ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL (1681)

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL (1681) 

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  

that 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; in consequence,  

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 simultaneously 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.