Mac Flecknoe: A Satire Upon The True-blue Protestant Poet T Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGGHHIJHHJJ KLAAMHNNHOAAPPBBAAOO QRSSTTKKCCUUVVWWTTTO OXX YYZZJJJJA2A2B2B2TTTT TJJJJC2C2JJJD2D2JJ E2E2F2F2AAG2G2AAH2I2 J2J2K2FJJG2L2NNJJXXK SAABBB2B2TTM2M2N2N2B 2B2O2P2Q2 NNC2C2R2R2JJHHGGOOGG JJXXC2C2PPJJLLS2S2T2 T2PPJJU2U2UUJ| All human things are subject to decay | A |
| And when Fate summons monarchs must obey | A |
| This Flecknoe found who like Augustus young | B |
| Was call'd to empire and had govern'd long | C |
| In prose and verse was own'd without dispute | D |
| Through all the realms of Non sense absolute | D |
| This aged prince now flourishing in peace | E |
| And blest with issue of a large increase | E |
| Worn out with business did at length debate | F |
| To settle the succession of the State | F |
| And pond'ring which of all his sons was fit | G |
| To reign and wage immortal war with wit | G |
| Cry'd 'tis resolv'd for nature pleads that he | H |
| Should only rule who most resembles me | H |
| Shadwell alone my perfect image bears | I |
| Mature in dullness from his tender years | J |
| Shadwell alone of all my sons is he | H |
| Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity | H |
| The rest to some faint meaning make pretence | J |
| But Shadwell never deviates into sense | J |
| Some beams of wit on other souls may fall | K |
| Strike through and make a lucid interval | L |
| But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray | A |
| His rising fogs prevail upon the day | A |
| Besides his goodly fabric fills the eye | M |
| And seems design'd for thoughtless majesty | H |
| Thoughtless as monarch oaks that shade the plain | N |
| And spread in solemn state supinely reign | N |
| Heywood and Shirley were but types of thee | H |
| Thou last great prophet of tautology | O |
| Even I a dunce of more renown than they | A |
| Was sent before but to prepare thy way | A |
| And coarsely clad in Norwich drugget came | P |
| To teach the nations in thy greater name | P |
| My warbling lute the lute I whilom strung | B |
| When to King John of Portugal I sung | B |
| Was but the prelude to that glorious day | A |
| When thou on silver Thames did'st cut thy way | A |
| With well tim'd oars before the royal barge | O |
| Swell'd with the pride of thy celestial charge | O |
| And big with hymn commander of an host | Q |
| The like was ne'er in Epsom blankets toss'd | R |
| Methinks I see the new Arion sail | S |
| The lute still trembling underneath thy nail | S |
| At thy well sharpen'd thumb from shore to shore | T |
| The treble squeaks for fear the basses roar | T |
| Echoes from Pissing Alley Shadwell call | K |
| And Shadwell they resound from Aston Hall | K |
| About thy boat the little fishes throng | C |
| As at the morning toast that floats along | C |
| Sometimes as prince of thy harmonious band | U |
| Thou wield'st thy papers in thy threshing hand | U |
| St Andre's feet ne'er kept more equal time | V |
| Not ev'n the feet of thy own Psyche's rhyme | V |
| Though they in number as in sense excel | W |
| So just so like tautology they fell | W |
| That pale with envy Singleton forswore | T |
| The lute and sword which he in triumph bore | T |
| And vow'd he ne'er would act Villerius more | T |
| Here stopt the good old sire and wept for joy | O |
| In silent raptures of the hopeful boy | O |
| All arguments but most his plays persuade | X |
| That for anointed dullness he was made | X |
| - | |
| Close to the walls which fair Augusta bind | Y |
| The fair Augusta much to fears inclin'd | Y |
| An ancient fabric rais'd t'inform the sight | Z |
| There stood of yore and Barbican it hight | Z |
| A watch tower once but now so fate ordains | J |
| Of all the pile an empty name remains | J |
| From its old ruins brothel houses rise | J |
| Scenes of lewd loves and of polluted joys | J |
| Where their vast courts the mother strumpets keep | A2 |
| And undisturb'd by watch in silence sleep | A2 |
| Near these a nursery erects its head | B2 |
| Where queens are form'd and future heroes bred | B2 |
| Where unfledg'd actors learn to laugh and cry | T |
| Where infant punks their tender voices try | T |
| And little Maximins the gods defy | T |
| Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here | T |
| Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear | T |
| But gentle Simkin just reception finds | J |
| Amidst this monument of vanish'd minds | J |
| Pure clinches the suburbian muse affords | J |
| And Panton waging harmless war with words | J |
| Here Flecknoe as a place to fame well known | C2 |
| Ambitiously design'd his Shadwell's throne | C2 |
| For ancient Decker prophesi'd long since | J |
| That in this pile should reign a mighty prince | J |
| Born for a scourge of wit and flail of sense | J |
| To whom true dullness should some Psyches owe | D2 |
| But worlds of Misers from his pen should flow | D2 |
| Humorists and hypocrites it should produce | J |
| Whole Raymond families and tribes of Bruce | J |
| - | |
| Now Empress Fame had publisht the renown | E2 |
| Of Shadwell's coronation through the town | E2 |
| Rous'd by report of fame the nations meet | F2 |
| From near Bun Hill and distant Watling street | F2 |
| No Persian carpets spread th'imperial way | A |
| But scatter'd limbs of mangled poets lay | A |
| From dusty shops neglected authors come | G2 |
| Martyrs of pies and reliques of the bum | G2 |
| Much Heywood Shirley Ogleby there lay | A |
| But loads of Shadwell almost chok'd the way | A |
| Bilk'd stationers for yeoman stood prepar'd | H2 |
| And Herringman was Captain of the Guard | I2 |
| The hoary prince in majesty appear'd | J2 |
| High on a throne of his own labours rear'd | J2 |
| At his right hand our young Ascanius sat | K2 |
| Rome's other hope and pillar of the state | F |
| His brows thick fogs instead of glories grace | J |
| And lambent dullness play'd around his face | J |
| As Hannibal did to the altars come | G2 |
| Sworn by his sire a mortal foe to Rome | L2 |
| So Shadwell swore nor should his vow be vain | N |
| That he till death true dullness would maintain | N |
| And in his father's right and realm's defence | J |
| Ne'er to have peace with wit nor truce with sense | J |
| The king himself the sacred unction made | X |
| As king by office and as priest by trade | X |
| In his sinister hand instead of ball | K |
| He plac'd a mighty mug of potent ale | S |
| Love's kingdom to his right he did convey | A |
| At once his sceptre and his rule of sway | A |
| Whose righteous lore the prince had practis'd young | B |
| And from whose loins recorded Psyche sprung | B |
| His temples last with poppies were o'er spread | B2 |
| That nodding seem'd to consecrate his head | B2 |
| Just at that point of time if fame not lie | T |
| On his left hand twelve reverend owls did fly | T |
| So Romulus 'tis sung by Tiber's brook | M2 |
| Presage of sway from twice six vultures took | M2 |
| Th'admiring throng loud acclamations make | N2 |
| And omens of his future empire take | N2 |
| The sire then shook the honours of his head | B2 |
| And from his brows damps of oblivion shed | B2 |
| Full on the filial dullness long he stood | O2 |
| Repelling from his breast the raging god | P2 |
| At length burst out in this prophetic mood | Q2 |
| - | |
| Heavens bless my son from Ireland let him reign | N |
| To far Barbadoes on the Western main | N |
| Of his dominion may no end be known | C2 |
| And greater than his father's be his throne | C2 |
| Beyond love's kingdom let him stretch his pen | R2 |
| He paus'd and all the people cry'd Amen | R2 |
| Then thus continu'd he my son advance | J |
| Still in new impudence new ignorance | J |
| Success let other teach learn thou from me | H |
| Pangs without birth and fruitless industry | H |
| Let Virtuosos in five years be writ | G |
| Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit | G |
| Let gentle George in triumph tread the stage | O |
| Make Dorimant betray and Loveit rage | O |
| Let Cully Cockwood Fopling charm the pit | G |
| And in their folly show the writer's wit | G |
| Yet still thy fools shall stand in thy defence | J |
| And justify their author's want of sense | J |
| Let 'em be all by thy own model made | X |
| Of dullness and desire no foreign aid | X |
| That they to future ages may be known | C2 |
| Not copies drawn but issue of thy own | C2 |
| Nay let thy men of wit too be the same | P |
| All full of thee and differing but in name | P |
| But let no alien Sedley interpose | J |
| To lard with wit thy hungry Epsom prose | J |
| And when false flowers of rhetoric thou would'st cull | L |
| Trust Nature do not labour to be dull | L |
| But write thy best and top and in each line | S2 |
| Sir Formal's oratory will be thine | S2 |
| Sir Formal though unsought attends thy quill | T2 |
| And does thy Northern Dedications fill | T2 |
| Nor let false friends seduce thy mind to fame | P |
| By arrogating Jonson's hostile name | P |
| Let Father Flecknoe fire thy mind with praise | J |
| And Uncle Ogleby thy envy raise | J |
| Thou art my blood where Jonson has no part | U2 |
| What share have we in Nature or in Art | U2 |
| Where did his wit on learning fix a brand | U |
| And rail at arts he did not understand | U |
| Where made he love in Prince | J |
John Dryden
(1)
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About Mac Flecknoe: A Satire Upon The True-blue Protestant Poet T
Mac Flecknoe: A Satire Upon The True-blue Protestant Poet T is a poem by John Dryden. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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