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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Hooker's eloquent and persuasive argument that Annus Mirabilis was written as an antidote to several poisonous tracts of the time has been accepted by nearly all of Dryden's critics, but I believe that he has underestimated Dryden by calling the poem “simple and lucid” (p. 49). Simple Dryden rarely was, and if we find the poem lucid, it may be because we overlook an intricate, yet unified system of alchemical and astrological metaphors. As the practice of alchemy and its peculiar jargon has lapsed into obscurity, so have Dryden's allusions to it. Though the explicit reference to “Chymick flame” in stanza 293 has been noticed, it is thought to be an isolated allusion with no relation to the frequent images of the phoenix, the apostrophe to the King, the mention of Jove, the allusion to the New Jerusalem, and, most significantly, to the fact that the poem's entire action concerns either fire or water.
1 Edward N. Hooker, “The Purpose of Dryden's Annus Mirabilis,” HLQ, x (1946), 49–67.
2 Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society, eds. Jackson i. Cope and Harold Whitmore Jones (London, 1959), p. 37.
3 Charles E. Ward, The Life of John Dryden (Chapel Hill, N. C., 1961), p. 31.
4 Edward N. Hooker, H. T. Swedenberg, et al., eds. The Works of John Dryden, i (Berkeley, Calif., 1956), 1. 162. This and all following citations of Dryden's work are from this edition.
5 C. J. S. Thompson, The Mystery and Romance of Astrology (New York, 1930), pp. 232–233.
6 James Kinsley, “The ‘Three Glorious Victories’ in Annus Mirabilis,” RES, n.s., vii (1956), 30.
7 Sprat, pp. 362–363.
8 John Read, Prelude to Chemistry (London, 1936), pp. 183–211. This chapter is entitled “The Mighty King.”
9 George R. Noyes, ed. The Poetical Works of John Dryden (Cambridge, Mass., 1909), p. 949.
10 Arthur Edward Waite, ed. The Hermetical and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim Called Paracelsus the Great (London, 1894), ii, 384.
11 Nicholas de Vore, Encyclopedia of Astrology (New York, 1947), p. 412.
12 Thompson, pp. 76–77; de Vore, p. 297.
13 Thompson, p. 88.
14 Read, pp. 19 ff.
