Absalom and Achitophel

Absalom and Achitophel is a landmark poetic political satire by John Dryden (1631–1700). The poem exists in two parts. The first part, of 1681, is undoubtedly by Dryden. The second part, of 1682, was written by another hand, most likely Nahum Tate, except for a few passages—including attacks on Thomas Shadwell and Elkanah Settle, expressed as Og and Doeg—that Dryden wrote himself.

The poem is an allegory that uses the story of the rebellion of Absalom against King David as the basis for discussion of the background to the Popish Plot (1678), the Exclusion Crisis (1679-1681), and the Monmouth Rebellion (1685).

While Absalom and Achitophel has been read as a satire for over 300 years there is still some speculation as to whether that title is accurate. "It is, for example, a satire, except for the failed ending; or a satire except for 'serious' defenses of David and Charles; or a satire except for the tribute to Barzillai, the Duke of Ormonde, and accompanying elegy for his son, the Earl of Ossory; or in short, a satire, except for the parts that aren’t". This problem lies with the problem of not recognizing the extent to which Dryden’s satire "claims to create a self-contained hermeneutic, one that gestures toward and redirects other interpretive possibilities in order to dismiss them.” It is for this reason that Dryden's work has been labeled as an “epic, epyllion, epic episode, satire, epic satire, Varronian satire, formal verse satire, classical oration, Jonsonian masque, political pamphlet, painting, biblical allegory, narrative, drama, chronology, music (fugal fantasia), typology, folklore, 'Poem,' and varying combinations of some of these.”

The story of Absalom's revolt is told in the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Bible (). Absalom rebels against his father King David. The beautiful Absalom is distinguished by extraordinarily abundant hair, which is probably meant to symbolise his pride (). When David's renowned advisor, Achitophel (Achitophel in the Vulgate) joins Absalom's rebellion, another advisor, Hushai, plots with David to pretend to defect and give Absalom advice that plays into David's hands. The result was that Absalom takes the advice of the double agent Hushai over the good advice of Achitophel, who realising that the rebellion is doomed to failure, goes home and hangs himself. Absalom is killed (against David's explicit commands) after getting caught by his hair in the thick branches of a great oak: "His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on" (NRSV 2 Sam. 18:9). The death of his son, Absalom, causes David enormous personal grief. The title of Faulkner's novel Absalom, Absalom! is taken from David's mourning in or . There is a second parabolic allegory that begins in lines 425 to 426, however, the ideas of this allegory can be seen throughout the poem. This second parable is that of the Prodigal Son. A second son returning for his birthright works well for the problems of ascension. This parable can be found in Luke 15:11-32; it tells the story of a son who asked for his birthright early, lost it, and returned to his father who then took pity on him and shared with him the rest of his fortune. This fatherly indulgence is contrary to that of Achitophel to David. Dryden uses the similarities and difference is the stories to play off each other and expose the problems with ascension.

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