THE RESTORATION AND THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (16601785)
ENGL 3363
Gazzara
INTRODUCING THE PERIOD
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Religion, politics, philosophy, and cultural events (unlike no other
era)
Dense heroic couplets, highly stylized poetic diction,
epigrammatic style, and compression and inversion of language in
the balanced and antithetical structure
SENTENCES THAT TELL A STORY
Satire is
– the dominant mode of the literary expression through 1740
and continues to have a vital presence thereafter
– not ALWAYS the personal expression of hatred, anger, or
revenge; rather, satire held much public significance to
Restoration and eighteenth century audiences (ex: SNL)
– parodies, hyperboles, understatements, mock-idioms, fictional
personae, sarcasms, ironies, lampoons, and many other satiric
devices used as teaching tools for many eighteenth century
and Restoration audiences
– much of the classicism of this neoclassical age manifests itself
through imitation and parody, the latter of which can be both
a compliment and a criticism.
DRYDEN AND HIS INFLUENCE
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Dryden is the most important literary figure of
the last four decades of the seventeenth
century—a creature of his environment, a
modern commentator, and a poet who aimed to
please his audience
Success with the heroic couplet influenced later
poets such as Pope and so helped to set the
standard poetic line of the following century
His literary criticism, although frequently
occasional and directed to his own work, was
greatly admired and likewise set the standard for
taste in elegant, simple, refined writing that was
nonetheless muscular, flexible, and precise
MAC FLECKNOE OVERVIEW
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Rivalry, name-calling, scatology, and personal
attack
Sophistication of the heroic tone at the start and
the SUBTLETY of Dryden’s irony balance with
the poem’s clear narrative
IRONIC PARALLELS to the story
the relationship between the coronation of Shadwell
as the Prince of Dullness and Ascanius’s rise in the
empire of Rome
– the parallels between literary kingdoms and political
kingdoms and what the poem implies about proper
authority
– the senses of sight, sound, touch, and smell as a way
to bring out the humor of the poem
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FORM/STYLE
Mock-epic in heroic couplets
 Begins in heroic idiom and moves into less lofty
language
 Includes parody and lampoon
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PARALLELS
Flecknoe is compared to Aeneas, and Shadwell—
the satiric target—is compared to Ascanius on
the occasion of his taking over the empire for his
father
 Roman Empire parallels the Empire of Dullness
 Numerous parallels drawn to Restoration and
Renaissance drama
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KEY IMAGES
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Shadwell’s “genuine night” and “goodly fabric,”
21-27
The city of London, 64ff
Shadwell’s throne, 74-93
The “mangled poets” littering the streets, 98-107
Shadwell’s coronation garb, 120-29
“the yet declaiming bard” falling through the trap
door, 211-27
GROUPS SHOULD CONSIDER…
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If Flecknoe’s speech identifying Shadwell as his
successor (lines 15-26) should be complimentary,
what do the lines suggest about Shadwell? About
Flecknoe?
What does the word “dullness” imply in the
poem?
“MF” is a poem that uses the political concerns
over proper succession to illustrate a problem in
the literary kingdom. What parallel (metaphor)
does Dryden construct? What are the
implications of the comparison?
If satire aims to correct vice, what does “Mac
Flecknoe” aim to correct?