INTRODUCTION

Annus Mirabilis is a poem written by John Dryden and published in 1667. It

commemorates the year 1666, which despite the poem's name 'year of wonders'
was one of great tragedy, involving both the Plague and the Great Fire of
London. Samuel Johnson wrote that Dryden used the phrase 'annus mirabilis'
because it was a wonder that things were not worse.

The poem contains over 1200 lines of verse divided into 304 quatrains. Each line
is ten syllables long, with an 'ABAB' rhyming scheme, a pattern known as a
decasyllabic quatrain. Dryden well exhibits all of these ideals in his 304 four-line
stanzas. He explains that he selects the quatrain “in alternate rhyme because I
have ever judged them nobler and of greater dignity, both for the sound and
number, than any other verse.” Naturally in telling of miracles, a poet would
select a format that imbued a dignified sense of pride. Acknowledging the
simplicity of the couplet for easy rhyme, he explains that, by contrast, in the
quatrain, a poet is challenged to succeed. Poets correctly using this form “must
needs to acknowledge that the last line of the stanza is to be considered in the
composition of the first.”

Dryden's poem narrates the events of the Great Fire of London, from its
beginning at night in the bakery on Pudding Lane, to its final extinguishment after
King Charles II ordered houses to be torn down or blown up with gunpowder to
create 'fire breaks' which prevent the flames from spreading.

In the extract above Dryden describes the streets on the first night of the Fire
being 'thronged and busy as by day' as people rush to attempt to put out the
flames with buckets of water fetched from local churches, and even early fire-
engines of the like shown below in an illustration from Solomon de Caus' work of
1615 on mechanical engineering.

Despite the tragic subject matter, Dryden remains optimistic. After the fire is
spent, he imagines a new city of London rising from the ashes 'with silver paved,
and all divine with gold' which is to last until the 'death of time'.

Background
Those who subscribe to such beliefs will confidently assert that one of
Nostradamus’ many intricately abstruse quatrains foretells the coming of the
Great London Fire of 1666. The Great Fire of London raged from Sunday 2
September to Wednesday 5 September 1666 and destroyed the homes of up to
70,000 inhabitants of the city. The death toll traditionally was thought to be small,
with only six deaths recorded. This may, however, be a consequence of the
social hierarchy of the time, and the deaths of poor Londoners may have gone
unnoticed and unrecorded.

The Great Fire of 1666 ripped a fiery path through London stretching at least 40
miles long, destroying more than 15,000 homes, nearly 100 churches and an
unknown quantity of businesses. The cause behind such devastation was easily
to determine: all those buildings were constructed of wood and many were lined
with tar paper to keep out the famous London rain. Add to this mix the fact that
most streets were very narrow and the distance between neighbors close enough
to reach out and touch and the fact that London had no organized fire brigade at
the time points to such a destructive event as a matter of when and not a matter
if.

The task of rebuilding London the day after the fire was finally extinguished
looked hopeless, but over the years new buildings of brick or tone replaced the
space where wood and tar had once stood a stack of kindling next to a fireplace.
The Great London Fire of 1666 also directly inspired the most famous architect of
his day, Christopher Wren, to commence work on St. Paul’s Cathedral.

That magnificent temple was not the only phoenix to rise from the ashes of the
Great London Fire of 1666. Another inspirational creation owing a debt of
genesis of the death rattle of inferno was John Dryden’s epic poetic call to the
patriotic spirit of Londoners, Annus Mirabilus Where others views the destruction
wrought by the fire as yet more evidence—along with the waste being laid across
the city by the Black Plague—as proof that God was punishing the city, Dryden
saw in the massive damage caused by the fire the opportunity to cleanse and
purify London of its flaws and erect in its wake a much greater metropolis. The
fire, as Dryden outlines its path across the city in his poem, could be transformed
into a redemptive act of God rather than a punishment from God to provide the
opportunity for the salvation of an entire city.
Ultimately, Annus Mirabilus makes it greatest appeal to the patriotic fire still
burning among the dying embers of the flames with the suggestion that what
appeared to be pure havoc transform into the moment at which England took its
rightful and deserved placed as the greatest city in the greatest country destined
to lead the world into the future.

The Library's copy of Annus Mirabilis is bound together in one volume with
several other booklets including works on Biblical exposition and calendrical
measurement. It was donated to the College by Charles Otway, a former Fellow
of St John's who donated one of the largest personal collections of books to the
College Library.

As the name "Annus Mirabilis" implies, the poem is about a year of miracles.
Dryden writes this poem to commemorate the events of the year 1666 in
England. He begins with a focus on the conflicts between the Dutch and the
English. Their navies were at war with one another, until France fatefully
intervened in favor of the British to decide the matter. These countries continued
to maintain their rivalry for years, however, as the Dutch refused to allow Britain
naval superiority. Eventually, however, they must cede to the English their due as
the dominant global naval superpower.

Dryden then turns to the homeland. Dealing with the loss of many of their
beloved husbands and fathers at sea, the people are in mourning. Then the
plague breaks out. People move the country to try to avoid the plague's
destructive swiftness, but only the truly wealthy are able to afford the resources
to escape fast enough. The rulers of the day are unable to aid the people
because they are so concerned with their petty rivalries with neighboring
countries. In fact, so many die that the nation is torn in pieces as its population
dwindles.

Then the fire occurs in London. Dryden devotes lines and lines to chronicling the
fire's destructiveness. It burns the majority of the city, from the center and the
Tower of London all the way to the Thames. Finally, the king orders buildings in
the center of town to be torn down to prevent further spread and the entire
destruction of the city. The true tragedy of the affair is that the portion of the
population which is devastated by the fire is mainly the poor because their
houses are made of highly flammable materials and packed insufferably close
together. Still, thanks to the king's foresight, the rest of the city is spared what
would have been a national crisis if it had too gone up in flames.

MAIN CONTENT

Critics have judged Dryden’s critical material almost as valuable as the verses
that follow, as he continues explaining his approach by comparing it to that of the
classical writers Lucan, VIRGIL, and Ovid. He notes that description must be
“dress’d in such colours of speech that it sets before your eyes the absent object
as perfectly and more delightfully than nature.” He next describes what he calls
the three elements representing the “happiness of the poet’s imagination.” The
first happiness is “invention, or finding of the thought,” while the second “is fancy,
or the variation, driving or moulding of that thought, as the judgment represents it
proper to the subject.” In his opinion, Ovid most famously accomplishes those
happinesses. Virgil best accomplishes the third happiness, which is “elocution, or
the art of clothing and adorning that thought so found and varied, in apt,
significant, and sounding words.” All three remain crucial to proper execution, as
“quickness in the imagination” remains responsible for “invention, the fertility in
the fancy, and the accuracy in the expression.”

As Earl Miner discusses, Dryden’s purpose was to encourage readers that the
source of England’s woes lay in the past, in the country’s enemies, and even in
human nature. This proved important when speaking to a certain faction who
blamed the war and the fire on divine retribution. They conceived history as a
combination of God’s acts and those of nature, and many believed a natural
disaster, such as the fire that devastated London, was the result of God’s
displeasure with the restoration of the king to the throne. Portents also proved
important, and Dryden combines these ideas in Stanza 16 to suggest that God
approved of the English action against the Dutch. He used the figurative
language of metaphor to compare two comets sighted in November and
December of 1664 to candles, sent by angels to light the English way:

To see this fleet upon the oceans move

Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies,
And Heav’n, as if there wanted lights above,
For tapers made two glaring comets rise.

Dryden alludes again in stanza 22 to the fact that God took the side of the
English in battle, a fact admitted by the Dutch when they lose their commander,
Sir John Lawson:

Their chief blown up, in air, not waves expir’d,

To which his pride presum’d to give the law;
The Dutch confess’d Heav’n present and retir’d,
And all was Britain the wide ocean saw.

In stanza 192, however, Dryden seems to remind his readers that all sides in war
may look to God as their guide, as he imagines the thoughts of the Dutch:

Their batter’d admiral too soon withdrew,

Unthank’d by ours for his unfinish’d fight,
But he the minds of his Dutch Masters knew,
Who call’d that Providence which we call’d flight.

As Dryden focused on four days of the second war with the Dutch, he praised
Prince Rupert and James, duke of York, later to become King James II, for their
part in settling it in England’s favor. This aspect of the poem has caused critics
also to categorize it as panegyric, a poem of praise, as Dryden writes in his
introductory material of his two subjects, “it is no wonder if they inspir’d me with
thoughts above my ordinary level.” He devotes much praise to the duke of
Albemarle as well, shaping powerful dialogue for the English:

75
Then, to the rest, “Rejoyce,” said he, “today
In you the fortune of Great Britain lies;
Among so brave a people you are they
Whom Heav’n has chose to fi ght for such a prize.

76
If number English courages could quell,
We should at first have shunn’d not met our foes,
Whose numerous sails the fearful only tell:
Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.”

Dryden also examined the part of art and science in improving humans’ lot in life.
The poem’s opening line seeks to credit art for Holland’s strength: “In thriving arts
long time had Holland grown, / Crouching at home, and cruel when abroad.” He
also inserted a section subtitled “Digression Concerning Shipping and
Navigation” in which he began stanza 155, “By viewing Nature, Nature’s
handmaid Art, / Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow.” Dryden next
inserts an “Apostrophe to the Royal Society,” the group formed under King
Charles II, of which Dryden was a member, to investigate the many new scientific
developments. He urges his audience to recognize the importance of study,
writing in stanza 166,

O truly royal! Who behold the law

And rule of beings in your Maker’s mind
And thence, like limbecs, rich ideas draw
To fit the levell’d use of humankind.

Just before stanza 209 Dryden inserts the subtitle “Transitum to the Fire of
London.” He reminds his readers of the pride the English felt after the defeat of
the Dutch and the English sailors’ looting of Holland’s fleet, then suggests in
stanza 210, “We urge an unseen fate to lay us low / And feed their envious eyes
with English loss.” Describing the death and devastation brought on by the fi re,
he focuses on the actions of King Charles and his brother, James, who received
much credit for saving London. Of the king he writes in stanza 241,

He wept the fl ames of what he lov’d so well

And what so well had merited his love.
For never prince in grace did more excel,
Or royal city more in duty strove.

Then Dryden makes the point in line 966 that, unlike the people who could
indulge in a numb terror, the king must act: “(Subjects may grieve, but monarchs
must redress).” Charles ordered that several buildings be exploded with
gunpowder in order to form a breech to stop the flames. Dryden describes the
results, using personification in stanza 245:
The powder blows up all before the fire;
Th’ amazed flames stand gather’d on a heap,
And from the precipice’s brink retire,
Afraid to venture on so large a leap.

His plan worked, and some of London was saved, although the flames continued
to wreak havoc, described with vivid imagery and the use of alliteration in stanza
249: “No help avails: for, Hydra-like, the fire / Lifts up his hundred heads to aim
his way.” By night, when Charles is exhausted, he calls on James for help in
stanza 253:

The days were all in this lost labour spent,

And when the weary King gave place to night,
His beams he to his royal brother lent
And so shone still in his reflective light.

Dryden conducts a bit of wordplay with the term light. Humans generally
depended upon flame, in the controlled form of candles and lanterns to light their
way. But in this instance, the ruler provides the metaphoric light to brighten a
symbolic, as well as literal, dark hour in which London is tried by disaster. As a
lesser body like the Moon reflects the Sun’s light, James, a crucial person but not
yet a king himself, reflects his brother’s light to great advantage for them both.

As the fire at last burns out, Dryden suggests in stanza 293 that, as when fire is
applied to ore to remove its impurities, London will be golden in its reincarnation:

Methinks already, from this chemic flame,

I see a city of more precious mold:
Rich as the town which gives the Indies name,
With silver pav’d and all divine with gold.

The poem concludes with an emphasis on London’s future as a great trade

seaport, interacting with the countries once its enemies. Mainly through Dryden’s
energy, the poem concludes on an optimistic note, despite the desolation it has
described.