MY LORD,

presented on New-Years-Day, 1662.

WHILE flattering Crowds officiously appear
To give themselves, not you, an happy Year,
And by the Greatness of their Presents prove
How much they hope, but not how well they
love,

The Muses, who your carly Courtship boast,
Though now your Flames are with their
Beauty lost,

Yet watch their Time, that, if you have
forgot

They were your Mistresses, the world may not:
Decay'd by Time and Wars, they only prove
Their former Beauty by your former Love,
And now present, as Ancient Ladies do
That courted long at length are forc'd to woo.
For still they look on you with such kind
Eyes

II

As those that see the Church's Sovereign rise,
From their own Order chose, in whose high
State

They think themselves the second Choise of
Fate.

When our great Monarch into Exile went,
Wit and Religion suffer'd Banishment.
Thus once, when Troy was wrapt in Fire and
Smoke,

The helpless Gods their burning Shrines for-
sook ;
20

They with the vanquished Prince and Party

go

And leave their Temples empty to the Foe.
At length the Muses stand restor❜d again
To that great Charge which Nature did
ordain,

And their lov'd Druids seem reviv'd by Fate,
While you dispense the Laws and guide the
State.

The Nation's Soul, our Monarch, does dis-
pense

Through you to us his vital Influence;
You are the Channel where those Spirits flow
And work them higher as to us they go. 30
In open Prospect nothing bounds our Eye
Until the Earth seems join'd unto the Sky:
So in this Hemisphere our utmost View
Is only bounded by our King and you.

Text from the original edition, 1662, which seems to lack a title-page.

Our Sight is limited where you are join'd
And beyond that no farther Heav'n can find.
So well your Virtues do with his agree
That, though your Orbs of different Great-
ness be,

Yet both are for each other's use dispos'd,
His to enclose, and yours to be enclos'd: 40
Nor could another in your Room have been,
Except an Emptiness had come between.
Well may he then to you his Cares impart

And share his Burden where he shares his
Heart.

In you his Sleep still wakes; his pleasures find
Their Share of Business in your labouring
Mind.

So, when the weary Sun his Place resigns,
He leaves his Light and by Reflection shines.
Justice, that sits and frowns where publick

ANNUS MIRABILIS:

The Year of

WONDERS,

1666.

AN HISTORICAL

POEM:

CONTAINING

The Progrefs and various Succeffes of our Naval War with Holland, under the Conduct of His Highnefs Prince RUPERT, and His Grace the Duke of ALBEMARL

And defcribing

4

THE FIRE

O F

LONDON.

By JOHN DRYDEN, Efq;

Mullum intereft res pufcat, an homines latius imperare velint.
Trajan. Imperator. ad Plin.

urbs actiqua ruit, multos dominata per annos

Virg

London, Printed for Henry Herringman, at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange. 1667.

[Title-page of Second Edition.]

ANNUS MIRABILIS.

The YEAR of

WONDER S,

M. DC. LXVI.

ΑΝ

Historical Poem.

ALSO

A POEM on the Happy RESTORATION and RETURN of His Late Sacred MAJESTT

Charles the Second.

LIKEWISE
on

A PANEGYRICK On His CORONATION.

TOGETHER

With a Poв м to My LORD CHANCELLOR Prefented on New-Years-Day. 1662.

By JOHN DRYDEN, Esq;

LONDON, Printed for Henry Herringman, and fold by. Jacob Tonfon at the Judges-Head in Chancery Lane. 1688

As perhaps I am the first who ever presented a work of this nature to the Metropolis of any Nation, so is it likewise consonant to Justice, that he who was to give the first Example of such a Dedication should begin it with that City, which has set a pattern to all others of true Loyalty, invincible Courage, and unshaken Constancy. Other Cities have been prais'd for the same Virtues, but I am much deceiv'd if any have so dearly purchas'd their Reputation; their Fame has been won them by cheaper trials than an expensive, though necessary, War, a consuming Pestilence, and a more consuming Fire. To submit yourselves with that humility to the Judgments of Heaven, and at the same time to raise yourselves with that vigour above all human Enemies; to be combated at once from 20 above and from below, to be struck down and to triumph; I know not whether such Trials have been ever parallel'd in any Nation, the resolution and successes of them never can be. Never had Prince or People more mutual reason to love each other, if suffering for each other can indear affection. You have come together a pair of matchless Lovers, through many difficulties; He, through a long Exile, various traverses of Fortune, and the interposition of many Rivals, who violently ravish'd and withheld You from Him: and certainly you have had your share in sufferings. But Providence has cast upon you want of Trade, that you might appear bountiful to your Country's necessities; and the rest of your afflictions are not more the effects of God's Displeasure (frequent examples of them having been in the Reign of the most excellent Princes) than occasions for the 30 manifesting of your Christian and Civil virtues. To you, therefore, this Year of Wonders is justly dedicated, because you have made it so. You, who are to stand a wonder to all Years and Ages, and who have built yourselves an Immortal Monument on your own Ruins. You are now a Phoenix in her ashes, and, as far as Humanity can approach, a great Emblem of the suffering Deity. But Heaven never made so much Piety and Virtue, to leave it miserable. I have heard indeed of some virtuous Persons who have ended unfortunately, but never of any virtuous Nation: Providence is engaged too deeply, when the Cause becomes so general. And I cannot imagine it has resolved the ruin of that People at home, which it has blessed abroad with such Successes. I am, therefore, to conclude that your Sufferings are at an end, and that one part of my Poem 40 has not been more an History of your destruction, than the other a Prophecy of your restoration. The accomplishment of which happiness, as it is the wish of all true Englishmen, so is by none more passionately desired than by

The greatest of Your Admirers,

and most humble of your Servants,
JOHN DRYDEN.