Contents: Introduction 2

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 expired,
To which his pride presumed to give the law;
The Dutch confessed Heaven present and retired,
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 battered admiral too soon withdrew,
Unthanked by ours for his unfinished fight,
But he the minds of his Dutch Masters knew,
Who called that Providence which we called 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 fight for such a prize.
76
If number English courages could quell,
We should at first have shunned 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 levelled 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 loved 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: