Is Absalom and Achitophel a political pamphlet?

“Absalom and Achitophel” is the best political satire composed by John Dryden. The background of the poem is based on the political instability of Dryden’s contemporary England. It is believed that King Charles II personally requested Dryden to compose this poem. Achitophel, the antagonist of the poem actually represented the Earl of Shaftesbury. At the time of composing this poem, his trial was going on. At that time, the leaders of the Protestant Community of England was interested to put James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and the eldest illegitimate son of the king, to the throne. Many leaders of the Whig party also supported the Duke of Monmouth. Because James II, the younger brother of King Charles was a Roman Catholic while Duke of Monmouth was a Protestant.

In the poem, Achitophel, along with his friends and supporters, planned to rebel against King David and they needed a leader. However, any ordinary people cannot be the leader of this rebellion. He must be of royal lineage. Though Absalom or the Duke of Monmouth was an illegitimate child of King David, he was of royal lineage. Hence, they wanted to save Duke of Monmouth and Achitophel tried to persuade Absalom in different ways. One of the interesting thing about Dryden was though he established Achitophel as the arch nemesis of the King he admitted his talent in the poem. Achitophel, according to Dryden, was a man of great wisdom and madness. First, Achitophel uses the art of flattery to persuade Absalom. He tells Absalom that England was very fortunate that a great leader like Absalom had been born. Absalom had been blessed by the God since his birth. It was his destiny to achieve greatness. At the same time, Achitophel tells Absalom that the golden age of King David or King Charles had come to an end. The king failed to rule the country effectively the way he used to.

Such strong persuasion motivated Absalom to rise against the King. However, Absalom was the favorite son of King David. David ignored his faults and gave him glory and riches. Hence, Absalom initially hesitated to rise against the king. He told Achitophel that David was not a bad king but a very good king. As per the command of God, his brother, Duke of York, would succeed him to the throne as his wife could not produce any heir. This was a natural process.

Achitophle instantly understood that Absalom was hesitating. He then told Absalom that King David was a soft person and such a person was not fit to rule the country. After flattery he tried to put fear in Absalom’s heart by saying that when King David’s brother would ascend the throne, Absalom’s good fortune would leave him because he would lose his importance and the new king will think to get rid of Absalom once and forever.

This fear highly influenced Absalom. He then started to think seriously to rebel against King David. Then Absalom left the royal court and tried to rally men against the King. He persuaded them by saying that he cared about them. He also told them that King David’s had grown weak and become more dependent on foreign kings. In this way, he tried to gather men to rise up against the king.

In this poem, we see that Absalom lost his faith in his father after being persuaded by Achitophel. He became so convinced that he rebelled against the King and tried his best to take over the throne. However, what Absalom or the Duke of Monmouth did not understand was that Achitophel or the Earl of Shaftesbury was pulling all the strings from behind. He gathered men in Absalom’s support and just used Duke of Monmouth as their leader. The Duke of Monmouth failed to understand the real plot and rebelled against the King.