Dryden was not so much a great poet as a solid thinker, with a splendid mastery of expression, who used his energetic verse as a vehicle for political argument and satire. His first noteworthy poem, _Annus Mirabilis_, 1667, was a narrative of the public events of the year 1666; namely, the Dutch war and the great fire of London. The subject of _Absalom and Ahitophel_--the first part of which appeared in 1681--was the alleged plot of the Whig leader, the Earl of Shaftesbury, to defeat the succession of the Duke of York, afterward James II., by securing the throne to Monmouth, a natural son of Charles II. The parallel afforded by the story of Absalom's revolt against David was wrought out by Dryden with admirable ingenuity and keeping. He was at his best in satirical character-sketches, such as the brilliant portraits in this poem of Shaftesbury, as the false counselor Ahitophel, and of the Duke of Buckingham as Zimri. The latter was Dryden's reply to the _Rehearsal.. Absalom and Ahitophel_ was followed by the _Medal_, a continuation of the same subject, and _Mac Flecknoe_, a personal onslaught on the "true blue Protestant poet" Thomas Shadwell, a political and literary foe of Dryden. Flecknoe, an obscure Irish poetaster, being about to retire from the throne of duncedom, resolved to settle the succession upon his son, Shadwell, whose claims to the inheritance are vigorously asserted. The rest to some faint meaning make pretense, But Shadwell never deviates into sense.... The midwife laid her hand on his thick skull With this prophetic blessing--_Be thou dull_.