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What does the quote "But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray, / His rising fogs prevail upon the day" from Mac Flecknoe mean?
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The quote "But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray, / His rising fogs prevail upon the day" from Mac Flecknoe means that Shadwell is intellectually dull and uninspired. Dryden uses this metaphor to emphasize Shadwell's stupidity and lack of wit, suggesting that he remains in a state of perpetual intellectual darkness and fog, incapable of brilliance.
As MacFlecknoe is a mock-heroic epic, it's written in a style similar to that of the epics of ancient Rome and Greece. The difference, however, is that here there's considerably more "mock," and not much in the way of "heroic" involved. So Dryden is heaping constant abuse upon poor old Shadwell, but doing it in a very clever way, making it more difficult for his hapless victim to respond. After all, it's so much harder to counter someone's insults if they're couched in skillful poetic language than if they're expressed in profanities.
Dryden loathes Shadwell for many reasons, but basically he thinks he's a bit of an idiot. And as Dryden is a highly skilled wit and poet, he's not about to come right out and say, "That Shadwell's a total idiot." So he's going to use metaphor to hammer home his point:
Some beams of wit on other souls...
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may fall,
Strike through and make a lucid interval;
But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray,
His rising fogs prevail upon the day:
Other writers are witty and inspired, but not Shadwell. He is so stupid, remaining in a state of permanent night and fog, intellectually speaking, that no shafts of wit could ever possibly break through.