Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/151

 376). Suckling celebrated the same event in his Dialogue ‘Upon my Lord Brohall's Wedding.’ An imitation of the ‘Ballad’ by Robert Fletcher, entitled ‘A Sing-song on Clarinda's Wedding,’ was printed in his ‘Ex Otio Negotium’ (1656, pp. 226 sq.); another appeared in 1667 in ‘Folly in print or a Book of Rymes’ (pp. 116–21).

The liveliest of Suckling's dramatic efforts saw the light for the first time in the posthumous ‘Fragmenta.’ ‘The Goblins’ was acted at Blackfriars by the king's men in 1638, and revived at the Theatre Royal on 24 Jan. 1667; a few copies with separate title-page, of which the British Museum possesses an imperfect example, were circulated in 1646. The ‘goblins’ are thieves who, under their chief, Tamoren, frighten the kingdom of ‘Francelia’ by their devils' pranks, and deal out a rough kind of justice in the fashion of Robin Hood and his men. The course of the action is bewildering, though opportunity is found for some passages that sparkle and for some smart touches of literary and social criticism. Its sprightly fancy and lively admixture of dialogue with songs and music, and a superabundance of action, seem to have commended it to Sheridan, who is stated to have had the intention of remodelling it (Gent. Mag. 1840, i. 127; cf., ii. 349. ‘The Goblins’ is printed in Dodsley's ‘Old Plays,’ 1744, vol. vii.).

‘The Tragedy of Brennoralt’ (a revised and expanded version of ‘The Discontented Colonel’ of 1640), though it contains some fine rhetorical passages, is less effective than either ‘Aglaura’ or ‘The Goblins,’ the point being considerably lost when the relation between Almerin and Iphigene, after apparently resembling that between the ‘Two Noble Kinsmen,’ turns out to be one of attraction between a man and a disguised woman. It is curious as containing some palpable allusions to the political situation in 1639, the Lithuanians in the piece, the scene of which is laid in Poland, being evidently meant for the Scots (ib. p. 351). ‘Brennoralt’ was revived at the Theatre Royal on 5 March 1668 (see, x. 68). Suckling did not hesitate to introduce into the printed text without acknowledgment some whole lines from Shakespeare. Wordsworth made a note in manuscript in his copy of Suckling upon the marked extent to which Suckling praised, quoted, and imitated Shakespeare (, vol. i. p. lxvi).

Suckling's unfinished tragedy, ‘The Sad One,’ was published, together with some other supplementary poems and letters, in the third edition of ‘Fragmenta Aurea … with some new Additionals’ of 1658. Later editions, entitled ‘The Works of Sir John Suckling,’ appeared in 1696, 1709 (for Jacob Tonson), 1719, 1766 (Dublin), and 1770. In 1836 appeared ‘Selections from the Works of Sir John Suckling’ (with a very fine portrait engraved by James Thomson after Vandyck), with an elaborate life by Alfred Inigo Suckling [q. v.], upon which, as far as the critical apparatus is concerned, is based the standard edition of ‘The Poems, Plays, and other Remains of Sir John Suckling,’ edited by W. C. Hazlitt in 1874 (London, 2 vols. 8vo; Mr. Hazlitt is not fortunate in the additional poems which he inserts and ascribes to Suckling. One of these, ‘Cantilena,’ &c., i. 102, is by Dr. Richard Corbet, and is inscribed in ‘Corbet's Poems,’ 1807, p. 94, as ‘Dr. Corbet's Journey into France.’ There is equally little reason for ascribing to Suckling the verses ‘I am confirmed a woman can,’ which first appeared in the ‘Musical Ayres and Dialogues’ of 1652). A decorative edition of the ‘Poems and Songs’ was published in 1896 (London, 8vo).

Hallam, with his usual good judgment, remarks of Suckling that, though deficient in imagination, he left former song-writers far behind in gaiety and ease. It is not equally clear, he adds, that he has ever since been surpassed. His ‘Epithalamion’ ‘is a matchless piece of liveliness and facility’ (Lit. Hist. of Europe, 1854, iii. 44). The pre-eminence of ‘natural, easy Suckling,’ as Millamant calls him (, Way of the World, act iv. sc. iv.), in the qualities of fluency and brio is best shown by the contrast of his minor pieces to those of contemporaries with whom he had most affinity, such as Lovelace and Carew. The chief merit of his somewhat dreary plays is that of harbouring a few poems of price, such as ‘Why so pale and wan, fond lover?’ (in the fourth act of ‘Aglaura’).

Aubrey obtained a minute description of Suckling from his intimate friend Davenant. ‘He was incomparably ready at reparteeing, and his wit most sparkling when most set on and provoked. He was the greatest gallant of his time, the greatest gamester both for bowling and cards; so that no shopkeeper would trust him for sixpence, as to day for instance he might by winning be worth 200l. and the next day he might not be worth half so much, or perhaps be sometimes minus nihilo. He was of middle stature and slight strength, brisk round eye, reddish-faced and red-nosed (ill-liver), his head not very big, his hair a kind of sand colour. His beard turned up naturally, so that he had a brisk and graceful look’ (, Brief Lives, 1898, ii. 242). Aubrey adds that Suckling