Mac Flecknoe

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1682

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Darkness and Light

Dryden wrote “Mac Flecknoe” around 1678, in the midst of the Scientific Revolution that would later give way to the Era of the Enlightenment. The name “Enlightenment,” though chosen after the era had passed, demonstrates the historical European symbolism of light and darkness in respect of the illumination or obfuscation of scientific truths. Light, therefore, has long stood as symbol of rationality and scientific inquiry.

Similarly, Dryden uses darkness and light to denote obfuscation and truth, respectively. Given Shadwell’s fundamental inability to make sense in “Mac Flecknoe,” however, the poem’s particular use of darkness and light more closely relates to reason. Dryden, for instance, envisions wit as a “beam” (Line 21) of light that is unable to penetrate “Shadwell’s genuine night” (Line 23). Similarly, the comparison to “monarch oaks that shade the plain” (Line 27) shows Shadwell spreading darkness. Shadwell’s ability, like night, is to obfuscate reality or rationality. The equation—of Shadwell and night—runs so deep that the character is accompanied by “twelve reverend owls” (Line 129). during his coronation. Also during the coronation scene, Shadwell is given “a mighty mug of potent ale” (Line 121) and “poppies” (Line 126). These two objects associate Shadwell with the sleep-like state of alcohol and opium intoxication, further developing his connection with irrationality and darkness.

The Kingdom of Dullness

The phrase “Kingdom of Dullness” does not actually appear in Dryden’s “Mac Flecknoe,” but it is used throughout the critical literature to define Flecknoe and Shadwell’s kingdom. Along with his ability to create nonsensical works, Shadwell is preternaturally dull. One of the main reasons Flecknoe chooses Shadwell to take over the kingdom, in fact, is that Shadwell is like Flecknoe in being “Mature in dullness from his tender years” (Line 15). Therefore, even if Flecknoe’s kingdom is never named, dullness is early established as one of its chief cultural virtues.

Though “Mac Flecknoe” was written after the restoration of Charles II, England’s political environment still required people to make their loyalties known. Aristocrats were often reprimanded for holding beliefs or values that conflicted with the ruling monarch(s). Dryden, for example, was removed from his laureateship for refusing to follow the same denomination of Christianity as the new monarchs, William III and Mary II. The monarch’s values, within and beyond the poem, are a barometer for larger English society. The Kingdom of Dullness, then, represents Dryden’s fear of a cultural shift away from the scientific and aesthetic values that held in the previous generation.

Filth

Filth, excrement, and dirt are among the most significant recurring motifs in “Mac Flecknoe.” The most direct instances of these related motifs occur in the second stanza, where the poem’s speaker relates Shadwell’s coming of age among “brothel houses” (Line 70) and “polluted joys” (Line 71). At first glance, in fact, the filth imagery may seem relegated to the second stanza. However, the motifs also extend throughout the poem to the “dusty shops” (Line 100) of the third stanza and seem to hit their stride during the coronation scene.

In the poem’s original text, Dryden obscures Shadwell’s name and instead calls him “Sh———.” Obscuring an individual’s name, either out of modesty or self-defense, is a common practice throughout the literary history, but Dryden makes the most of the provided ambiguity; he frequently constructs the line around Shadwell’s name so that “Shadwell” can be replaced with the word “shit” and still make sense. The lines “Echoes from Pissing alley, Shadwell call” (Line 47) and “But loads of Shadwell almost choked the way” (Line 103) beg to have Shadwell’s name replaced with the profanity to complete the puns. This is particularly true of Line 103, since only two lines previous the speaker calls discarded poetry “reliques of the bum” (Line 101) after they had been used as toilet paper. The same replacement could be done to Line 96 to suggest a pun between Shadwell’s coronation and the crowning of a bowel movement.