the King (David) was very fond of him, it was desirable to place his
shortcomings to the account of his advisers, represented by Achitophel.
The way in which Dryden handled his adversaries may be understood from
such passages as:--

"Levi, thou art a load: I'll lay thee down
And show rebellion bare, without a gown;
Poor slaves in metre, dull and addle-pated
Who rhime below e'en David's psalms translated."

Doeg is another enemy:--

"'Twere pity treason at his door to lay
Who makes heaven's gate a lock to its own key.
Let him rail on, let his invective muse
Have four and twenty letters to abuse,
Which, if he jumbles to one line of sense
Indict him of a capital offence."

This satire led to some replies, which Dryden crushed in his "Mac
Flecnoe," a poem named after an Irish priest--an inferior poet--who, but
for this notice, would never have been known to posterity. Shadwell was
the man really aimed at; Mac Flecnoe exclaims:--

"Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he
Who stands confirmed in full stupidity,
The rest to some faint meaning make pretence
But Shadwell never deviates into sense."[58]

After much in the same strain, he finishes with:--

"Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame
In keen iambics, but mild anagram.
Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command
Some peaceful province in acrostic land,
There thou mayest wings display and altars raise,
And torture one poor world ten thousand ways."

Dryden calls this kind of satire Varronian, as he weaves a sort of
imaginary story into which he introduces the object of his attack. He
was under the impression that this was the first piece of ridicule
written in heroics, and his claim seemed correct as far as England was
concerned, but Boileau and Tassoni had preceded him. Willmot says,
"Dryden is wanting in the graceful humour of Tassoni, and exquisite
power of Boileau. His wit has more weight than edge--it beat in armour,
but could not cut gause." The greater part of Dryden's satire could not
cut anything, nor be distinguished from elaborate vituperation. He
wrote an essay on Satire, in which he shows a much better knowledge of
history than of humour. His best passages are in the "Spanish Friars,"
but they are weak and mainly directed against the profligacy of the
Church. The servant says of the friar, "There's a huge, fat religious
gentleman coming up, Sir. He says he's but a friar, but he's big