ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -But when Dryden joined the court party, and produced Absalom and Achitophel and The Medal, Shadwell became the champion of the Protestants, and made a scurrilous attack on Dryden in The Medal of John Bayes: a Satire against Folly and Knavery (1682).

Detailed explanation-2: -Shadwell is a large, proud man who revels in the bombast of his coronation. He has no sense, is dull, and runs roughshod over the work of other, better poets. He is the founder of the Roman empire and the first emperor. Also known as Octavian or Octavius, he was adopted by Julius Caesar.

Detailed explanation-3: -This poem is written in heroic couplet in the iambic pentameter.

Detailed explanation-4: -Dryden presents Shadwell as a dull poetaster, a plagiarist and an obese idiot. Dryden uses heroic couplet for satirical purposes. Although MacFlecknoe is a personal satire, but ultimately, Dryden uses the persona of bad poet to criticize the decline of literary standards of his time.