That from the farthest North,
Some nation may

Yet undiscovered issue forth,

And ore his new got conquest sway.

Some nation yet shut in

With hils of ice

May be let out to scourge his sinne, Till they shall equall him in vice.

And then they likewise shall
Their ruine have;

For as your selves your empires fall,
And every kingdome hath a grave.

Thus those cœlestiall fires,
Though seeming mute,

The fallacie of our desires

And all the pride of life confute.

For they have watcht since first
The world had birth:

And found sinne in it selfe accurst,
And nothing permanent on Earth.

1

SELECT POEMS

OF

SIR JOHN SUCKLING.

WITH

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

BY

EZEKIEL SANFORD.

LIFE OF SUCKLING.

SIR JOHN SUCKLING, the son of sir John Suckling, comptroller of the household, under Charles I. was born at Witham, in Middlesex, in the year 1613. Dr. Anderson, as a physician, very properly notices the remarkable circumstance of his mother's going till the eleventh month with him;' and Longbaine, resolved to improve the story, tells us, that his life was not less remarkable than his birth; for he had so pregnant a genius, that he spoke Latin at five years old, and writ in it at nine years of age.' After this, we are prepared to hear, that he consumed all the literature of his age; and then travelled to digest' it. He performed a campaigne under Gustavus Adolphus; and was present at three battles and five sieges. He returned to England, a finished gentleman; and is said to have been conspicuous for his wit and gaiety, in a court, which had nothing but wit and gaiety to boast of. In common with Jonson, Carew, Davenant, and others, he wrote plays for the diversion of the court; and the setting out' of his Aglaura, is said to have cost three or four hundred pounds. At the rupture of the civil war, Dr. Anderson says, his loyalty was more conspicuous than his valour;' for, after expending twelve thousand pounds in splendid equipments for a troop of horse, he returned

6

from the service, without having achieved a single exploit. When we are told, immediately after, however, that he took his miscarriage very much at heart,' and when we have just before learned, that he was in various battles and sieges, under a leader, who was no patron of cowards, we cannot help thinking, that the doctor's remark, in his behalf, has more point than truth. Our poet died on the 7th of May, 1641.

Suckling is one of what Pope calls the mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease' in the reign of Charles I. His great ambition was to shine as a finished gentleman; and, like most of his cotemporary wits, he only became a poet that he might appear the better courtier. He does not take rank among any distinct class of writers; though, if the quantity of verse were to be the standard of its character, he must unquestionably be ranked with the playwrights. He is as sprightly, and as amorous, and as licentious, as any of his brother wits. Lloyd says, with a distinction which all apologists should recognise, that Suckling's thoughts were not so loose as his expressions; nor his life so vain as his thoughts. Besides, what reformation might not have been expected, had he not died so early? And, young or old, cannot the age in which he lived sustain the blame of all his immorality?