Allusions In Mac Flecknoe

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Submitted by: Nikhita Tripathi Roll No.-948
The fullest perception of the wit of MacFlecknoe is reserved for those who are especially 'literate'.Comment
Dryden's MacFlecknoe(1682),or a Satyr on the true Blew protestant poet is a 'largely punitive'[1] poem written in the mock heroic impulse by Dryden in 1678.MacFlecknoe is often considered the 'locus classicus' of the mock heroic form and would define the norm for satiric writing over the next century.
As the introduction to the Worldview edition of the text points out Dryden never intended MacFlecknoe to be published as a "public" poem, it was circulated in the form of a manuscript among the intelligentsia in coffeehouses,genteel clubs,tea

The 17th-18th centuries in Europe coincide with the neoclassical movement in literature and art,by now a classical revival is already underway.Dryden himself later in his career will translate the works of Juvenal,Persius,Virgil and other classical authors.MacFlecknoe while it is not replete with allusions to classical texts does contain a few mainly to Virgil's Aeneid.Biblical allusions("was sent before but to prepare thy way") and those from Cowley's Davideis also occur.Dryden was a fervent admirer of Milton's epic Paradise Lost ,In MacFlecknoe the most obvious reference to Milton appears in a brief reference to the regal appearance of Flecknoe,the reigning but aged monarch of dullness and "all the realms of nonsense absolute"[2]

It is just so long, (and as happy be the omen of dulness to me, as it is to some clergymen and statesmen!) since your lordship has known, that there is a worse poet remaining in the world, than he of scandalous memory, who left it last"
Hence when Dryden titles his poem MacFlecknoe, he clearly assumes that his readers(the literati of the time) are aware of his dislike of Flecknoe's writing and moreover they share it too .They can recognise the affront Dryden intends when he projects Shadwell as the successor to Flecknoe . (Richard Flecknoe,the Irish poet ,had long been regarded in literary circles as the 'archetypical bad poet', Andrew Marvell had earlier lampooned him in his poem Flecknoe,an English Priest at