John Suckling

Sir John Suckling (February 10, 1609 – June 1, 1642) was an English Cavalier poet.

If of herself she cannot love,
Nothing can make her:
The devil take her!

Oh for some honest lover's ghost,
Some kind unbodied post
Sent from the shades below!

No grape, that’s kindly ripe, could be / So round, so plump, so soft as she, / Nor half so full of juice.

’Tis expectation makes a blessing dear; / Heaven were not heaven, if we knew what it were.

Quotes

Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?

Full text at Wikisource

• Why so pale and wan, fond lover
  Prithee, why so pale?
• Will, when looking well can't move her,
  Looking ill prevail?
  Prithee, why so pale?
• Quit, quit, for shame, this will not move:
  This cannot take her.
  If of herself she cannot love,
  Nothing can make her:
  The devil take her!
  • Aglaura (1638); Fragmenta Aurea (1646)

Other poems

• If I a fancy take
  To black and blue,
  That fancy doth it beauty make.
  • Of thee (kind boy) I ask no red and white.

• 'Tis now since I sat down before
  That foolish fort, a heart,
  (Time strangely spent) a year, and more,
  And still I did my part:
  • 'Tis Now, Since I Sat Down Before.

• Oh for some honest lover's ghost,
  Some kind unbodied post
  Sent from the shades below!
  I strangely long to know
  Whether the nobler chaplets wear
  Those that their mistress' scorn did bear,
  Or those that were used kindly.
  • Oh! For some honest lover's ghost.
  • Fragmenta Aurea (1646), Sonnets, III

• No grape, that’s kindly ripe, could be
  So round, so plump, so soft as she,
    Nor half so full of juice.
  • Ballad upon a Wedding.

• Her feet beneath her petticoat
  Like little mice stole in and out,
  As if they feared the light;
  But oh, she dances such a way!
  No sun upon an Easter-day
  Is half so fine a sight.
  • Ballad upon a Wedding.
  • Compare: "Her pretty feet, like snails, did creep / A little out, and then, / As if they played at bo-peep, / Did soon draw in again", Robert Herrick, To Mistress Susanna Southwell.

A Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words (1924)

W. Guerney Benham, A Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words (1914), p. 351

• ’Tis expectation makes a blessing dear;
  Heaven were not heaven, if we knew what it were.
  • Against Fruition. St. 4.

• They who know all the wealth they have are poor;
  He's only rich that cannot tell his store.
  • Against Fruition. St. 5.

• Her feet beneath her petticoat
  Like little mice, stole in and out,
    As if they feared the light.
  But oh! she dances such a way—
  No sun upon an Easter day
    Is half so fine a sight!
  • Ballad upon a Wedding. St. 8.
  • See Herrick: "Her pretty feet / Like snails did creep."

• For streaks of red were mingled there,
  Such as are on a Catherine pear
    (The side that's next the sun)
  • Ballad upon a Wedding. St. 10.

• Her lips were red, and one was thin
  Compared to that was next her chin,
    (Some bee had stung it newly).
  • Ballad upon a Wedding. St. 11.

• Our sins, like to our shadows,
  When our day is in its glory, scarce appear:
  Towards our evening how great and monstrous
  They are!
  • Aglaura.

• Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
    Prithee why so pale?
  • Aglaura. Song.

• She's pretty to walk with,
  And witty to talk with,
  And pleasant, too, to think on.
  • Brennoralt.

• Her face is like the milky way i' the sky,
  A meeting of gentle lights without a name.
  • Brennoralt.

• The prince of darkness is a gentleman.
  • The Goblins.
  • Compare: Shakespeare, King Lear, III, iv, l. 147.

• I thought to undermine the heart
  By whispering in the ear.
  • ’Tis now, since I sat down before.

External links

• Selected works at the Library of Toronto