Poet Laureate factoid

Those of us who have read Dryden's MacFlecknoe know that T.S. refers to Thomas Shadwell, a poet who, like so many of his other contemporaries, has gone extinct (Cowley and even Samuel Butler of Hudibras, big names even in Johnson's day, have shared a similar fate). I remember first reading MacFlecknoe about three or four years ago, and I found something interesting that my professor at the time, a man of no mean erudition or humour, did not know: We know that Dryden became the first poet laureate, one of only about three or four who were major authors (the others were Wordsworth, Tennyson, and someone else I cannot recall). But did you know this: the poet laureate after John Dryden was...Thomas Shadwell! Perhaps this explains Dryden's contempt for this "poetaster." I will have to check the dates.