As a result of recent investigations, states Professor Borgman, “the old explanation of this satire [MacFlecknoe] as Dryden's answer to Shadwell's The Medal of John Bayes is no longer sound.” In 1918, Mr. Thorn-Drury called attention to the following passage, which appeared in an attack on Shadwell in The Loyal Protestant and True Domestick Intelligence of Thursday, February 9, 1681/2:
… He would send him [Shadwell] his Recantation next morning, with a MacFlecknoe, and a brace of Lobsters for his Breakfast; All which he knew he had a singular aversion for. …