Introduction to
John Dryden
1631-1700
1668: Made poet laureate.
1681: Absalom and Achitophel.
ca. 1686: Conversion to Catholicism.
1689: Loss of court offices upon accession of William and Mary.
1697: Translation of Virgil.
John Dryden went to Trinity College, Cambridge and took his A.B. in
1654. He is the least personal of our poets. He comments “publicly on
matters of public concerns” (Norton 1786)
His nondramatic poems are mostly occasional poems that are “social and
ceremonial, written not for the self but for the nation” (1786-1787).
His achievement:
His drama belongs to his age.
His criticism establishes canons of taste and principles of neo-classicism
that follows his age.
His prose: “easy, lucid, plain, and shaped to the cadences of natural
speech” (1778).
His satire: a great influence on Alexander Pope, the most brilliant satirist
in the next century.
His poetry: “dignified, unaffected, precise, and musical – a noble
instrument of public speech” (1788).
Annus Mirabilis (the wonderful year of 1666) (1667) celebrates England’s
victory over the Dutch, and the people’s fortitude and the King during
the Great Fire in London, both taking place in 1666.
Epigram on Milton
Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed,
The next in majesty, in both the last:
The force of Nature could no farther go;
To make a third, she joined the former two.
From Annus Mirabilis
[London Reborn]
Yet London, empress of the northern clime,
By an high fate thou greatly didst expire;
Great as the world’s, which, at the death of time
Must fall, and rise a nobler frame by fire.
As when some dire usurper Heaven provides,
To scourge his country with a lawless sway:
His birth perhaps some petty village hides,
And sets his cradle out of fortune’s way.
Till fully ripe his swelling fate breaks out,
And hurries him to mighty mischiefs on:
His prince, surprised at first, no ill could doubt;
And wants the power to meet it when ’tis known.
Such was the rise of this prodigious fire.
Which, in mean buildings first obscurely bred,
From thence did soon to open streets aspire,
And straight to palaces and temples spread.
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Me-thinks already from this chymic flame
Iseeacityofmorepreciousmould,
RichasthetownwhichgivestheIndiesname,
Withsilverpavedandalldivinewithgold.
Already, labouring with a mighty fate,
Sheshakestherubbishfromhermountingbrow
Andseemstohaverenewedhercharter'sdate
WhichHeavenwilltothedeathoftimeallow.
More great than human now and more August,
Newdeifiedshefromherfiresdoesrise:
Herwideningstreetsonnewfoundationstrust,
And,opening,intolargerpartssheflies.
Before, she like some shepherdess did show,
Whosatetobatheherbyariver'sside:
Notansweringtoherfame,butrudeandlow,
Nortaughtthebeauteousartsofmodernpride.
Now like a maiden queen she will behold
Fromherhighturretshourlysuitorscome;
TheEastwithincenseandtheWestwithgold
Willstandlikesuppliantstoreceiveherdoom.
The silver Thames, her own domestic flood,
Shallbearhervesselslikeasweepingtrain;
Andoftenwind,asofhismistressproud,
Withlongingeyestomeetherfaceagain.
The wealthy Tagus3 andthewealthierRhine,
Thegloryoftheirtownsnomoreshallboast,
AndSeine,5 thatwouldwithBelgianriversjoin,
Shallfindherlustrestainedandtrafficlost.
The venturous merchant who designed more far,
Andtouchesonourhospitableshore,
Charmedwiththesplendourofthisnorthernstar,
Shallhereunladehimanddepartnomore.
Our powerful navy shall no longer meet,
ThewealthofFranceorHollandtoinvade;
Thebeautyofthistownwithoutafleet,
Fromalltheworldshallvindicate her trade.
And while this famed emporium we prepare,
TheBritishoceanshallsuchtriumphsboast,
Thatthosewhonowdisdainourtradetoshare,
Shallroblikepiratesonourwealthycoast.
Already we have conquered half the war,
Andthelessdangerouspartisleftbehind:
Ourtroublenowisbuttomakethemdare,
Andnotsogreattovanquishastofind.
Thus to the Eastern wealth through storms we go,
Butnow,theCapeoncedoubled, fear no more;
Aconstanttrade-windwillsecurelyblow,
Andgentlylayusonthespicyshore.