more intimately allied with William Davenant (to whom he addressed several copies of verse, and from whom he may have derived the special veneration of Shakespeare by which he was distinguished), and ‘the ever memorable’ John Hales, to whom he also addressed verses in the form of a poetical epistle.
His connection with the Middlesex family served as an introduction to the higher official circles. But the sojourn of the youthful gallant at court was interrupted before the end of 1628, when he is said to have commenced his travels. From Paris, whither he went first, he proceeded to Italy, but he was back in England before 19 Sept. 1630, when he was knighted by the king at Theobalds (Metcalfe; Walkley in his Catalogue of 1639 says 19 Dec.) In July 1631 he seems to have attached himself to the force of six thousand men who set out from Yarmouth under the Marquis of Hamilton to reinforce the army of Gustavus Adolphus. Under these leaders he is said to have taken part in the defeat of Tilly before Leipzig on 7 Sept. 1631, and to have been present at the sieges of Crossen, Guben, Glogau, and Magdeburg. Returning from these adventures in 1632, Suckling flung himself with a passion of prodigality into all the pleasures of the court. Cards and dice had an irresistible fascination for him, and he is fain to admit that he prized a pair of black eyes or ‘a lucky hit at bowls above all the trophies of wit’ (Session of the Poets, stanza 19). Aubrey has a picturesque story to the effect that his sisters came one day to the ‘Peccadillo bowling-green crying for the fear he should lose all their portions’ (this is one of the earliest references to Piccadilly; cf. Wheatley and Cunningham, ii. 483). At times, however, he had his revenge, as when in 1635 at Tunbridge Wells he won the best part of 2,000l. from Lord Dunhill at ninepins (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1635, p. 385; cf. Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, pp. 2–4). One of his favourite haunts in London was the Bear tavern at the Bridge Foot, whence he dated his letter ‘from the Wine-drinkers to the Water-drinkers.’ His gay career as a courtier was interrupted in the autumn of 1634 by an unpleasant episode, or, as Garrard says in a letter to Strafford dated 10 Nov. 1634, by ‘a rodomontado of such a nature as is scarce credible.’ Suckling had been paying assiduous court to the daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, a considerable heiress, and his pretensions were approved by Charles I, with whom he was a favourite. The progress of the negotiations was regarded with disfavour by the lady, who was determined to thwart the match. In order to effect this she appealed to another suitor, Sir John Digby (younger brother of Sir Kenelm), to whom she assigned the task of procuring Suckling's signature to a written renunciation of all claim to her hand. Digby, who was a powerful man and an expert swordsman, proceeded to London in quest of his rival. As it happened, he met him on the road, and, after a brief argument, proceeded to blows, whereupon the unfortunate poet was cudgelled ‘into a handful, he never drawing his sword.’ The tame manner in which he submitted to the gross outrage loosened the tongues of many detractors at court, and consequent tattle may have led to the greater interest which he manifested about this time in the sedate avocations of men such as Lord Falkland, Roger Boyle, Thomas Stanley [q. v.], and other philosophers or scholars. He was present with Falkland and others at the formal debate, held in the rooms of John Hales at Eton, respecting the comparative merits of Shakespeare and the classical poets, when the decision was given unanimously in Shakespeare's favour (Gildon, Miscellaneous Letters and Essays, 1694, pp. 85–6). Early in 1637 was written and circulated (in manuscript form) the well-known ‘Session of the Poets,’ in which Suckling enshrined with happy ingenuity the names of the most interesting of his contemporaries. The idea has been often imitated by Rochester (Trial for the Bays), Sheffield (Election of a Poet Laureate), and by many others, of whom the best perhaps is Leigh Hunt (Feast of the Poets). In this same year Suckling made, in company with Davenant, a journey to Bath. ‘Sir John,’ Aubrey says, ‘came like a young prince for all manner of equipage;’ he ‘had a cartload of bookes carried down, and it was there he wrote the little tract about Socinianism.’ The winter that followed saw the production of his first play, ‘Aglaura,’ respecting which Garrard writes to Strafford on 7 Feb. 1637–8, ‘Two of the king's servants, privy chambermen both, have writ each of them a play, Sir John Sutlin and Will Barclay, which have been acted in court and at the Black Friars with much applause. Sutlin's play cost three or four hundred pounds setting out. Eight or ten suits of new cloathes he gave the players, an unheard of prodigality.’ There is little doubt that the king was present, and expressed concern at the unhappy ending, for Suckling modified his tragedy and called it a tragi-comedy, a plan ‘so well approved by that excellent poet Sir Robert Howard that he has followed this president [sic] in his “Vestal
