The task, as assigned by Prof. Dilip Barad, is to analyze John Dryden's 'Absalom and Achitophel' based on the worksheet he prepared.
Introduction
John Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel (1681) is a landmark of Restoration literature and a defining example of political verse satire. Written in lucid, tightly patterned heroic couplets, it translates current events into a biblical frame so that readers can recognize their own moment in a story they already know. Dryden speaks to a nation on edge, dramatizing the pull of ambition, the seduction of faction, and the high stakes of succession politics. At once timely and artfully controlled, the poem defends Stuart kingship, exposes partisan tactics, and models how poetry can shape public opinion during a constitutional crisis.
Basic information
Author and publication:
John Dryden (1631-1700), the leading poet-critic of his age and the Poet Laureate, published Absalom and Achitophel in 1681. It is a long verse satire composed in heroic couplets (pairs of rhymed iambic pentameter lines). Dryden uses the couplet’s balance and closure to deliver crisp judgments, tight character sketches, and memorable aphorisms. The poem’s genre—political verse satire—allows Dryden to critique living figures while framing his argument as moral commentary rather than personal attack.
The Second part:
A sequel, Absalom and Achitophel, Part II, appeared in 1682, largely written by Nahum Tate. Dryden contributed about 200 lines to this continuation, and those lines include some of his most famous satirical portraits. He targets his literary rivals—especially Elkanah Settle (“Doeg”) and Thomas Shadwell (“Og”)—with sharp, compressed character writing that later feeds into his broader satiric practice (for instance, his separate mock-heroic attack on Shadwell in Mac Flecknoe, (also 1682). Part II keeps the allegory going after new political developments and shows how quickly literary culture and party politics overlapped in the Restoration.
The Political Landscape
The Exclusion Crisis (1679–1681):
Dryden’s poem intervenes in the Exclusion Crisis, when the Whig party sought to bar James, Duke of York—King Charles II’s Catholic brother—from the line of succession. For Whigs, exclusion promised safety from a feared Catholic monarch; for Tories, it threatened the lawful hereditary order. Dryden writes on the Tory side. He casts exclusion as a breach in the nation’s ancient settlement and a doorway to anarchy. By presenting the king as measured and forgiving, and the opposition as artful and destabilizing, Dryden argues that stability rests on hereditary right and on trust in the monarch’s constitutional role.
The Popish Plot (1678):
The political mood was already inflamed by the Popish Plot, a fabricated conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates. This false plot unleashed a wave of anti-Catholic panic: informers multiplied, Parliament pressed investigations, and innocent people were executed. Dryden’s poem mirrors this climate of alarm by showing how rumor travels, how “plots” become political currency, and how demagogues convert fear into leverage. In his allegory, panic is not just a social condition; it is a tool that skilled partisans use to unsettle a lawful regime.
"Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up commonwealths, and ruin kings."
Absalom and Achitophel (Part l , 1681)
The Monmouth Rebellion (1685):
Although the poem precedes the rebellion, it belongs to the same chain of events. James Scott, Duke of Monmouth—Charles II’s illegitimate but Protestant son—would later lead an armed rising against James II and lose at Sedgemoor in 1685. Dryden’s portrait of Absalom anticipates this danger: the charm of a popular favorite can become the vehicle of insurrection when guided by ambitious counselors. The failure of Monmouth’s rebellion, and his execution, retroactively confirms the poem’s warning about where factional agitation can lead.
Dryden’s political motivation:
Dryden writes as a royalist, a public poet whose office and reputation tie him to the crown. He composes during a perceived threat of revolution, aiming to preserve James’s place in the succession and to steady public opinion. The poem’s purpose is not only to praise a king but to argue for a principle: legitimate, hereditary monarchy as a divinely sanctioned and constitutionally stabilizing force. Dryden presents rebellion as both unlawful and impious, and he works to separate sincere grievance from ambitious manipulation.
Biblical Parallels: How the Allegory Works
Biblical foundation:
The poem draws on 2 Samuel 13–19, where King David’s beloved son Absalom—handsome, winning, and aggrieved—is persuaded by Achitophel, a brilliant but dangerous counselor, to rebel against his father. The revolt gathers supporters, threatens the state, and ends in tragedy: Absalom is killed, David grieves, and Achitophel dies by his own hand when his advice is rejected. Dryden adopts this scriptural story because it carries moral weight and narrative clarity; it provides a revered language for thinking about loyalty, authority, and sin.
Contemporary equivalents:
David = Charles II. Dryden’s David is lawful, lenient, and politically prudent. He stands for continuity, clemency, and the public peace that monarchy—properly understood—secures.
Absalom = James Scott, Duke of Monmouth. He is charismatic and beloved by the people, yet illegitimate. In the poem, his gifts make him dangerous only when he becomes the instrument of others’ designs.
Achitophel = Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. Dryden renders him as a restless political strategist: persuasive, quick to sense opportunity, and ready to mobilize discontent against the throne. He is the architect of faction, the voice that turns popularity into rebellion.
Monmouth’s legitimacy question:
Monmouth’s mother, Lucy Walter, was one of Charles II’s mistresses. Whig partisans circulated rumors that Charles had secretly married her—the famous “black box” story—which, if proven, would have made Monmouth legitimate and therefore a plausible heir. Charles publicly denied any such marriage. His marriage to Catherine of Braganza produced no legitimate children, which intensified public anxiety about succession and made the rumor politically potent. Dryden uses this uncertainty to show how private rumor, once politicized, can unsettle public order and tempt a beloved son toward a forbidden crown.
Character Studies (brief)
Absalom (Monmouth):
Dryden draws Absalom with sympathy and caution. He is attractive, brave, and naturally magnetic; the people love him for qualities that any culture admires—youth, flourish, and courage. Yet these very gifts expose him to flattery. Dryden suggests that Absalom’s fault is not raw villainy but misdirection: he listens to the wrong counselor, mistakes popularity for right, and allows personal grievance and public acclaim to cloud judgment. The portrait warns that a leader’s charm, without restraint, can be turned against the state.
Achitophel (Shaftesbury):
Achitophel is the poem’s most brilliant mind and its most corrosive force. Dryden crafts him as a strategist who understands timing, optics, and the power of slogans. He packages fear as prudence and sells expediency as principle. The poem traces his methods: identify an able favorite, fan popular hopes, demonize the succession, and press for “extraordinary” remedies that break lawful order. He is a study in political entrepreneurship, using wit and nerve to build a party out of grievance.
David (Charles II):
Dryden’s David governs with moderation. He is slow to anger, quick to forgive, and attentive to the difference between error and malice. His speeches model constitutional patience: he upholds law and inheritance without vindictiveness, even when provoked. This portrait counters caricatures of Stuart absolutism by presenting a king who relies on clemency, not terror, and who repairs breaches by proportionate response.
Underlying Themes
Politics, allegory, and satire:
Absalom and Achitophel shows how allegory can handle live politics safely and clearly. By clothing present actors in biblical names, Dryden sharpens rather than blurs the issues. Satire does the ethical work: it unmasks motives, exposes rhetorical tricks, and sets private ambition against public duty. The heroic couplet’s poise—its antithesis, balance, and epigrammatic close—helps the poem weigh claims and deliver judgments that sound both elegant and inevitable.
God, religion, and the divine right of kings:
Dryden links political legitimacy to providence. Kingship, in his account, is not mere power but a stewardship under God. To overthrow a lawful monarch is not just a civil wrong; it is a spiritual error that invites chaos. This argument responds directly to fears stoked by the Popish Plot: true security is found not in panicked remedies but in the settled order God has allowed and history has confirmed.
Power and ambition:
The poem anatomizes ambition at multiple levels. Achitophel’s hunger is intellectual and strategic; he craves the thrill of mastery and the victory of his party. Absalom’s temptation is more personal: the desire to turn affection into authority. Dryden suggests that ambition, when ungoverned by law and conscience, converts talent into danger and converts popular feeling into a pretext for revolution.
Genre Study: A Landmark of Political Satire
The poem is a classic of Restoration-Augustan satire: it blends contemporary reference with classical restraint, and it turns complex political quarrels into a narrative that a broad audience can follow. Dryden’s heroic couplets provide clarity, rhythm, and bite. His “character” portraits—brief, vivid, morally pointed—helped set the template for later satirists, including Alexander Pope. The craft is as notable as the stance: tight syntax, pointed antithesis, and aphoristic closures give the poem its authority, making it memorable to readers and useful to teachers discussing satire, rhetoric, and political communication.
Click here to get the mind map
Conclusion: Why It Still Matters
Absalom and Achitophel remains relevant because it transforms a moment of panic into a lasting reflection on leadership and legitimacy. Dryden asks readers to distinguish prudence from fear, persuasion from manipulation, and principle from party. He shows how a nation can be talked into danger, and how a monarch can answer crisis without tyranny. In times when rumor travels fast and factions speak loudly, Dryden’s poem still teaches the civic skills of judgment, proportion, and historical memory. Its union of scripture, history, and style keeps it alive in classrooms and public debate alike.
References
Barad, Dilip. (2025). Worksheet on Absalom and Achitophel by Dryden. 10.13140/RG.2.2.31797.33760.
Dryden, John. Absalom and Achitophel. 1681.
Harris, Tim. Restoration: Charles II and His Kingdoms, 1660–1685. Penguin, 2006.
Knights, Mark. Politics and Opinion in Crisis, 1678–81. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Zwicker, Steven N., editor. The Cambridge Companion to John Dryden. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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