"As when some dire usurper Heaven provides, To scourge his country with a lawless sway."

Ashley Menvielle (discussion 1E Brendon O'Kelly)

Lines 849-850 in John Dryden's Annus Mirabilis which was composed in 1667.

According to the Norton these lines probably refer to Oliver Cromwell. These are one of 2 sets of lines quoted by Prof. Makdisi in lecture. The other was:
"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."-lines 857-860

This lines I think deal specifically with the civil strife that spread from the low and rough (mean) buildings of the lower classes into the open streets of the cities and finally into the homes and places(i.e palaces and temples) of the rich and powerful.

Here are the notes I made after rereading all of the poem and looking over old notes:

Annus Mirabilis: "year of miracles", metaphorically and literally England has been reborn.

1666: The actual year of the miracles that the poem is named for: war, plague, civil strife, and the Great Fire of London all occured in this year.

Dryden: uses the fire as an analogy of the events that swept through England in 1666. In order to announce the rebirth to the fullest extent, Dryden used quatrains which serve to elevate the style of the poem to a more regal, imperial bearing reflective of the glorious rebirth of London and England as the new global centers of trade and power. He interpreted the events of 1666 as God's way of bringing together the King and his people and purging England and London in order that it could be reborn and made better. In the poem he expresses a belief that London has risen out of the ashes, (like the phoenix bird) newer, better and ready to take her place as the trade center of the new global power in the world: England.

England: Has entered a new age of power. It has become the dominant colonial power over Holland and France as well as the new center of world trade (ex: lines 1193-1196). It was the beginning of Globilization and Dryden in Annus Mirabilis is putting it in very nationalistic terms with England as the dominant global power with London at its center and functioning as the very heart of this new global trade period. He expresses in the poem what he believes to be a new age of British power with the King as ruler of the new, great empire.

Original Theme: City and Country

I think it is also relevant to look at under the themes of The Nation
, and Race and Empire.