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"Modern panegyrick" and Defoe's "Dunciad." (poet Daniel Defoe)

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From: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
Date: 19950622
Author:DeLuna, D.N.

Modern critics have paid little attention to Daniel Defoe's mock-panegyric satire shown in his poem 'The Pacificator,' which focuses on the clash between poets John Dryden and Sir Richard Blackmore. Defoe should be acknowledged for successfully showing how a dramatic method can be used to mock a panegyrist writing satire. Defoe's 'Dunciad' as a prime example of mock-panegyric satire is discussed.

When John Dryden in Mac Flecknoe ridiculed Thomas Shadwell with the lines "Thy Tragick Muse gives smiles, thy Comick sleep . . . Thy inoffensive satyrs never bite,"(1) he did not include a ...

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