Mac Flecknoe by John Dryden

First published: 1682; revised in Miscellany Poems, 1684

Type of work: Poetry

Type of plot: Mock heroic

Time of plot: Late 1670’s

Locale: London

Principal characters

• Flecknoe, a minor poet and dramatist, monarch of dullness
• Shadwell, his chosen successor
• Herringman, captain of the honor guard
• Sir Formal Trifle, character from a Shadwell drama

The Poem:

Flecknoe, the monarch of dullness, senses the approaching end of his long reign and begins to reflect on an appropriate successor. He plans to crown a new monarch before death overcomes him, and in order to secure a proper succession, he is willing, even eager, to abdicate. Fortunately, candidates are plentiful; among his numerous poetic sons, many are suitably dull and stupid. With little hesitation, however, Flecknoe concludes that Shadwell most resembles himself in dullness and is therefore the ideal choice. Even Shadwell’s portly, rotund appearance is an element favorable to his selection. In a speech musing on the selection, Flecknoe praises Shadwell for his nonsensical, obscure, tautological verses. Depicting Shadwell as potentially a greater monarch, he portrays his own reign as merely a precursor to a more gloriously dull age. Flecknoe remembers Shadwell’s previous participation in low forms of entertainment, such as lute playing, public spectacles, and dances. Flecknoe concludes, however, that Shadwell’s dramas best qualify him as the chosen monarch of dunces.

The site selected for the coronation is the Barbican, an area surrounding a ruined Roman watchtower located in the northern part of London. The Barbican is associated with inferior forms of entertainment. A run-down portion of the city, it has become the site of brothels and of the Nursery, a school for young actors. Instead of practicing roles created by John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, the young actors at the Nursery are schooled in punning and coarse humor like that found in the comedies of Shadwell. In order to fulfill the prophecy of Thomas Dekker, a minor Elizabethan dramatist, that a mighty prince will reign in the area, Flecknoe erects a throne on the site; the throne is made from piles of his own printed works that no one would buy.

Once news of the coronation spreads through the area, other inferior poetasters and dunces begin to assemble before the throne. They lead a procession through streets covered not with imperial carpets but with loose pages from the unsold books of Shadwell and others like him. Caught up in the enthusiasm, the throng of poetasters expresses approval of Shadwell’s selection with shouts of acclamation.

In his coronation oath, Shadwell swears to maintain true dullness and to wage perpetual war with truth and sense. As tokens of his office, instead of the ball and scepter used in actual coronations as symbols of secular rule and regal power, Shadwell holds a mug of ale in his left hand and a copy of Flecknoe’s play Love’s Kingdom in his right. Instead of a laurel wreath connoting achievement in art, a wreath featuring sleep-inducing opium poppies crowns his head, and at the conclusion of the ceremony, twelve owls, symbols of stupidity, are released to fly aloft.

Following the coronation Flecknoe delivers a prophetic speech that includes advice about writing. Believing that Shadwell will prove even duller than he has been, Flecknoe urges Shadwell to trust his own gifts, not labor to be dull. When writing plays, he should model both witty characters and fops on himself, for they will all appear identical to the audience. He should avoid vain claims about imitating Ben Jonson or successful Restoration dramatists such as Sir George Etheredge; instead, he should rely on obscure poetasters as models. Lacking any ability to create Jonson’s array of characters of humor, Shadwell has fashioned characters who are all inclined in one direction, toward dullness. His inclination toward farce, coarse physical humor, and obscene language shows that he has little in common with his betters, such as Jonson and Sir Charles Sedley. Indeed, Flecknoe advises, it would be better if Shadwell would abandon major literary genres such as drama and satire altogether, since his efforts in these literary forms produce effects in audiences that are opposite to those intended. Instead, he should turn his attention to inferior forms such as anagrams, pattern poems, acrostics, and songs.

As Flecknoe is drawing his speech to a close, a trapdoor opens beneath him and he sinks down, but an upward wind bears his mantle aloft. Like the prophet Elija’s mantle descending upon Elisha, Flecknoe’s mantle rises upward and then lands upon Shadwell.

Bibliography

Dryden, John. Poems, 1681-1684. Edited by H. T. Swedenberg and Vinton A. Dearing. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972. The standard edition of Dryden presents the text of Mac Flecknoe as well as thorough and accurate information on the background and origin of the poem, its allusions and references, and its ambiguities.

Hammond, Paul, and David Hopkins, eds. John Dryden: Tercentenary Essays. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Collection of essays presents discussion of individual works by Dryden as well as examinations of such topics as Dryden and the “staging of popular politics” and the dissolution evident in his later writing. Howard Erskine-Hill’s “Mac Flecknoe, Heir of Augustus” focuses on the poem.

Hopkins, David. John Dryden. Tavistock, England: Northcote House/British Council, 2004. Provides a concise overview of Dryden’s life and work. Demonstrates that Dryden’s writings continue to have significant ideas to express to a twenty-first century audience.

Jack, Ian. Augustan Satire: Intention and Idiom in English Poetry, 1660-1750. 1952. Reprint. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1971. Devotes a chapter to Mac Flecknoe, analyzing the satire as a mock epic. Emphasizes the personal elements in the attack on Shadwell.

Lewis, Jayne, and Maximillian E. Novak, eds. Enchanted Ground: Reimagining John Dryden. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Collection of essays applies twenty-first century critical perspectives to Dryden’s work. The first section focuses on Dryden’s role as a public poet and the voice of the Stuart court during Restoration; the second explores his relationship to drama and music.

Miner, Earl. Dryden’s Poetry. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967. Explores theatrical elements in Mac Flecknoe and the poem’s fundamental metaphors. Identifies the monarchical, religious, and aesthetic metaphors as central to the work’s meaning and poetic effect.

Rawson, Claude, and Aaron Santesso, eds. John Dryden, 1631-1700: His Politics, His Plays, and His Poets. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004. Collection of essays originally presented at a Yale University conference in 2000 focuses on the politics of Dryden’s plays and addresses how his poetry was poised between ancient and modern influences.

Winn, James Anderson. John Dryden and His World. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987. Critical biography provides an extended account of Dryden’s controversy with Shadwell. Includes a brief analysis of Mac Flecknoe.

Zwicker, Steven N., ed. The Cambridge Companion to John Dryden. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Collection of essays includes discussions of Dryden and the theatrical imagination, the invention of Augustan culture, Dryden and patronage, Dryden’s London, and the “passion of politics” in his theater.