Mac Flecknoe

“Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome” by Andrew Marvell (1681)

While Andrew Marvell’s “Flecknoe, an English Priest at Rome” was only published one year before “Mac Flecknoe,” it was potentially written as early as 1646. Marvell met Flecknoe at Rome, as the poem’s title suggests, between 1645 and 1647. Like Dryden’s poem, Marvell’s satire of Flecknoe was likely first spread in private circles before publication in 1681, three years after Flecknoe’s and Marvell’s deaths.

Dryden might have read Marvell’s satire of Flecknoe before writing his own in 1678 or 1679. Regardless of the poem’s exact influence on Dryden’s satire, Marvell’s attack on Flecknoe is indicative of the kind of verse satire that Dryden (and later Pope) later developed to perfection.

“Absalom and Achitophel” by John Dryden (1681)

“Absalom and Achitophel,” a satirical retelling of the biblical story of Absalom and King David, is among Dryden’s most well-known works. Through biblical allegory, Dryden touches on the Meal-Tub Plot, the Popish Plot, and the Exclusion Crisis. All of these major events in English history happened between 1678 and 1681, during the poem’s composition. While “Mac Flecknoe” is largely unconnected to the larger political events that Dryden frequently wrote about, “Absalom and Achitophel” intimately engages contemporary political turmoil. Despite their different subjects and targets, “Absalom and Achitophel” is also written in heroic couplets and uses many of the same poetic techniques found in “Mac Flecknoe.”

“Invocation of Silence” by Richard Flecknoe (1640)

Few of Richard Flecknoe’s plays or poetry have been published in modern editions. Flecknoe is mostly known today, in fact, for being the butt of satire. “Invocation of Silence” showcases many of the poetic clichés, heightened language, and failures of scansion that Dryden targets in “Mac Flecknoe.” The poem is an apostrophe—a poem addressed to a person or thing—speaking to “Stillborn Silence”—but many of its metaphors, including how silence is “Stillborn” (Line 1) yet also “Offspring of a heavenly kind” (Line 3) get muddled and confusing upon investigation.

“The Dunciad, Book 1” by Alexander Pope (1743)

Alexander Pope’s magnum opus, “The Dunciad,” is a direct descendant of Dryden’s “Mac Flecknoe.” “The Dunciad” uses the same mock-heroic form as Dryden’s work, and it contains many of the same themes. “The Dunciad” was originally published in three books and targeted its satire on Lewis Thobald. The final version, published in 1743, attacks Colley Cibber, an actor-manager and playwright.

The poem takes its name and part of its narrative from Virgil’s Aeneid. Instead of detailing the adventures of Aeneas, however, Pope’s work celebrates the goddess “Dulness” and the people who do her bidding. Dulness’s followers include contemporary booksellers, authors, and thinkers who have opposed Pope. This mock narrative celebrates decay, ignorance, tastelessness, and Cibber, the King of Dunces.