As the poem progresses Flecknoe blesses his son, which may make some wonder why the church did not perform the blessing. This slight against Flecknoe's character demonstrates that Dryden has no respect for Shadwell's virtues. Any individual, especially a king, who cannot have his son blessed by a priest, would be viewed in a negative light by the masses. Dryden illustrates that Flecknoe's failures are similar to Shadwell, insinuating that Shadwell's future work will be clouted by his personal issues with drugs and alcohol and thus continue to be garbage. Many playwrights like to introduce jokesters or fools into his or her plays to demonstrate the author's superior intellect. In the poem Mac Flecknoe the character resembling Shadwell is a bumbling idiot and constantly demeaned by Dryden (Cox, 2004).
According to dictonary.com plagiarism is "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work, as by not crediting the author (2011)." Plagiarism was often a critique of Shadwell's works. One form of plagiarism of particular interest was that Shadwell is believed to have borrowed from Sedley's plays (Black, Conolly, & Flint, 2011). Many scholars and intellectuals believe that Shadwell's noted plagiarism is a sign of his inadequacies as a writer, poet, and playwright. Dryden incorporates this "stupidity" from plagiarism into the character Flecknoe (Broich, 1990). This "stupidity" is a trait that Dryden believes make Shadwell and Flecknoe reliant upon others for any intellectual thought (Black, Conolly, & Flint, 2011). Dryden's reflections also demonstrate his belief that the only ideal shared by Shadwell and Ben Jonson is rotundity. Dryden was instrumental in his belief that Shadwell should never try and emulate Jonson. The workings of Dryden affirm that his belief is that both Flecknoe and Shadwell are lamebrains.
The misuse of others' passages is a transgression of the highest...
According to many linguistic experts the idea of stealing passages is something any writer should frown upon (Cox, 2004). Sarcastically speaking, Dryden believes Shadwell should be proud of his boring sleep-induced writings. Shadwell's tragedies often created laughter in the audience, but his comedies were more known to cause the
audience boredom (Hammond, 2006). The opposite effect was not the intended result of Shadwell; if he would have realized his strengths and weaknesses in his works they may have had a different impact on people. Many experts believe Shadwell's works were superior to Dryden's, and this may have caused some professional jealously (Black, Conolly, & Flint, 2011). Jealousy can create ill-feelings from one master in a field to another; both may believe his style is the better way to perform their craft. In this case, Dryden's jealousy might have fueled other feelings of anger and
aggression toward Shadwell and his writings.
Conclusion
In short, there is evidence of a clear battle between Dryden and Shadwell. The anger seems to be more specifically allocated to Shadwell from Dryden. The battle between Dryden and Shadwell spurs from five differences of opinion between the two writers, and the battle is
outline in Dryden's Mac Flecknoe. The five differences are a disagreement over the genius of Ben Jonson, Dryden prefers comedy of wit whereas Shadwell is comfortable with humors, a clear disagreement existed over the true purpose of comedy, and Dryden and Shadwell had differences over the value of rhymed plays and also over the idea of plagiarism (Dryden & Oldham, 1709). Jealousy is another issue that has raised its ugly head; it seems from historical accounts that Dryden may have been jealous of Shagwell's work and from the jealousy attacked his counterpart in any way possible. Internal battles between famous entities exist today, just as they have centuries ago, and as learners it is appropriate to have a great historical example of Dryden's hatred for Shadwell.
References
Black, J., Conolly, L., & Flint, K. (2011). The Broadview of anthology of
British literature. (2nd ed., Vol. 1). Toronto, ON: Broadview Press.
Broich, U. (1990). The 18th century mock-heroic poem. New York, NY: University of Cambridge.
Cox, M. (2004). The concise Oxford chronology of
English literature. New York, NY:…
