THE POEMS, PLAYS AND OTHER REMAINS OF SIR JOHN SUCKLING A NEW EDITION With a Copious Account of the Author, Notes, and an VOL. I. LONDON NIVERSITY Of California. FRANK & WILLIAM KERSLAKE 13 BOOKSELLERS' ROW 1874 937 592 Suckling, whose numbers could invite 1 [These lines occur beneath the (very indifferent) portrait by Marshall prefixed to all the old editions of the works, 1646–96. They were written, as elsewhere pointed out, by Thomas Stanley.] 8273 PR3718-A1,1874. v. 1. MAIN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. A NEW edition of the remains of SIR JOHN SUCK LING, in verse and prose, has for many years past been a desideratum. The volume which is now offered to the public embraces all that is known to be extant from his pen. The account of his life which is prefixed has been reprinted from that which accompanies a volume of selections from his writings. published in 1836 by the late Suffolk historian, the Rev. Alfred Suckling; but it has been carefully revised, and in certain places enlarged. The tracts which form the Appendix are in themselves curious, and they throw some light on Suckling's history, and on the circumstances by which he was surrounded and influenced. The play of "The Goblins," which has been inserted in Dodsley's collection, is now printed with the notes of Isaac Reed and others, as its retention in the new edition of the OLD PLAYS will probably, under the present circumstances, hardly seem desirable. b The caricature print, which is found in the early impressions, seemed to be unworthy of reproduction. On the whole, it was thought expedient to adopt, in the text of Suckling, the modern standard of spelling and punctuation. Considering the early age at which he passed away, and what he has left behind him in print, not to name his political exploits, it will be allowed, no doubt, that Suckling was a man of no ordinary genius, nor have we it in our power, we apprehend, to raise a better monument to him, than a faithful text of his authentic writings. KENSINGTON, June 1874. W. C. HAZLITT. |