Mac Flecknoe
Mac Flecknoe, or A Satyr upon the True-Blew-Protestant Poet, T. S.,a mock-epic poem by Dryden published 1682 , and in a definitive edition, 1684 .
The outcome of a series of disagreements, personal, professional, and critical, between Dryden and Shadwell , the poem represents the latter as heir to the kingdom of poetic dullness, currently governed by the minor writer Flecknoe . It brilliantly exploits the crudity of Shadwell's farces (notably The Virtuoso) and critical writings; while the range of its allusions to 17th-cent. theatre demonstrates the complexity of Dryden's critical thought and, since he satirizes his own work (notably Tyrannick Love ) as well as Shadwell's, his humility towards the tradition in which he was working. Mac Flecknoe was a vital inspiration for Pope's Dunciad .
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