknoe (c. 1600 – 1678) was an English

dramatist and poet. His works were praised by some critics and derided by others.

Why John Dryden used his name to ridicule and satirize Thomas Shadwell, his

contemporary and one time friend who later became an enemy, is not clear. Flecknoe

was a minor poet having religious inclinations and most of his writings were private

writings. So, Dryden calling him ‘the monarch of absolute nonsense’ was similar to

Iago’s ‘motive hunting of a motiveless malignity’. Thomas Shadwell was called the

‘son and successor’ of Flecknoe’.

• Causes of animosity:-The animosity between Thomas Shadwell and John

Dryden had been enrooted in their political, literary and personal grounds.

i.Political: John Dryden was a ‘Tory’ while Thomas Shadwell was a ‘Whig’

and Protestant. They belonged to two contradictory positions in political

and literary activities of the time. When Dryden wrote the poem, the

political scene of England was dominated by two political parties: The

Tories and the Whigs. The Whigs were led by the Earl of Shaftsbury who in

1979 introduced the Exclusion Bill in the Parliament following the

revelation of a Popish plot to kill Charles II and put James, the Duke of

York, on the throne and also to bring the French army into England. The

object of the Bill was to press the claims of the Duke of Monmouth, an

illegitimate son of Charles, to the throne.

MacFlecknoe

• The Bill was passed in the Common’s but defeated in the Lord's. The country was

on the verge of a Civil War.

• The king arrested Shaftsbury and banished the Duke of Monmouth. But the Jury

of Middle sex rejected the treason charges against Shaftsbury and released him

immediately. To celebrate the success the Whigs struck a medal bearing the head

and name of their hero. Dryden published his satire. The Medal criticising the

Whigs.

• There were several replies from the Tories. Thomas Shadwell wrote The Medal of

John Bayes which was actually an indecent and unfair attack of Dryden's personal

life.Mac Flecknoe was Dryden's retaliation to Shadwell’s attack.

• Literary: Although not a great poet like John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell was a comedy writer

of some importance. He was the ‘Poet Laureate’ of England from 1689 to 1692. He

considered Ben Johnson as a great writer of comedies. On the other hand Dryden disagreed

with Shadwell's high estimation of Ben Jonson, and even more of the latter's claim to be

Jonson's artistic heir.

• Personal: The post of ‘Poet Laureateship’ was traditionally held for life. But John Dryden was

the only holder to have been dismissed, in 1688, due to his refusal to swear an oath of

allegiance to the new king, William III. As Thomas Shadwell was a Whig, the Whigs’ triumph

in 1688 helped him supersede John Dryden as poet laureate and historiographer royal.

This offended Dryden so much that he started abusing Shadwell in every possible manners.

MacFlecknoe was an example.

• However, no critic has accepted what Dryden said about Shadwell to be true. Instead, most

of them including T.S.Eliot, expressed their dismay in seeing a poet like Dryden using so much

of abusive lies to humiliate and ridicule a rival poet and the poet laureate of England.

• Surface story: After ruling in the kingdom of absolute nonsense for a long time

Flecknoe thinks of retirement and as such decides to hand-over his kingdom to his

son who resembles him most. MacFlecknoe is chosen because of his fatty stature

and absolute dullness. The coronation takes place at a nursery near pissing alley, a

place haunted by ‘queens and punks’. They are devoid of moral and cultural

concerns. The throne is made of pilling the nonsense books written by Flecknoe

himself. Instead of velvet red-carpet, pages torn from the books of Flecknoe are

spread all through. Twelve owls hoot at the time of coronation and everybody

takes it a divine proclamation of a prosperous reign of the new monarch. The

ceremony ends in a mess created by MacFlecknoe himself. He loses patience to

wait for the old man to finish his speech and takes the throne ousting Flecknoe

forcefully.

• Theme and Style: In form and style, MacFlecknoe is a kind of mock-epic or mock-heroic poem.

• The very opening of the poem is characterized by epic inflation which generates comic effect.

Flecknoe ,a minor poet of the time is compared with the great and majestic Augustus Caesar. The

phrase ‘Human things’ instead of ‘human beings’ reveal how much spleen he had for his target.

• The mock-heroic vein is continued throughout the poem in the portrayal of Shadwell as

MacFlecknoe. The note of ironic politeness continues. MacFlecknoe is chosen as the successor to

the throne of dullness because he looks majestic with his huge bulk, like the huge oak trees and is,

at the same time, devoid of the power to think like them.

• MacFlecknoe is then ironically called “prince of thy harmonious band”.

• We find another touch of mock-heroic and ironic picture when MacFlecknoe is compared to Arion,

a musician whose music attracted the dolphins, but that of MacFlecknoe attracted only “little

fishes”. The name Shadwell was sounded from several localities, but the localities named by Dryden

were sordid and inhabited by people of questionable characters.

• His music excited the jealousy of the famous musician, John Singleton, who

renounced the triumph he had won.

• We find another example of the same style and technique in the description of the

place which has been chosen as the site of MacFlecknoe’s coronation. The

ceremony of the coronation is described with the use of inflated language which

ill-accords with triviality of the theme and gives rise to laughter because of this

incompatibility.

• But what is most interesting that here also we find mockery scene. The throne is

one which Flecknoe had built with his own efforts and consisted of a pile of books

written by him. At his right hand sat Ascanius ( MacFlecknoe),Rome’s hope and

pillar of the state.

• We find another mockery picture when Shadwell takes oath that he would maintain genuine

dullness in his kingdom throughout his life and would never allow rays of knowledge to

trespass his kingdom.

• Then in a mock-epic style, Dryden tells us that Shadwell held, in one hand, not the globe but

a large mug of strong beer and in the other hand, not a scepter but a worthless book written

by Flecknoe.

• Again, instead of twelve vultures that had appeared to augur Romulus’s victory over Remus.

Now twelve aged owls appeared over Shadwell to promise an empire of dullness for

Shadwell to rule over.

• Flecknoe’s coronation speech is again couched in language which befits an epic but which

conveys mockery when applied to Shadwell:

‘Heavens bless my son! from Ireland let him reign

To far Barbadoes on the westernmain’.

• The speech begins in the right epic style but then we come to the lines in

which Shadwell is ridiculed. Flecknoe calls upon his son to keep

progressing in the field of ignorance and thus exhorts him:

‘Success let others teach, learn thou from me.

Pangs without birth, fruitless industry’.

• The mockery continues till the end.

• Shadwell’s tragedies, says Dryden, were evocative of laughter and his

comedies caused the audience to weep.

• Flecknoe is described as a king, which recalls the status of epic heroes, but

his kingdom is the kingdom of Nonsense absolute, a name that mocks his

supposedly heroic status

• He abdicates in favor of the most obtuse of his children, Shadwell, who, just

because of his intellectual weakness, is the suitable heir to the throne. The scene

of the coronation, usually a noble topic, is significantly set in a sinful environment,

thus puncture its nobility.

• We find another mockery picture when Shadwell takes oath that he would

maintain genuine dullness in his kingdom throughout his life and would never

allow rays of light(i,e. wisdom or intelligence) to trespass.

• Then in a mock-epic style, Dryden tells us that Shadwell held, in one hand, not the

globe but a large mug of strong beer and in the other hand, not a scepter but a

worthless book written by Flecknoe.

• Summing Up: Satire is a literary genre, in which vices, follies, abuses, and

shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals,

government or society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to

be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit

and humour to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

• A Lampoon, on the other hand, is a satire that ridicules or mocks a person, an

activity, or an institution by representing its character or behavior in an

exaggerated or grotesque form. It is in general a sarcastic, malicious and abusive

censure written only to inflict reproach and distress. The term ‘Lampoon’

originates from the French word ‘Lampon’. It was first used in between 1635 and

1645.

• John Dryden’s ‘MacFlecknoe’ is a lampoon in the truest sense of the term

because Dryden had shown no intention to correct the vices (?) of Thomas

Shadwell. His purpose was just to lodge vindictive attack on hm.

• A mock- heroic poem uses the formal elements which characterize the

epic genre to depict a trivial situation. It thus creates a contrast between

the form and content that results in a satiric and absurd effect, ridiculing

the characters in the plot and their actions. MacFlecknoe is thus, a mock-

heroic poem also.

• John Dryden belongs to the Neo-Classical period.

• He is considered as the founder of English literary criticism and the creator

of a new poetic style called Heroic couplet. (Wheatly)

• He is one of the greatest writers of satires also.

• MacFlecknoe is a satire per excellence.

• It became the corner-stone of Dryden’s successful poetic career.

• Both as a poem and a satire MacFlecknoe is credited with the use of good and

effective English. Dryden is consistent in his style.

• He adopted the poetic pattern of ‘heroic couplet’.

• The whole of the poem exploits the weakness of Dryden’s opponent, either

Flecknoe or Shadwell, in a mock and humorous manner.

• Besides, this poem is a satirical outlook on the idea of both, the succession of the

state between Charles and James and the succession of "literary state" between

Flecknoe and Shadwell.

FINIS