Mac Flecknoe by John Dryden | Characters, Summary, Analysis

John Dryden and Thomas Shadwell were close friends with some political and artistic differences. While John Dryden was a fan of Shakespeare, Thomas Shadwell considered himself the heir of Ben Jonson. Dryden preferred comedy of wit and repartee. On the other hand, Shadwell preferred humor comedy. They also disagreed over the importance of rhymed plays. However, the main contention between the two was their political alignments. John Dryden belonged to the Tory group supporting the Stuart royalty while Shadwell, being a Protestant, supported the Whigs against the possibility of a Catholic monarch. In 1681, Dryden published Absalom and Achitophel. After the acquittal of the Earl of Shaftesbury, he published The Medal (1682). Both of these were a strong satirical attack on the Whigs' supporters. In addition, John Dryden also contributed to Nahum Tait’s Absalom and Achitophel Part II in which he indirectly satirized Thomas Shadwell as the character Og.

In response, Thomas Shadwell published The Medal of John Bayes; a Satire against Folly and Knavery (1682), another political satirical poem that directly attacked the Tories and Dryden’s political satire. As a response, John Dryden published Mac Flecknoe, which became the classic mock Heroic satirical poem. The subtitle and the subject of this poem is “the True-blue Protestant Poet T.S.” This poem carved out a new poetic genre known as mock-epic, or mock-heroic poetry. This poem is a strong hilarious criticism of Thomas Shadwell in which Dryden completely skewers Shadwell, exposing him for what he was: a bad writer with bad taste, who would do anything for the cheap laugh. John Dryden created an incredibly rich, expertly crafted work of satire, layered in so much irony, sarcasm, and wit that at many times, the poem appears to be a genuine epic. The poem has the same grandiose as that of The Illiad or Paradise Lost, however, it is just a satirical joke.

During the Restoration period, Shadwell was a reputed author and playwright, so much so that he replaced John Dryden as England's poet laureate in 1689. But Dryden believed Shadwell was a subpar poet and dramatist who believed much too highly of himself. Dryden uses Mac Flacknoe to point this out, highlighting throughout the satire the ridiculousness of Shadwell’s self-indulgence. Regarding the dueling poets’ thoughts on humor, the satire serves as a defense of wit against humor, which Dryden believed to be a much more noble and intelligent form of co“the True-blue Protestant Poet T.S.”
Mac Flecknoe is a typical personal satire that has for its target Thomas Shadwell, another poet who had offended Dryden with his aesthetic and political leanings. It is also literary satire and is considered one of the most famous mock-heroic verses in the English tradition. It is 218 lines of rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter. Like Dante’s Inferno, the poem has numerous references to Dryden’s contemporaries. Dryden not only criticizes Shadwell, but he also attacks Shadwell’s literary works and mentions that Shadwell himself by nature is exactly similar to the characters of his plays like Psyche, and has abilities like those of Sir Formal Trifle from The Virtuoso.
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