Description
This edition of Dryden’s MacFlecknoe includes an extensive introduction to the historical, cultural and literary contexts of the poem, along with a specific focus on the polemical play between Dryden and Shadwell. Following the fully-annotated text is a section that provides the student with the primary and secondary readings related to the poem for which have been chosen the prefaces of Shadwell’s plays, The Sullen Lovers and The Humorists and Dryden’s prologue written for Nahum Tate’s The Loyal General and the epilogue tohis own The Conquest of Granada, Part Two. Also included are excerpts from Dryden’s The Second part of Absalom and Achitophel, ‘To His Sacred Majesty on His Coronation’ and ‘To My dear Friend Mr. Congreve on his comedy call’d The Double Dealer’. This section ends with a part of Dryden’s Discourse Concerning the Origin and Progress of Satire. The secondary readings are eight critical essays.
