SOURCE: Squier, Charles L. “The Prose: A Bright and Elegant Surface” and “The Plays: The Goblins and Brennoralt.” In Sir John Suckling, pp. 33-56; 76-95. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978.

In the first of the two following essays, Squier analyzes Suckling's prose output, including letters and nonfiction, and focuses on what insights these pieces reveal about Suckling's other works. In the second essay, Squier examines Suckling's plays, and praises his skills as a playwright.

I. Letters and the Hidden Self

Suckling's prose is limited in quantity, consisting of fifty-four or fifty-five letters, depending on one's view of a doubtful one,¹ and An Account of Religion by Reason, a short essay. From so small a sample of his prose one might be hesitant to conclude with Tucker Brooke, “There is hardly a purer English style in the seventeenth century than Suckling's, and there are few better personal letters of the period...