Transcript “Mac Flecknoe” By John Dryden

“Mac Flecknoe”
By John Dryden
Editions
• The first edition of Mac Flecknoe appeared in
1682 but the badness of the text makes it unlikely
that it was authorized by Dryden.
• The present text follows that of the "authorized
edition" first published in Miscellany Poems,
1684.
• The sub-title, "A Satire upon the True-blue
Protestant Poet T.S.", refers to Thomas Shadwell.
Thomas Shadwell
• Shadwell was a staunch adherent of the Earl of
Shaftesbury, and Dryden's dislike of his Whiggish
opinions is sufficiently indicated in the title-page
to this poem. Shadwell answered Dryden's attack
on Shaftesbury in The Medall with an abusive
satire entitled The Medal of John Bayes, published
in May, 1682; Mac Flecknoe appeared in about
October of the same year. Dryden also pilloried
Shadwell in the second part of Absalom and
Achitophel.
Richard Flecknoe
• Mac Flecknoe is a purely personal satire in
motive and design.
• Richard Flecknoe was an Irishman,
formerly in Catholic orders, who (if a note
to The Dunciad is to be trusted) had “laid
aside the mechanic part of priesthood” to
devote himself to literature.
The realms of Non-sense
• Difficult to understand why (except for the fact
that he had been a priest) Dryden should have
determined to make this harmless, and
occasionally agreeable, writer of verse a type of
literary imbecility.
• Flecknoe must be supposed to have died (d. 1678)
not long before Dryden wrote his satire, in which
the “aged prince” is represented as abdicating his
rule over “the realms of Non-sense” in favour of
Shadwell.
Satire and mock heroic
• Satire: to make fun of sb./sth. in the hope of
improvement, but Mac Flecknoe seems a
personal attack.
• Satire/ humor (Swift, Pope, Mark Twain…)
• Tone: sharper in satire, gentle in humor
• Techniques used: irony, mock-epic (mock heroic)
• Mock heroic: uses grand style & exalted lang. to
talk sth. trivial, low, mean, or absurd (at least
sth. unimportant); low content with high style.
mock heroic
• Mock heroic: A satirical imitation or burlesque of
the heroic manner or style.
• Mac Flecknoe assumed the proportions of an
elaborate satire against a whole tribe of dunces as
well as against one egregious dunce, Dryden’s is a
jeu d’esprit, though one brilliant enough to
constitute an unanswerable retort upon
unwarrantable provocation. Slight as it is, Mac
Flecknoe holds a place of its own among Dryden’s
masterpieces in English satirical poetry.
• This humorous fancy forms the slight action
of the piece, which terminates with a mock
catastrophe suggested by one of Shadwell’s
own comedies. Thus, with his usual insight,
Dryden does not make any attempt to
lengthen out what is in itself one of the most
successful examples of the species—the
mock heroic—which it introduced into
English literature.
Buskins and socks
• 74 The Nursery, a theatrical school for training
boys and girls for the stage, was established in
1662.
• 79-80 Buskins and socks are symbols
respectively of tragedy and comedy, associated
here with the Elizabethan playwrights John
Fletcher and Ben Jonson.