English Literature / Unit 10 ENL 0904 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"Mac Flecknoe"
Captions available
The idea
"Mac Flecknoe," written about sixteen seventy-eight and published in sixteen eighty-two, is Dryden's mock-heroic satire on the playwright Thomas Shadwell. It crowns Shadwell heir to a kingdom of poetic dullness, succeeding the poor poet Richard Flecknoe, in the elevated style of epic.
In practice
Epic grandeur crowning a dull poet.
Where people slip
Mock-heroic uses high style for low subjects.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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