Sir John Suckling

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Sir John Suckling

Sir John Suckling 1609-42, one of the English Cavalier poets . He was educated at Cambridge and Gray's Inn. An accomplished gallant, he was given to all the extravagances of the court of Charles I. He was a prolific lover, a sparkling wit, and an excessive gamester. The antiquary John Aubrey credits him with having invented the game of cribbage. Subjected to a humiliating defeat in Charles I's Scottish campaign of 1639, he was said to be more fit for the boudoir than the battlefield. An ardent royalist, he took part in the plot to rescue (1641) Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford , from the Tower of London and to secure aid for Charles from the French. On the failure of these endeavors Suckling fled to France, where, it is conjectured, being unable to face poverty, he was driven to suicide. After his death appeared Fragmenta Aurea (1646), a collection of poems, plays, letters, and tracts, including the essay "An Account of Religion by Reason." Today he is best known for the poem "Ballad Upon a Wedding" and the lyrics "Why so pale and wan, fond lover?" and "Out upon it, I have loved three whole days together."

Bibliography: See his works ed. by T. Clayton and L. A. Beaurline (1971).

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Suckling, Sir John

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Suckling, Sir John (1609–42), a member of Falkland's circle at Great Tew, he was knighted in 1630. He became a leader of the Royalist party in the early troubles, then fled to France and is said by Aubrey to have committed suicide in Paris. His chief works are included in Fragmenta Aurea (1646) and consist of poems, plays, letters, and tracts, among them the famous ‘Ballad upon a Wedding’. His ‘Sessions of the Poets’, in which various writers of the day, including Jonson, Carew, and D'Avenant, contend for the laurel, was written in 1637; it is interesting as an expression of contemporary opinion on these writers. Suckling's plays are chiefly valuable for their lyrics. Among these are Aglaura (with two fifth acts, one tragic, the other not) printed in 1638, The Goblins (1646), a romantic drama, and Brennoralt (1646), an expansion of the Discontented Colonell (1640), a tragedy, interesting for the light which the melancholy colonel throws on the author himself. Suckling has enjoyed a steady reputation as one of the most elegant and brilliant of the Cavalier poets. According to Aubrey, he invented the game of cribbage.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Suckling, Sir John." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Suckling, Sir John." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (December 8, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-SucklingSirJohn.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Suckling, Sir John." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved December 08, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-SucklingSirJohn.html

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Humor anxiety.(COMMENT)(humorous poetry)(Critical essay)
Magazine article from: Poetry; 12/1/2006

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	The Discontented Cavalier: The Work of Sir John Suckling in Its Social, Religious, Political, and Literary Contexts.(Book review) Magazine article from: Philological Quarterly; 1/1/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...Discontented Cavalier: The Work of Sir John Suckling in Its Social, Religious, Political...appeared, Charles L. Squier's Sir John Suckling (Boston: G. K. Hall...texts associated with the name of Sir John Suckling" involves both careful...
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	Humor anxiety.(COMMENT)(humorous poetry)(Critical essay) Magazine article from: Poetry; 12/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...seen in the following stanza by Sir John Suckling: Out upon it! I have lov'd...more, If it prove fair weather. Suckling's first line break enacts a certain...it prove fair weather." Though Suckling's work in particular is packed...
	Humor Anxiety Magazine article from: Poetry; 12/1/2006; ; 700+ words ; ...seen in the following stanza by Sir John Suckling: Out upon it! I have lov'd...more, If it prove fair weather. Suckling's first line break enacts a certain...it prove fair weather." Though Suckling's work in particular is packed...
	One for his nob, two for his heels Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 7/26/1997; ; 700+ words ; ...own. The origins of cribbage According to John Aubrey, the game was invented by Sir John Suckling (1609-42), a poet, gambler and Royalist...friend of Suckling, who "would say that Sir John, when he was at his lowest ebbe in gameing...
	THE BIRDS WILL STILL SING, BUT SPRING'S JUST NOT HIS THING Newspaper article from: Roanoke Times & World News; 3/6/2002; ; 632 words ; ...lea and stuff like that. And the poets had names like Sir John Suckling - which might have caused a problem if he had wanted...nice day in March. And I would like to add here that Sir John Suckling never handled a 4-inch brush in his life...
	'But do not so': Herrick's ravishment and lyric address.(Robert Herrick, poet) Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 4/1/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...domination is also tellingly, if comically, displayed in Sir John Suckling's poem 'The Siege' in which, after spending 'a...identified with a violent desire for subjection such as Suckling's militaristic persona asserts. In opening his discussion...
	WORDS fond adj. Newspaper article from: The Independent on Sunday; 1/15/2006; ; 441 words ; ...mind"), or the "fond lover" mocked by the poet Suckling ("Why so pale and wan?" etc) who of course was...example, the word wan found uses never dreamed of by Sir John Suckling, and began to mean almost anything the speaker disapproved...
	ABC BOOKS: Nipples and nobs The Stuarts unlaced the stiff corsets of Jacobean fashion and let it all hang out. Vera Rule salivates over the stitching in a new study of lush libertine fashions Newspaper article from: The Independent on Sunday; 2/19/2006; 700+ words ; ...yet a perfect match. Exhibit A, Sir Anthony Van Dyke's 1638 painting...wife to the Earl of Oxford, in Sir Peter Lely's portrait of some 30...poems in which Robert Herrick and Sir John Suckling get hard as their mistresses lengthily...
	Collecting decks: It's all in the cards Magazine article from: Antiques & Collecting Magazine; 7/1/1999; ; 700+ words ; ...in England in the 1500s; both evolved from various card games that were played at that time. During the 1600s, Sir John Suckling, an English poet, invented cribbage. It is thought that European cards came to the New World via the Dutch in...