Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/14

 next seven or eight years, a prominent figure among men of fashion at Court and a distinguished amateur of letters. His poems throw a considerable amount of light upon his occupations and friendships during this period, while his letters give us a somewhat closer insight into his personal character. The anecdotes given by Aubrey are founded, like many of Aubrey's statements, on a not necessarily accurate reminiscence of casual gossip; they testify, however, to certain qualities which may be gathered from the internal evidence of his writings—his versatile and mercurial temperament, and his tendency to ostentation. His expensive production of Aglaura, probably at the end of 1637, excited some comment, and the folio edition of the play, with its wide margins and slender channel of type, was referred to with satire in some lines by Richard Brome. When in 1639 he raised a troop for the first Scottish war of Charles I., their extravagant accoutrements were much ridiculed. Aubrey quotes a lampoon by Sir John Mennes, which reflected on Suckling's courage during the campaign. However, if the surface of Suckling's life at this time was unpromising, there can be little doubt that he read widely and wisely, and that his expressed cynicism was often contradicted by a prudent kindliness of heart and a thoughtfulness which was not a leading characteristic of the society in which he moved. His letter of advice to a foolish and selfish cousin, though written in the tone of a man of the world, does not conceal a genuine anxiety for his correspondent. His friendship with men like John Hales, and the fact that he could spare time from his amusements to write his Account of Religion, are evidence of qualities far removed from the conventional libertinage of many of his lyrics and some of his letters; while if, as is possible, the Account of Religion was thrown off merely in order to astonish his friends with his versatility, at any rate his letter to Henry Jermyn shows that the expedition to Scotland had awakened in him a serious interest in public affairs and a far-seeing concern for the King's safety. He fell a victim to his politics. In May, 1641, he took an active part in the plot for rescuing Strafford from the Tower. He escaped to France, and died at Paris in 1642, either by taking poison, or, according to another tradition, by the