Mac Flecknoe

by John Dryden

Mac Flecknoe is a verse mock-heroic satire written by John Dryden. It is a direct attack on Thomas Shadwell, another prominent poet of the time.
Written about 1678, but not published until 1682 Mac Flecknoe is the outcome of a series of disagreements between Thomas Shadwell and Dryden.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Satire, British Literature, English Literature, 17th Century, Comedy

4 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1682

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made Poet Laureate in 1668. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Walter Scott called him "Glorious John."

Reviews

[Versha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satiric poem that illustrates a King and his son’s lack of virtue to rule. Here Dryden is actually referring to one of his friends Shadwell as the king’s son and making fun of him. Although fun to read and laughable at times the mock-heroic satire seems childish to me. Since Dryden has tried to make fun of one of his friend-turned-enemy just because they had literary and political disagreements. It actually shows how narrow-minded Dryden was, who couldn’t take a difference of opinion healthily.

https://varshasbookshelf.blogspot.com/

[Ananya Ghosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, because the digs Dryden takes on Shadwell are just too good!

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of butt jokes

[feneo · Rating 3 out of 5]

basically everyone who isn’t an elitist or an classist catching strays because of his personal beef with thomas shadwell

[Shivani Rohella · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Dryden's Mac Flecknoe is a satire on his literary rival Thomas Shadwell. Dryden used the tool of Mock Heroism where there is a travesty of literary style and conventions of an epic in order to bring about a ridiculous mockery of someone whom the poet disapproves.
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In the book, Mac Flecknoe is the king of nonsense and he takes an immense pride in his son who is unreceptive of an change and is a mindless person. Dryden creates an aura around Shadwell but the comic effect comes in with puns, inverted grandeur and ridicule. Dullness and stupidly has been projected as a heroic aspect throughout the book and Shadwell swears to take ignorance and folly to a new height.
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Dryden, thus condemned Shadwell and directly attacks him for coming up with bad literature. I was highly impressed by Dryden's wit and his writing style. He truly employed an unusual way to mock and I would highly recommend you to read this and enjoy his masterpiece.

[Saranya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dryden was being #savage

[jb-rand · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this a very aggressive and snide attack on another person. Quite joyous to read!

[Zeynep Akman · Rating 5 out of 5]

GENIUS

[Anisha ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mock-epic satire that puts forward a sarcastic coronation of Dryden's contemporary, rival Thomas Shadwell, who was a British Playwright and quite well known in the restoration period. Thomas Shadwell abuses Dryden in an offensive tone in his work, which was a roasting of Dryden's poem The Medal. however, after that work, Dryden writes this satire in a mock-heroic style and brings another poetaster Richard Flecknoe as the fictional father of Thomas Shadwell. Very rich in humor, a very hilarious yet burning poem on Shadwell's ability to write typical bad works and his dull head.

[Sadifura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arguably the wittiest poetic satire I have read save William Blake's much shorter, yet equally scathing "To Nobodaddy"; his insults read equally as well during a modern poetic and literary context, where in our modern day, poetry is becoming diminished as an art form with shallow, sentence-piecemeal "Insta-poetry" and fictional stories that become nonsensical, devoid of meaning, and poorly written and filled with cliches, just like the plays Dryden is criticizing of Shadwell. I do not agree with Dryden's ideals, not one bit, but his sense of humor is to die for.

[V Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Dryden the literary giant of his age roasts a now unknown poet, Shadwell, in this mock-heroic poem.

But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray,
His rising fogs prevail upon the day:

Dryden was an extremely prolific writer of heroic couplets like these. Alas his reams of works: poems, plays, translations, are mostly forgotten today.

But Mac Flecknoe is a viscous, fun to read if you can get past the old-fashioned form.

[Max Shoham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is ostensibly a diss track from 1682. Dryden has some real good bars, but he should have toned down the use of "dull" as an insult. Especially loved the analogue of Shadwell being heir to the throne of bad poets, which began with King Mac Flecknoe. Pretty funny. Thanks English professor.

[Atanu Roy Chowdhury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read it for my exam tomorrow. It's not that easy to get into this older form of poetry, but somehow I did. So kudos to Dryden!

[anaïs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dryden thoroughly charred Sh****** 🔥🙏😌

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though it appears that the author is mocking a rivals plays, he's also mentioning all of Thomas Shadwell's works of the time. Hmm...

[mokshali · Rating 4 out of 5]

ate, if someone wants to publicly humiliate me i’d like this to be their reference point

[Moe s. · Rating 5 out of 5]

He crawled so Kendrick could run.

[Dana Gouin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to learn to throw insults so poetically!!

[Ansa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dryden!! you challenged the idea of logical criticism for me 🤧

[Ranin Ashraf · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most enjoyable poems I've ever read😂

[محمود عبدالتواب · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, the poem makes me sympathize with the heir to throne of dullness, Thomas Shadwell, but some laughter. Although I adore Satire and this kind of mock epic poems, I do not agree with John Dryden in two points; Shadwell was not a confirmed dullard as he says him; though he was a humble poet, he was the comic dramatist of some repute. Moreover, it's not meaning that we are different in political views and affiliations that we attack each others by words. There is a constructive criticism we can use in commenting on others.

[Haneen A. Hijjawi]

One of the Dryden's most effective satires, Mac Flecknoe has as its target Thomas Shadwell, who earned Dryden's ire by praising The Rehearsal, a play in which Dryden was parodied and ridiculed. Flecknoe was an Irish poet, notorious for his poor poetry, who died in 1678. Calling Shadwell the son of Flecknoe (in Gaelic Mac means "son of"), Dryden proceeds to use his cutting wit at Shadwell's expense. By an ironic twist of fate, the royal appointments Dryden lost seven years later with the accession of William and Mary went to Shadwell, Dryden's "King of Nonsense."

[sch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nov 2021. Read aloud in class with students: fun and a good introduction to the neoclassical lyric. More fun was trying our hand afterward at satirical couplets aimed at a good-natured classmate.

Jan 2020. Read for the first time, wonderful.

[DPetrichor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps this is not the edition which I read but this was my first time reading a satire . And I found Dryden's really funny and loved the metaphors he used!

[Olivia Ard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious and indicative of England's politics and literary culture during the Restoration.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Dryden was a savage. This needs to be read for the insults alone. I guess it also gives the reader a sense of what literary criticism was up to in 17th century England.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely Hilarious!!!!! I don't always enjoy poetry, but this was Fantastic!!!!