Achitophel

Oh! ye shades Of Pope and Dryden, are we come to this? and somewhat further on, The little boatman and his Peter Bell Can sneer at him who drew Achitophel, fell comparatively harmless.

There may be remarked also in the best modern works of poetical satire,—such as the Absalom and Achitophel, the Prologue to Pope's Satires, the Vanity of Human Wishes,—a conscious or unconscious echo of that vigorous sense and nervous speech, which accompanied the great practical energy of the Romans.

The manner was Dryden's in Absalom and Achitophel; the venom was Tutchin's own.

For in threatening the modern enthusiasts, as it were, with the status of comic fiction, he also hinted at the literal immediacy of such explicitly imaginative works as Absalom and Achitophel, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.

Achitophel, �-hit′ō-fel, n. an able but unprincipled counsellor, from the name of David's sage counsellor who treacherously abetted the rebellion of Absalom.