John Dryden - Shadwell

One poet attacks another - John Dryden's vicious attack on Thomas Shadwell is read by Samuel Godfrey George


  All human things are subject to decay,
  And when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
  This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
  Was call'd to empire, and had govern'd long;
  In prose and verse, was own'd, without dispute,
  Through all the realms of Nonsense, absolute.
  This aged prince, now flourishing in peace,
  And blest with issue of a large increase;
  Worn out with business, did at length debate
  To settle the succession of the state:                              10
  And, pondering which of all his sons was fit
  To reign, and wage immortal war with wit,
  Cried, 'Tis resolved; for nature pleads, that he
  Should only rule, who most resembles me.
  Shadwell alone my perfect image bears,
  Mature in dulness from his tender years:
  Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he
  Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity.
  The rest to some faint meaning make pretence,
  But Shadwell never deviates into sense.                             20
  Some beams of wit on other souls may fall,
  Strike through, and make a lucid interval;
  But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray,
  His rising fogs prevail upon the day.
  Besides, his goodly fabric fills the eye,
  And seems design'd for thoughtless majesty:
  Thoughtless as monarch oaks, that shade the plain,
  And, spread in solemn state, supinely reign.
  Heywood and Shirley[140] were but types of thee,
  Thou last great prophet of tautology.                               30
  Even I, a dunce of more renown than they,
  Was sent before but to prepare thy way;
  And, coarsely clad in Norwich drugget, came
  To teach the nations in thy greater name.