Mac Flecknoe by John Dryden: Summary

Mac Flecknoe is the finest short satirical poem in which Dryden has treated Thomas Sahdwell
with humorous contempt. Mac Flecknoe is both a personal and literary satire. Dryden presents
Shadwell as a dull poetaster, a corpulent man and a plagiarist. Dryden’s uses the heroic couplet
for satirical purposes.

John Dryden (1631-1700)

John Dryden (1631-1700)

Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel was followed by his other piece The Medal, which was
answered by Thomas Shadwell in Medal of John Bayes, a coarse satire on Dryden. He decided to
avenge himself on Shadwell and Dryden fully revenged himself by the publication of Mac
Flecknoe in 1682.

Mac Flecknoe is the first substantial mock-heroic poem and Thomas Shadwell is the hero of this
epic. The poem illustrates the qualities of Dryden's satire- the fund of truth at the bottom, the
skillful adjustment of the satire so as to make faults of the merits which are allowed, the
magnificent force and variety of the verse, and the constant maintenance of a kind of superior
contempt never degenerating into mere railing or losing its superiority in petty spite.

The poem opens with Richard Flecknoe's decision to abdicate the throne and to find a worthy
successor. Flecknoe's name has already become a synonym for a fool. The name of his kingdom
is Nonsense. Flecknoe's choice falls upon Shadwell. Among his sons, Shadwell is the fittest for he
resembles him most in dullness. He never deviates into sense. Flecknoe, with parental pride,
dwells on his son's achievements. Shadwell has a 'goodly fabric that fills the eye' He is the
master of repetition; he is a faithful follower of bad poets like Heywood and Shirley. Even
Flecknoe, 'a dunce of more renown than they' is inferior to his son. He, therefore, concludes that
his son, Shadwell is the worst possible poet and thus deserves the crown of dullness. Flecknoe
continues his eulogy of Shadwell's merits by referring to his pretensions as a musician. All
arguments, Flecknoe points out, lead to the conclusion that for "anointed dullness" Shadwell is
made.
Dryden then describes the place chosen by Flecknoe for Shadwell's throne. Quite appropriately
Flecknoe selects "Nursery": an actual London theatre for boys and girls to study drama for this
purpose. Great poets like Fletcher and Jonson cannot enter there. Here Dekker had once
prophesied that a mighty prince who would declare an eternal war against wit and sense should
rule, producing dull classics like Psyche, The Miser and The Humorists.

Once Flecknoe has chosen Shadwell as his successor, the news gets a wide publicity. Instead of
carpets, there are the remains of neglected poets; bad poets like Ogleby come out from their
dusty shops. Flecknoe sits on a throne with Shadwell, and "lambent dullness plyed around his
(Shadwell's) face." Poppies overspread Shadwell's temples. At the time of consecration twelve
owls fly over the spot. Shadwell, then vows to uphold the dullness so successfully maintained by
his father.

Flecknoe crowns Shadwell and bursts into prophecy. He praises his son and successor who would
rule from Ireland to Barbadoes. He advises him to advance ignorance and to promote dullness.
He even suggests that Shadwell need not work very hard in this attempt; rather, let dullness
come naturally to him. He counsels him not to imitate Ben Jonson, but to emulate his father and
Ogleby. He prophesies that Shadwell would write weak verse, bad plays and ineffective satires.
Let Shadwell set his own songs to music and sing them. Before Flecknoe's speech ends, he is
sent crashing through a trap door, while his mantle falls on Shadwell.

John Dryden - Biography and Works

https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/biography/john-dryden.html#.Xcq-TyRR1PY

John Dryden an English poet, dramatist, and critic, was the leading literary figure of the
Restoration, and also of the neo-classical period, along with Alexander Pope. John Dryden was
not only the greatest literary man of his age, but also to a great extent the man who determined
the literary characteristics of his age. Curiously, he was a mirror of the times too.

In him we find all that was admirable in the Restoration, and much that was not. He held
undisputed power over the field of literature, and his practice in poetry and prose exerted the
dominant influence on the course of English literature for another century.

Dryden was born to a Puritan family in Northampton shire. The childhood of John Dryden was
spent at Tichmarch, where his parents resided after their marriage; his boyhood passed at
Westminster to which he was admitted to a scholarship. At Westminster he wrote an elegy
commemorating the memory of a school fellow, Lord Hastings, and translated the third satire of
a Perseus as a school task. He joined Trinity College, Cambridge in 1654. He graduated in 1654,
but did not obtain a fellowship. About 1657 he went to London as clerk to the chamberlain of
Cromwell. Dryden’s first important poem, Heroic Stanzas (1659) was written in memory of
Cromwell. After the Restoration, however, Dryden became a ‘Royalist’ and celebrated the return
of King Charles II in two poems: Astrae Redux (1660) and Panegyric on the Coronation (1661). In
1663 he married Lady Elizabeth Howard, sister of his patron, the courtier and playwright Sir
Robert Howard.

In 1662 Dryden began to write plays as a source of income. During the next 20 years, he became
the most prominent dramatist in England. His comedies are broad and bawdy; one of them was
banned as indecent, an unusual penalty during the morally permissive period of Restoration
theater. His first play The Wild Gallant (1663) was a failure. The Rival Ladies (1964) was more
successful. The Indian Emperor in 1667 established his reputation as a playwright. Meanwhile
plague broke out in London, and Dryden with his wife retired to Charlton. Here Dryden wrote the
Annus Mirabilis in stanzas of four lines. In 1668 he wrote his most important prose work; An
Essay of Dramatic Poesy, the basis for his reputation as the father of English literary criticism.
Dryden was appointed poet laureate. In 1670 Dryden was appointed the Poet Laureate and this
office he held for eighteen years.

The year 1681 opened a new chapter in his career as he produced the first great satire in verse,
Absalom and Achitophel. Through this satire Dryden exposed the relations of Monmouth the
prince, and Shaftesbury the evil counselor. Next year he hurled a second blow at Shaftesbury in
The Medal. In the same year he satirized Shadwell in Mac Flecknoe. It was a piece of personal
satire. After those two political satires and one personal satire, Dryden wrote two theological
poems- Religio Laici (1682) and The Hind and the Panther (1687). By this time he had become a
Roman Catholic, and in consequence the Revolution of 1688 fell upon him as a heavy blow. He
was obliged to give up the Poet laureateship. He reverted again to the stage for his livelihood.
For some time he was under the cloud, but he faced misfortune with great courage and
fortitude. He then began a new career as a translator, the most important of his translations
being The Works of Virgil (1697). During the same period he wrote one of his greatest odes
"Alexander's Feast". In 1699 Dryden wrote the last of his published works, metrical paraphrases
of Homer, the Latin poet Ovid, the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio, and the English poet Geoffrey
Chaucer.

He rendered stories from Boccaccio and Chaucer into modern English verse, and these narrative
poems were published in 1700, in a volume of Fables. During the early spring of 1700, Dryden
was confined to the house by an attack of government. The same year he met his death with
courage and composure. Dryden had a public funeral. He was buried by the side of Chaucer and
Cowley in Westminster Abbey.

Thomas Gray - Biography and Works

Thomas Gray was born on 26 December 1716 as the fifth child to Philip Gray and Dorothy
Antrobus in Cornhill, London. He was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar, and professor at
Pembroke College, Cambridge. His famous Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published in
1751 gave him name and fame. He issued only 13 poems and was offered the position of the
Poet Laureate in 1757, but he rejected it.

As a boy, Gray was a gentle and studious boy who avoided games and enjoyed reading and
learning from the books. Gray went to Eton College and in 1734, he went up to Peterhouse,
Cambridge, where he found everything dull; the curriculum, the masters, and the friends.

Gray's main writing career started in 1742 when his best friend Richard West died. He became
one of the most learned men of his time. He remained as a scholar in Cambridge and in the later
part of his life he started travelling. He is one of the best known members of Graveyard Poets of
the late 18th century. His major focus on the poem was death, mortality, and sublimity of the
death.

His masterpiece is the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard written in 1742 and published in
1751. It is one of the most famous and often quoted poems in English literature. It is said that
the elegy is written in the memory of the death of his close fellow Richard West. It gave him
immense success and huge popularity. This poem celebrates the humble life of villagers and the
novelty of the poem lies in the treatment of the same theme of generous death in a different
manner. He mourns for the death of all the average men and the poet himself.

Gray also penned light verse, including Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of
Gold Fishes, a mock elegy concerning Horace Walpole's cat. Some of his best known poems are
"Ode on the Spring," "Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West," "Hymn to Adversity," and "Ode
on a Distant Prospect of Eton College." Gray considered The Progress of Poesy and The Bard, as
his best works. Gray has the ability of sharp observation and playful sense of humor. He is
popular for his phrase, "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."
During his free time, Gray travelled extensively to places such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Scotland
and especially the Lake District in search of striking landscapes and ancient monuments. In the
last part of his life he kept himself busy in the studies of Celtic and Scandinavian ancient times
and became gradually introverted. At the age of 55 in 1771 he died and was buried in the
country churchyard at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, celebrated in his "Elegy."

Sir Roger's Character

http://allrfree.blogspot.com/2009/10/sir-rogers-character.html

In the Coverley Essays, Sir Roger has been characterized vividly by Joseph Addison and Richard
Steele. Sir Roger is presented in these essays as kind, generous, lovable and sometimes as a
peculiar person. But in the hand of Joseph Addison, Sir Roger's character is conveyed ironically.
For that reason he sometimes seems odd. Although he is gentle and mild in nature and lovable
to people, he has some eccentricities and oddities. And all these things are delineated superbly
in these essays. However these things are given below:

Humanity: Sir Roger is a man of humanity and has a large heart. Moreover, he is mild. He loves
not only the servants of his house but also the people who live around him. In the essay "Sir
Roger at Church" we see that he is asking about the condition of the people who are absent in
the church. It suggests that he is very kind hearted and generous for who he is very aware of
other's. In "Sir Roger at Home" we see that he is loved by his servants, who are living with him
and are growing older with him like family members, because of his love towards them. Addison
says in "Sir Roger at Home"

I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists of sober and staid persons; for as
the knight is the best master in the world, he seldom changes his servants; and as he is beloved
by all about him.
Lover of religion: He is a true lover of religion. He is a regular church goer and encourages other
to come to the church. His mind is set for religious purposes and he does a lot of jobs for
religion. In the essay "Sir Roger at Church", we see that he has decorated end beautified the
church on his own accord and at his own expense so that the country people would be
encouraged to come to the church enthusiastically. In this essay he says

My friend sir Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church with several
texts of his own choosing. He has likewise given a handsome pulpit-cloth, and railed in the
communion-table at his own expense.

His Hospitality: After getting invitation from Sir Roger, the author went to his (Sir Roger's)
country house. Here his hospitality takes the attention of the readers. Here we see that he is
very hospitable and did everything possible to make his friend happy. Even the people around
his house were requested not to get closer to Addison because Addison would be disturbed. In
his house Addison was requested to feel free for any kind of job.

Him authority: Sir Roger has authoritative power both in home and church. In the church, we see
that he keeps him authoritative power. In the essay "Sir Roger at Church", the author says,

As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in good order, and will suffer
no body to sleep in it.

Even if he sees anybody is nodding, whether it is in the middle of the congregation or not, he
walls to that person or sends his servants to him to make him alert. Moreover, he appoints the
clergymen for the church on his own accord and suggests them to follow the instructions of
different professors for sermons.

Skilled Organizer: Sir Roger is a skilled organizer. He organizer not only him house but also the
church. He has keen sense to organize things. The church is organized beautifully. He encourages
people to come to church, decorates for church and keeps the church in a very good or
disciplined order. All these things suggests he is a skilled organizer. Addison says about Sir roger
in "Sir Roger at Church"

He has often told me , that, at his coming to his estate he found his parishioners very irregular;
and that in order to make them kneel and john in the responses, he gave every one of them a
hassock and a common-prayer book.

His Responsibility: Sir Roger being the landlord of all the congregations, felt personally
responsible for their behaviour and exerted his authority to keep them disciplined. He allowed
no one to sleep. If he felt asleep during the sermon, on waking up he would look around and if
he found anyone dozing off, he would immediately wake him up. Even in the middle of the
congregation he would stand up and started counting the number of people to understand
anybody's absence. Addison says,
Sometimes stands up when every body else is upon their knees, to count the congregation, or
see if any of his tenants are missing.

His eccentricity: To some extent Sir Roger can be considered as eccentric. In almost all the essays
regarding him, we find its full expression. In the essay "Sir Roger at Church" his eccentricity is
seen in which he exercised his authority. He wanted that his tenants should behave well in the
church. They must not sleep or make any noise during the church service but he himself did so.
Sometimes when everybody was on their knees, he stood up.

Humorist: Sir Roger is a humorist. In most of "de coverly" essays, we find humorous expressions.
His eccentricities can not but make us laugh. The ways that he adopts to do his daily work are
sometimes humorous. Sometimes his follies and sometimes his eccentricities are expressed
humoristically in de coverley essays. In "Sir Roger at Home", Addison says,

I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir Roger, amidst all his good qualities, is
something of a humorist.
In summing up, it can be said that in spite of being a man of great honour, Sir Roger is regarded
as a humorist and sometimes eccentric because of having some oddities or peculiarities in him.
However, the ultimate aim of Addison was not to show his humorous expressions to make up
laugh only, rather to make up correct for our follies and absurdities. But the main intention of
Mr. Spectator was to correct the society, to reform every corner of life by presenting the
character Sir Roger.

rape of the lock Analysis: Themes and Form

MAIN IDEAS ANALYSIS: THEMES AND FORM

The Rape of the Lock is a humorous indictment of the vanities and idleness of 18th-century high
society. Basing his poem on a real incident among families of his acquaintance, Pope intended
his verses to cool hot tempers and to encourage his friends to laugh at their own folly.

The poem is perhaps the most outstanding example in the English language of the genre of
mock-epic. The epic had long been considered one of the most serious of literary forms; it had
been applied, in the classical period, to the lofty subject matter of love and war, and, more
recently, by Milton, to the intricacies of the Christian faith. The strategy of Pope’s mock-epic is
not to mock the form itself, but to mock his society in its very failure to rise to epic standards,
exposing its pettiness by casting it against the grandeur of the traditional epic subjects and the
bravery and fortitude of epic heroes: Pope’s mock-heroic treatment in The Rape of the Lock
underscores the ridiculousness of a society in which values have lost all proportion, and the
trivial is handled with the gravity and solemnity that ought to be accorded to truly important
issues. The society on display in this poem is one that fails to distinguish between things that
matter and things that do not. The poem mocks the men it portrays by showing them as
unworthy of a form that suited a more heroic culture. Thus the mock-epic resembles the epic in
that its central concerns are serious and often moral, but the fact that the approach must now
be satirical rather than earnest is symptomatic of how far the culture has fallen.

Video SparkNotes: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein summary

Pope’s use of the mock-epic genre is intricate and exhaustive. The Rape of the Lock is a poem in
which every element of the contemporary scene conjures up some image from epic tradition or
the classical world view, and the pieces are wrought together with a cleverness and expertise
that makes the poem surprising and delightful. Pope’s transformations are numerous, striking,
and loaded with moral implications. The great battles of epic become bouts of gambling and
flirtatious tiffs. The great, if capricious, Greek and Roman gods are converted into a relatively
undifferentiated army of basically ineffectual sprites. Cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry substitute
for armor and weapons, and the rituals of religious sacrifice are transplanted to the dressing
room and the altar of love.

The verse form of The Rape of the Lock is the heroic couplet; Pope still reigns as the uncontested
master of the form. The heroic couplet consists of rhymed pairs of iambic pentameter lines (lines
of ten syllables each, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables). Pope’s couplets do not fall
into strict iambs, however, flowering instead with a rich rhythmic variation that keeps the highly
regular meter from becoming heavy or tedious. Pope distributes his sentences, with their
resolutely parallel grammar, across the lines and half-lines of the poem in a way that enhances
the judicious quality of his ideas. Moreover, the inherent balance of the couplet form is strikingly
well suited to a subject matter that draws on comparisons and contrasts: the form invites
configurations in which two ideas or circumstances are balanced, measured, or compared
against one another. It is thus perfect for the evaluative, moralizing premise of the poem,
particularly in the hands of this brilliant poet.

Characters

CHARACTERS
Belinda - Belinda is based on the historical Arabella Fermor, a member of Pope’s circle of
prominent Roman Catholics. Robert, Lord Petre (the Baron in the poem) had precipitated a rift
between their two families by snipping off a lock of her hair.

The Baron - This is the pseudonym for the historical Robert, Lord Petre, the young gentleman in
Pope’s social circle who offended Arabella Fermor and her family by cutting off a lock of her hair.
In the poem’s version of events, Arabella is known as Belinda.

Video SparkNotes: Homer's The Odyssey summary

Caryl - The historical basis for the Caryl character is John Caryll, a friend of Pope and of the two
families that had become estranged over the incident the poem relates. It was Caryll who
suggested that Pope encourage a reconciliation by writing a humorous poem.

Goddess - The muse who, according to classical convention, inspires poets to write their verses

Shock - Belinda’s lapdog

Ariel - Belinda’s guardian sylph, who oversees an army of invisible protective deities

Umbriel - The chief gnome, who travels to the Cave of Spleen and returns with bundles of sighs
and tears to aggravate Belinda’s vexation

Brillante - The sylph who is assigned to guard Belinda’s earrings

Momentilla - The sylph who is assigned to guard Belinda’s watch

Crispissa - The sylph who is assigned to guard Belinda’s “fav’rite Lock”

Clarissa - A woman in attendance at the Hampton Court party. She lends the Baron the pair of
scissors with which he cuts Belinda’s hair, and later delivers a moralizing lecture.

Thalestris - Belinda’s friend, named for the Queen of the Amazons and representing the
historical Gertrude Morley, a friend of Pope’s and the wife of Sir George Browne (rendered as
her “beau,” Sir Plume, in the poem). She eggs Belinda on in her anger and demands that the lock
be returned.

Sir Plume - Thalestris’s “beau,” who makes an ineffectual challenge to the Baron. He represents
the historical Sir George Browne, a member of Pope’s social circle.
Discuss two mock-heroic elements of the poem. THE RAPE OF THE LOCK

One epic element of the poem is the involvement of capricious divinities in the lives of mortals.
All of the following classic conventions appear in Pope’s poem as well: the ambiguous dream-
warning that goes unheeded; prayers that are answered only in part, or with different outcomes
than anticipated; a heavenly being’s renunciation of a human after pledging to protect her;
mischievous plotting by deities to exacerbate situations on earth. All of the manifestations of
these in Pope’s poem evoke the world of Greek and Roman gods who displayed malice as often
as benevolence, and a susceptibility to flattery and favoritism. A second mock-heroic element is
the description of games and trivial altercations in terms of warfare. First the card game, then
the cutting of the lock, and finally the scuffle at the end, are all described with the high drama
attending serious battles. Pope’s displays his creative genius in the dexterity with which he
makes every element of the scene correspond to some recognizable epic convention. He turns
everyday objects—a petticoat, a curl, a pair of scissors, and a hairpin—into armor and weapons,
and the allegory reflects on their real social significance in new and interesting ways.