Dryden

After reading Dryden's Mac Flecknoe and A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire, I felt like his standards for what makes good satire did not exactly line up with the poem. He claims that satire is to "make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave without using any of those opprobrious terms," yet in Mac Flecknoe, he uses the term "dullness" at least a dozen times. Yes, he does use grand language and a very sarcastic style but he still employs degrading terms to make his point. I found his poem to be the "slovenly butchering of a man" and not the "fineness of a stroke that separates the head from body." This is not to say that I did not find the poem amusing; in fact I found his approach to writing tactical and entertaining, but personally I did not think it aligned with his discourse on satire. I liked the executioner analogy and think that perhaps Dryden just needs to sharpen his blade. Reading this also made me wonder what Dryden's reaction would be to a satire about himself. He seems very self assured and I would have a hard time believing that he would be tickled at such a production and not grossly offended.