The Puritan Experiment in government did not survive for too long after Cromwell’s death in 1658 and in May 1660 Charles II was reinstated to the throne of England. Satirical poetry flourished during this phrase and the main exponent of this form was John Dryden (1631-1700). His great political satires include Absalom and Achitophel, The Medal, and Mac Flecknoe, a literary satire was born of politics. Somewhat lacking in structure and overweight with prolonged “scolding”, these pieces are all magnificent in their vigorous dignity, their boisterous vituperation, and their incisive satirical portraiture.
After the excitement of the Popish Pot (1678) there had been repeated attempt to force a bill through Parliament excluding Catholics (and thus their legitimate heir, Duke of York) from the throne of England. The villain in these attempts was the Whig leader, Earl of Shaftesbury, who in the summer of 1681 was under arrest charged with high treason. At the suggestion of the King , Absalom and Achitophel was written and its publication timed to fall just a week before Shaftesbury’s fruitless arraignment. This poem makes use of Biblical story to indicate how Achitophel (Shaftesbury) is tempting to rebellion Absalom (The Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II and the Whig candidate to succeed his father).
Four months after this piece Dryden published The Medal (March,1682), another satire on Shaftesbury, whose followers upon his release from the charge of treason had cast a commemorative medal in honour of his triumph. The poem, less brilliant than its predecessor, gains force from being centered on a single person. It was answered two months after its appearance by a gossipy retort, The Medal of John Bayes, probably from the pen of Thomas Shadwell. In turn, a few months later, Dryden’s opinions concerning Shadwell were published twice; first in Mac Flecknoe, apparently written in 1678, and secondly, in passages inserted by Dryden in Nahum Tate’s Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. In his treatment of Shadwell, Dryden drops at times his heroics and becomes roundly but still incisively abusive. Mac Flecknoe, one of Dryden’s most influential poems, first appeared anonymously, but was acknowledged by Dryden in 1693. About 1678, upon the decease of a secular priest, Richard Flecknoe, known as a bad versifier, it had occurred to Dryden to nominate Shadwell successor to the throne of Nonsense. Flecknoe, who chooses Shadwell to succeed him as the perfect nadir of genius. Satire on dullness of authors here reaches that high of plateau of caustic and relentless phrasing, the other boundary of which might be Pope’s Dunciad.
One of the most eminent of the lesser poets of the time was Samuel Butler. His major work Hudibras was a satirical attack on Puritans. The purpose of the poem is satirical and the action is simply a loose thread upon which arguments, reflections, and caustic portraits are strung. In the poem Butler attacks not only Puritanism but also notions of chivalry and heroism. Hudibras is episodic at times, but its satirical spirit comes through nevertheless. his favourite classical satire was Juvenal; but he owed fully as much in theme and method to such moderns as Rabelais, Cervantes and Scarron.
Butler’s intellectual quality, if not his full genius, is also seen in his other works which largely lack the grotesqueness of Hudibras. The Elephant in the Moon, a facetious satire on Sir Paul Neale, and the Satire on the Royal Society both show his unsympathetic attitude towards learning.
Butler, it is true had no worthy avowed disciple. Tom D’Urfey, Ned Ward, Tom Brown, John Oldham that Restoration verse satire enjoyed some more success. He was the foremost and most furious of those who fought on the side of Titus Oates and the Whigs. His A Satyr Against Vertue (1679) and Satyrs upon the Jesuits (1681) are notable examples of his talent. Oldham greatly valued personal freedom and in his satire Addressed to a Friend that is about to Leave the University and Come Abroad in the World, he affirms his love for freedom through the inserted fable of the wolf who loved freedom but would not endure the indignity of collar and chain put upon the civilized and well-fed Towzer. It is furious sweep of Oldham’s satiric rage that is most impressive, but this fable, and other passages that might seem autobiographical, have charm that is more amiable.
In the field of satirists one need also to look at the last of the cavalier breed like Rochester, Sedley, Dorset, and apart from this group at Charles Cotton. Of these the most prominent was the Earl of Rochester who died quite young as a result of his mad debaucheries, which took a toll on his health. His Satyr Against Mankind (1675) and the lines Upon Nothing are excellent satirical poems. His most important piece of literary satire in his Allusion to Horace’s 10th Satyr of the First Book. It is simply an episode in the running battle his lordship was carrying on with many poets, from Dryden to the negligible Sir Carr Scrope. His A Letter from Artemisa in the Town to Cloe in the Country is an excellent poem depicting the practices of the contemporary society.
Sir Charles Sedley, was an author of some satirical poems, but he was more known for his songs. Charles Sackville wrote relatively few satirical poems but his several other poems are tinged with satire. His lines on The British Princes of Edward Howard were profusely abusive and his stanzas On the Countess of Dorchester are strong but unpleasant in their epigrammatic sting.
The last of these cavalier lyrists to achieve a reputation as such was Charles Cotton. In his won lifetime his moderate fame was based on his burlesques, especially Scarronides. Apart from these some of the satirical songs of the period generally attacking the Puritans might also be taken with the ambit of satirical poetry of the period.
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