807 



SUCKLING, SIR JOHN. 



SUE, EUGENE. 



80S 



the decrees of the senate directed against Napoleon. Employed to 

 receive Ferdinand VII. who had been released from Valenay, and to 

 present him to the Spanish army, he was publicly thanked by the 

 king for the manner in which he had carried on the war against his 

 Bubjects. The gratitude of the Spanish nation towards the adminis- 

 tration of this marshal was further evinced by the general testimony 

 which was borne to his justice and humanity, when, in 1823, the 

 French again occupied the scene of his exploits. 



The speedy adhesion of Suchct to the Bourbons was rewarded by 

 his being created a member of the new peerage, and his appointment 

 to the command of the tenth military division, of which the head- 

 quarters was Strasbourg. On the return of Napoleon I. from Elba, 

 though he maintained his fidelity to the Bourbons BO long as 

 Louis XVIII. remained in France, he renewed his allegiance to his 

 former chief, and accepted the command of the army of the Alps, 

 with which he obtained several important successes over the Pied- 

 montese and the Austrians. His army was composed of only 10,000 

 men, and on the approach of the main body of the Austrians, nearly 

 100,000 strong, he was compelled to fall back upon Lyon, for which 

 city, by his judicious management, he obtained an honourable capitu- 

 lation ; one of the conditions in it being that all the valuable munitions 

 of war contained in that city should be respected by the enemy. 



On the second restoration of the Bourbons he remained for some 

 time in disgrace, and was deprived of his civil though not of hia mili- 

 tary honours. He was however restored to his position in the peerage 

 by a royal ordinance dated the 5th of March 1819, and he appears to 

 have almost entirely recovered the favour of the king. On the French 

 expedition to Spain in 1823, it was generally expected that Marshal 

 Suchet would have been selected to accompany the Duke of Angou- 

 Idme as his principal adviser, but he was already suffering severely 

 from the disease to which he shortly afterwards fell a victim. He 

 died at Marseille on the 7th of January 1826, leaving behind him a 

 young widow and several children. During the latter years of his life 

 he was occupied in composing a memoir of his campaign in Spain, 

 which has since been published. (' Mdmoires de Suchet,' 2 vols., Paris, 

 1826.) 



The reputation of Suchet stands deservedly high amongst the gene- 

 rals of Napoleon I. His military career was unstained by any of the 

 excesses which have disgraced so many of bis most distinguished col- 

 leagues in command. Brought up in the school of Massena, he rivalled 

 his military skill without imitating his vices. It is true that his 

 entrance by storm into Tarragona was marked by the rapine and inliu- 

 matrity of his soldiers; but the inability of a chief perfectly to restrain 

 the frenzied violence of his soldiers on such terrible occasions is a 

 .melancholy fact which the history of all ages has established. We 

 have already dwelt upon his qualities as a military and a civil ruler. 

 The high opinion entertained of Suchet by Napoleon I. has been 

 recorded by O'Meara and Las Cases. On the question being asked him 

 by the former, who, in his opinion, was the first of his generals ? he 

 replied, " I think that Suchet is probably the first. Masse'na was ; but 

 you may say that he is dead " (1817) alluding to the complaint under 

 which that marshal was fast sinking. 



SUCKLING, SIR JOHN, an English poet, was born at Whitton in 

 Middlesex, 1608-9. His father was one of the principal secretaries of 

 state and comptroller of the household to James I., and was by 

 descent of a Norfolk family. The son is said to have shown in his 

 boyhood great readiness in the acquisition of languages. We Tire not 

 clearly informed as to the place and manner of his education. Aubrey 

 thinks that he was at school at Westminster, but this fact does not 

 seem certain. In 1623 he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 and in 1628, about a year after his father's death, travelled abroad. 

 In 1631 he joined the army of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, 

 and probably remained on the Continent till 1632. On his return to 

 England he led the life of a courtier, and was distinguished among his 

 contemporaries not less by the brilliancy of his wit than by the 

 splendid appearance which he maintained by the most lavish expendi- 

 ture. Among his companions were Lord Falkland, Carew, Shirley, 

 and Davenant; from the last of whom Aubrey derived most of his 

 anecdotes of Suckling, whom he has thus described (' Lives of Eminent 

 Men,' ' Bodleian Letters,' vol. ii., part ii., 545) : " He was famous at 

 court for his ready sparkling wit, which was envied, and Sir William 

 (Davenant) says he was the bull that was bayted ; he was incomparably 

 ready at reparteeing, and his wit most sparkling when most set on aud 

 provoked." While pursuing a course of fashionable pleasures, among 

 which gambling seems to have most attracted him, he became engaged 

 in a quarrel with a brother of Sir Kenelm Digby, and received from 

 him a severe beating, which he does not appear in any way to have 

 resented. After this dishonour his associates looked coldly on him, 

 and the consequent loss of reputation seems to have been accompanied 

 by the decline of his fortunes. About this time we find the first 

 notice of him as an author : in 1637 was published his ' Session of the 

 Poets;' in 1638, his ' A"laura;' and in 1639 his 'Brenno rait,' under 

 the title of ' The Discontented Colonel,' a satire on the rebels. When 

 the disturbances broke out in Scotland, Suckling equipped a troop of 

 100 horse in the king's service, and so magnificently, that they cost 

 him, it is said, 12,000k This extravagance was much ridiculed; and 

 the misconduct and defeat of his men in 1 639, in the battle between 

 the Scotch and the royal army, gave occasion for a ballad, more coarse 



than humorous, said to have been written by Sir John Mennis, a wit 

 of those times, and which is printed in a poetical miscellany entitled 

 'Musarum Delicise, or the Muses' Recreation, containing several pieces 

 of poetique wit,' 2nd edit., 1656. (Percy, ' Ancient Ballads,' ii. 322.) 

 In 1640, on the meeting of the long parliament, Suckling was returned 

 member for Bramber, and took an active share in the party strife that 

 followed. A letter of bis is extant, addressed to Henry Jermyn, after- 

 wards earl of St. Albans, in which he discusses at some length the 

 critical situation of the king. In 1641 he joined in a plot to rescue 

 Strafford from the Tower, and was in consequence summoned before 

 parliament and accused of being an accomplice in a design to bring 

 over the French ; upon this he fled to France, and died soon after- 

 wards in that country. 



His death is said to have been caused by a fever ; or, according to 

 another story, related by Pope, and inscribed on his portrait at 

 Knowle in Kent, by a wound in the heel from a rusty nail, a penknife, 

 or a razor, placed purposely in his boot by his valet, who, after robbing 

 him, wished to ensure safety in flight by disabling his master from 

 pursuit. According to Aubrey, he poisoned himself at Paris, and Mr. 

 Suckling, in the work referred to below, says that family tradition con- 

 firms the report. In a pamphlet entitled ' A Letter eent by Sir John 

 Suckling from France, deploring his sad Estate and Flight,' dated 

 Paris, June 16, 1641, but which was published in London, 1641, he is 

 said to have stayed some time at Rouen after his arrival in France, 

 and to be then living with his wife at the Hague ; but no reliance can 

 be placed upon such a production. His death must have been before 

 1643, as in that year was printed, at London, 'A Copy of Two Remon- 

 strances brought over the River Stix in Caron's Ferryboate, by the 

 Ghost of Sir John Suckling.' His works are 1 . ' Fragmenta Aures,' 

 8vo, London, printed by Humphrey Moseley, 1646, with a portrait of 

 the author, containing poems, letters, and an Account of Religion by 

 Reason ; in some of his poems he is said to have been assisted by Sir 

 John Mennis. (Wood's 'Athen. Oxon.,' Bliss, iii., 926.) 2. 'The 

 Goblins,' London, 1646. 3. 'Fragmenta Aurea,' 1648, no portrait. 

 4. ' An Account of Religion by Reason,' London, 1658. 5. 'Aglaura, 

 the Goblins, and Brenuoralt,' London, 1658. 6. ' Letters to several 

 Persons of Honour,' London, 1659. 7. ' The Sad One,' a tragedy, 

 London, 1659. 8. 'His Last Remains,' London, 1659. 9. His Works 

 Poems, Plays, Letters, Tonson, 8vo, London, 1709, with portrait; 

 have been several times reprinted. A work entitled Selections from 

 his Works, with a Life prefixed by the Rev. Alfred Suckling, London, 

 1836, has furnished most of the few facts contained in this scanty 

 biography. The reader may also consult his Life, by Chalmers, the 

 pamphlets about him already quoted, and a folio sheet printed in 

 1641, entitled ' The Sucklington Faction.' 



In person Suckling was about the middle size, though but slightly 

 made, with a graceful carriage. In the edition of his works by his 

 namesake is an engraving from a portrait by Vandyke, and two more 

 by that master are there mentioned. His poems relate almost entirely 

 to the passion of love : the fortunes of a lover and the feelings arising 

 from his successes and reverses are described with the accuracy of 

 one personally experienced in such adventures. These compositions, 

 written in the transition period between an age of thought and learn- 

 ing, and an age of careless dissipation, present in singular combination 

 the characteristics of the passing and the coming generation. lu the 

 more or less pedantic love of classical allusion, and in the strained 

 intricacy of wit, the style of Suckling somewhat resembles that of his 

 contemporaries ; while in the licentiousness of his subjects, the gaiety 

 and ease of expression, and the strange mixture of grossness and 

 refinement of feeling, he still more reminds us of the court-poets of 

 the reign of Charles II. His ballad of ' The Wedding ' has been 

 justly celebrated for the truth and naivete' of description, and the 

 happy boldness in the use of homely imagery. The songs, ' When, 

 dearest, I but think of thee,' and ' Tell me, yo juster Deities,' are 

 among the best of his pieces. His letters are written in remarkably 

 pure English, but in a style too studied and elaborate for such 

 compositions. 



* SUE, EUGENE, the popular romancist, was born at Paris Dec. 10, 

 1804. His ancestors, who came from Lacolme, near Cannes, in the 

 south of France, settled in the French capital at the beginning of 

 the 18th century, and having adopted the medical profession, pro- 

 duced three generations of respectable physicians, two of whom became 

 celebrated, and enjoyed a very extensive practice. Joseph Sue, his 

 grandfather, and Jean-Joseph Sue, his father, are both mentioned with 

 honourable distinction in the national biographies of France. The 

 latter, who had been principal physician to the Hopital de la Mahon 

 du Roi, and anatomical lecturer to the cole Royale des Beaux Arts, 

 during the reign of Louis XVI., was one of the household physicians 

 of Napoleon I. ; and the future author of the ' Wandering Jew ' was 

 held at the font by the Empress Josephine and her son Eugene Beau- 

 harnais, from whom he derives his Christian name. 



Dr. Sue, having but two children a son and a daughter was 

 desirous of bringing up his son to his own profession, and Eugene in 

 consequence studied medicine at the hospitals ns well as at the schools 

 of Paris ; and, thanks to his father's position and influence, was enabled 

 at the age of twenty to enter a company of the Royal Body Guards as 

 aide-major. He was soon after transferred to the staff of the French 

 army preparing to enter Spain under the Duke of Angouleme. In 



