Menippean satire as a genre: Tradition, form, and function in the 17th and 18th centuries (John Dryden, Scriblerus Club)

Menippean satire is an obscure branch of satire named after Menippus of Gadara, a third century B.C. cynic philosopher. Critics including John Dryden, Mikhail Bakhtin, Northrop Frye, and others reconstruct the tradition of this form of satire and use its concentration on philosophical questions and its use of diverse literary forms to encompass "unwieldy" works. Analysis of critical opinion indicates that Menippean satire is an antigenre composed by intellectuals about intellectuals, with no formalistic restrictions, which paradoxically retains its prerogative to offer solutions while undermining its own efforts.; With Absalom and Achitophel, Dryden uses a composite of forms which cause many critics to question the poem's genre, but few understand the Menippean form enough to assess whether Absalom is Menippean. The poem has enough complexity of form and function---diversion with satiric portraits, "instruction" in the best form of governmental sovereignty---for one to associate the poem with the literary form inspired by Menippus.; Because Dryden's MacFlecknoe does not challenge poetic forms in an obvious way, and because it is a lampoon of Thomas Shadwell, MacFlecknoe does not seem like a Menippean satire. The recreation of Shadwell as Sh------ works so well that one may read the poem unaware that a serious literary debate informs its lines. However, the poem both incorporates and transcends lampoon in its rebuttal to Shadwell's theories of dramatic poetry and demonstrates how Dryden is able to mix the diversion, instruction, philosophy, and philology necessary for Menippean satire.; Initially, placing the Scriblerus Club's Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus into the same category as Dryden's poems seems counterintuitive. The Memoirs, with its echoes of John Locke, its satiric attacks, comedy, scatological humor, and diverse styles, easily fits the patterns of Menippean satire. Just as Dryden's poem is not generically consistent, so too does the Memoirs vary in its generic and stylistic content. Ultimately, it is the similarity of function between the Memoirs and Dryden's poems that makes them both Menippean. Its redeeming features---particularly the Double-Mistress episode---recall the best satires produced by the individual members of the Scriblerus Club.