SUCKLING, SIR JOHN (1609-1642).—­Poet, s. of a knight who had held office as Sec. of State and Comptroller of the Household to James I., was b. at Whitton, Middlesex, ed. at Camb., and thereafter went to Gray’s Inn.  On the death of his f. in 1627, he inherited large estates.  After travelling in France and Italy, he is said to have served for a short time under Gustavus Adolphus.  On his return he was knighted, and went to Court, where his wealth, generosity, and wit made him a general favourite.  When Charles I. was moving against the Scots S. fitted out a gorgeously appointed troop for his service which, however, were said to have fled at first sight of the Scots army at Duns, an exploit which is ridiculed in the ballad of Sir John Suckling’s Campaign.  He got into trouble in connection with a plot to rescue Strafford from the Tower, and fled to the Continent.  He d. at Paris, it is now believed by his own hand.  He was a noted gambler, and has the distinction of being the inventor of the game of cribbage.  He wrote four plays, Aglaura (1637), Brennoralt (1646), The Goblins, and The Sad One (unfinished), now forgotten; his fame rests on his songs and ballads, including The Wedding, distinguished by a gay and sparkling wit, and a singular grace of expression.

SURREY, HENRY HOWARD, EARL of (1517?-1547).—­Poet, s. of Thomas H., 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was ed. by John Clerke, a learned and travelled scholar, and sec. to his f. He became attached to the Court, was cup-bearer to the King (Henry VIII.), ewerer at the Coronation, and Earl Marshall at the trial of Anne Boleyn.  In 1542 he was made a Knight of the Garter a few weeks after the execution of his cousin, Queen Catherine Howard.  He suffered imprisonment more than once for being implicated in quarrels and brawls, did a good deal of fighting in Scotland and France, and was the last victim of Henry’s insensate jealousy, being beheaded on a frivolous charge of conspiring against the succession of Edward VI.  The death of Henry saved Norfolk from the same fate.  S. shares with Sir Thomas Wyatt (q.v.) the honour of being the true successor of Chaucer in English poetry, and he has the distinction of being, in his translation of the AEneid, the first to introduce blank verse, and, with Wyatt, the sonnet.  The poems of S., though well known in courtly circles, were not pub. during his life; 40 of them appeared in Tottel’s Miscellany in 1557.  He also paraphrased part of Ecclesiastes and a few of the Psalms.  The Geraldine of his sonnets was Elizabeth Fitzgerald, dau. of the Earl of Kildare, then a lonely child at Court, her f. being imprisoned in the Tower.

SURTEES, ROBERT SMITH (1802-1864).—­Sporting novelist, a country gentleman of Durham, who was in business as a solicitor, but not succeeding, started in 1831 the Sporting Magazine.  Subsequently he took to writing sporting novels, which were illustrated by John Leech.  Among them are Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour, Ask Mamma, Plain or Ringlets, and Mr. Facey Romford’s Hounds.