John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe

Jerome Donnelly (University of Central Florida)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error
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 Terentius Varro, 116-27 BCE); yet perhaps more important than classical precedent is the

1963 words

Citation: Donnelly, Jerome. "Mac Flecknoe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3801, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3801 Mac Flecknoe 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.