Achitophel. A nickname given to the Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1683) by his contemporaries, and made use of by Dryden in his poem of "Absalom and Achitophel," a masterly satire, springing from the political commotions of the times, and designed as a defense of Charles II. against the Whig party. There is a striking resemblance between the character and career of Shaftesbury and those of Achitophel, or Ahithophel, the treacherous friend and counselor of David, and the fellow-conspirator of Absalom.
Of this denial and this apology, we shall only say that the first seems very apocryphal, and the second would justify any crime which Machiavel or Achitophel could invent or recommend.
--Sir W. Scott.
Achitophel, "Him who drew Achitophel," Dryden, author of the famous political satire of Absalom and Achitophel. "David" is Charles II.; his rebellious son "Absalom" is the king's natural son by Lucy Waters, the handsome but rebellious James duke of Monmouth; and "Achitophel" is the earl of Shaftesbury, "for close designs and crooked counsels fit" (1621-1683).
There is a portrait of the first earl of Shaftesbury (Dryden's "Achitophel") as lord chancellor of England, clad in ash-coloured robes, because he had never been called to the bar.--E. Yates: Celebrities, xviii.