SUCKLING, John.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Fragmenta Aurea. A Collection of All the Incomparable Peeces... And published by a Friend to perpetuate his memory. First edition of works by the "gamester, amorist, and marital fortune seeker" (ODNB). Published posthumously, this book compiles Suckling's poems, political tracts, letters, and his four plays Aglaura, The Goblins, Brennoralt, and An Account of Religion by Reason. This is the copy of one Alice Coke, with her characterful contemporary inscription on the front free endpaper, "Alice Coke, her book, was not writ by Thomas Coke". Alice is untraced, but the one-upmanship of this inscription may suggest a relationship between siblings or adolescents, with whom the cavalier poet was popular, as seen, for example, in the copy of Fragmenta Aurea owned by the young Lady Anne Coote Boyle (1658-1725), Viscountess Blessington.Suckling (d. 1641?) spent his early adult life on military campaign in Europe before returning to England in 1632. "He was first and last a wit and a courtier to Charles I" (ODNB) and remained an outspoken monarchist during the bishops' wars that preceded the English Civil War. He was forced to flee to Paris in 1641 where he died penniless, yet his works were bought in large numbers during the interregnum and after. Editions of Fragmenta Aurea, the foremost collection, were published in 1646, 1648, and 1658; and The Last Remains of Sir John Suckling appeared in 1659.The frontispiece is in the first of the two states established by Beaurline and Clayton (

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