A political satire in heroic couplets by John Dryden, published in 1681, and continued (Part II) mainly by Nahum Tate, published in 1682. Dryden used the biblical story of King David and his rebellious son Absalom to portray allegorically a current crisis about who should be the next king after the death of Charles II. Charles had no legitimate son, so his heir was his brother James, Duke of York, a professed Catholic. His succession was feared as a menace to the Church of England and the liberty of Parliament; consequently, the opposition (Whig) party tried to pass a law excluding James from the throne and substituting Charles’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. Dryden’s poem was intended to influence the public against the Whigs and their leader, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. His use of the biblical story blackened the opposition and sanctified the king, who supported his brother, and their party. The biblical David stands for Charles; Absalom for Monmouth; Achitophel (Absalom’s evil Tempter) for Shaftesbury. This satire is Dryden’s most famous work.
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