Mac Flecknoe as a Lampoon
A personal satire or
lampoon is an attack on a particular rival and is usually not accompanied by
any reformative zeal. Mac Flecknoe originated in personal malice. It is a
retaliatory attack of Thomas Shadwell for having written The Medal of John Bays
which in turn was a reply to Dryden’s The Medal. Thomas Shadwell’s satire was a
personal attack on Dryden and an abusive one. Dryden could not pocket the
insult meekly; so he wrote Mac Flecknoe as a
stinging reply.
While
we read Mac Flecknoe we realize that Dryden has no desire to reform Shadwell.
As a satire, the poem contains much of personal slander, a great deal of which
is undeserved by Shadwell. Though not a great writer, Shadwell was not an
absolute dunce as made out by Dryden. A remarkable handling of the mock-heroic
technique, however reduces Shadwell to a dullard. Throughout the poem, we come
across words like ‘sense’, ‘art’, ‘tautology’ ‘nature’ and ‘nonsense’- words
often used by Dryden in his prolonged critical warfare with Shadwell.
With
consummate skill, Dryden dresses up Shadwell in a heroic armour only in order
to reduce him to the size of a pigmy. Flecknoe’s part in the poem is simply
representative and the main satire is directed against Shadwell ‘who stands
confirmed in full stupidity’. Dryden calls him the dullest son of Flecknoe.
Shadwell
was a born enemy of wit, sense and intelligence. As a dramatist too, Shadwell
is a grand failure. His tragedies make one laugh and his comedies induce sleep.
He is also ridiculed for his presumptuous imitation of Ben Jonson. All these
things fully illustrate that Mac Flacknoe is a personal satire.
However,
we are to remember that Dryden’s impulses were not merely personal but had a
wider scope. He did ot merely intend to attack
Shadwell, but through him, all the bad poets of his day. Thus certain
impersonal impulses also enter the poem giving it a universal dimension.
Tautology and bombast are not only to be attacked in Shadwell, but in all other
poets who made use of them.
To sum
up, in Mac Flecknoe, we have a great deal of personal satire, although much of
it is unfair. In fact, much of its pungency, its personal attack is redeemed by
its humour and we would like to look upon Shadwell as a great comic creation.
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