Absalom and Achitophel

“Absalom and Achiophel”: the wondrous satirical poem written by John Dryden himself which features the many different ways of inviting humorous and satirical aspects of the Popish plot to light. George Villiers, the second duke of Buckingham, was no exception for Dryden. So much so that the footnotes of the couplets involving George even states that the section on George was “The least political of the satirical portraits in the poem” (Noggle, 2226). Claiming that George Villiers, in Dryden’s eyes

Stephen later finds out what his son has been up to. “This court finds you guilty, Absalom Kumalo, of the murder of Arthur Trevelyan Jarvis at his residence...I sentence you, Absalom Kumalo, to be returned to custody, and to be hanged by the neck until you are dead. And may the Lord have mercy upon your soul.” (Paton pgs 235-236) This is a direct allusion from Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Although Absalom choose to rebel, his father still refused to be joyous when he was killed but instead

Dante’s Divine Comedy is a multi-layered epic, containing not only a story about his incredibly difficult journey from earth to the depths of hell then up to the peaks of heaven, but it also contains many insights on theology, politics, and even his own life. Broken into three canticles—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—the work is written in the terza rima form. In Inferno—in 33 Cantos—Dante makes a vast journey through the nine circles of hell. In the Eighth Circle (specifically, the Ninth Pouch)

should right away! He so eloquently articulates my own political views that I feel he must be reading my mind! A particular favorite of mine is a poem by the name of Absalom and Achitophel. You may recognize the story from the Bible, but Dryden translates it to fit our modern-day woes. Absalom becomes the Duke of Monmouth, Achitophel is the Earl of Shaftesbury (who is leading Monmouth down a dangerous path of rebellion against the crown), and David is, of course, our very own King Charles. It is such

Giovanni Boccaccio was a contemporary to Petrarch and his works revolutionise the Italian literature. Following the Renaissance, the European literature became an art of influence. In the 16th century, the bifurcation of the Church into the Roman Catholics and the English paved the way to political instability. The Puritan era enforced the closing of the theatres, but at the same time, poetry flourished with famous poets like John Milton, Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor and John Dryden. The Baroque

inquires into the biographical, historical, sociological, religious, economic, political and literary contexts of John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671). It underscores the poignant example of John Dryden’s verse satire, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), which is modelled on John Milton’s political epics. It also traces the biographical, historical, sociological, religious, economic, political and literary reasons for the outbreak of the English civil war. Thus, it points out the mutual