John Suckling

“ At my arrival here I am saluted by all as risen from the dead, and have had joy given me preposterously and as impertinently as they give it to men who marry where they do not love. If I should now die in earnest, my friends have nothing to pay me, for they have discharged the rites of funeral sorrow beforehand. ”

“ But having been well cured of a fever, to court a relapse, to make love the second time in the same place, is (not to flatter you) neither better nor worse than to fall into a quagmire by chance, and ride into it afterwards on purpose. 'Tis not love (Tom) that doth the mischief, but constancy; for love is of the nature of a burning-glass, which, kept still in one place, fireth: changed often, it doth nothing—a kind of glowing coal which, with shifting from hand to hand, a man easily endures. ”

“ That love doth seed when it runs into matrimony, is undoubted truth; how else should it increase and multiply, which is its greatest blessing?
'Tis not the want of love, nor Cupid's fault, if every day afford not new language and new ways of expressing affection: it rather may be caused through an excess of joy, which oftentimes strikes dumb.
These things considered, I will marry; nay, and to prove the second paradox false, I'll marry a widow, who is rather the chewer than thing chewed. ”

“ Though desire in those that love be still like too much sail in a storm, and man cannot so easily strike, or take all in when he pleases; yet (dearest princess) be it never so hard, when you shall think it dangerous, I shall not make it difficult, though—well, love is love, and air is air ”

“ This fear of losing all in you is the ill issue of a worse parent, desire of getting, in you; so that, if you would not be passion-rent, you must cease to be covetous. Money in your hand is like the conjurer's devil, which while you think you have, that has you. ”

“ That it is fit for the King to do something extraordinary at this present, is not only the opinion of the wise, but the expectation. Men observe him more now than at other times: for Majesty in an eclipse, like the Sun, draws eyes, that would not so much as have looked towards it, if it had shined out and appeared like itself. ”

“ When I consider (my dear princess) that I have no other pretence to your favours than that which all men have to the original of beauty, light; which we enjoy, not that it is the inheritance of our eyes, but because things most excellent cannot restrain themselves, but are ours, as they are diffusively good ”

“ You must therefore consider that you have entered into one of those near conjunctions of which death is the only honourable divorce, and that you have now to please another as well as yourself; who, though she be a woman, and by the patent she hath from nature hath liberty to do simply, yet can she never be so strongly bribed against herself as to betray at once all her hopes and ends, and for your sake resolve to live miserably. ”

“ I will conclude with a prayer (not that I think it needs at this present: prayers are to keep us from what may be, as well as to preserve us from what is) , that the King be neither too insensible of what is without him, nor too resolved from what is within him. To be sick of a dangerous sickness and find no pain cannot but be with loss of understanding ('tis an aphorism of Hippocrates) .
And on the other side Opiniastry is a sullen Porter, and (as it was wittily said of Constancy) shuts out oftentimes better things than it lets in. ”

“ Dost thou know what marriage is? 'Tis curing of love the dearest way, or waking a losing gamester out of a winning dream, and after a long expectation of a strange banquet, a presentation of a homely meal. Alas! (Tom) love seeds when it runs up to matrimony, and is good for nothing. ”

“ Now it is the nature of cowards to hurt where they can receive none. They will not be content (while they fear and have the upper hand) to fetter only royalty, but perchance (as timorous spirits use) will not think themselves safe while that is at all. And possibly this is the present state of things.
In this great work (at least to make it appear perfect and lasting to the kingdom) it is necessary the Queen realty join: for if she stand aloof, there will be still suspicions, it being a received opinion in the world, that she hath a great interest in the King's favour and power. ”

“ But the truth is, the place affords nothing: all our days are (as the women here) alike, and the difference of Fair does rarely show itself, such great state do beauty and the sun keep in these parts. I keep company with my own horses (madam) to avoid that of the men; and by this you may guess how great an enemy to my living contentedly my lady is, whose conversation has brought me to so fine a diet that, wheresoever I go, I must starve: all days are tedious, companies troublesome, and books themselves (feasts heretofore) no relish in them. ”

“ And this for your comfort I must tell you (Jack) that mistress and woman differ no otherwise than Frontiniack and ordinary grapes; which though a man loves never so well, yet, if he surfeit of the last, he will care but little for the first.
I would have you leave that foolish humour (Jack) of saying you are not in love with her, and pretending you care not for her; for smothered fires are dangerous, and malicious humours are best and safest vented and breathed out. Continue your affection to your rival still: that will secure you from one way of loving, which is in spite ”

“ As near as you can, let it be unseasonably, when she is in sickness and disorder; for that will let you know she is mortal, and a woman, and the last would be enough to a wise man. If you could draw her to discourse of things she understands not, it would not be amiss.
Contrive yourself often into the company of the cried-up beauties; for if you read but one book, it will be no wonder if you speak or write that style: variety will breed distraction, and that will be a kind of diverting the humour. ”

“ Is there nothing in this foolish transitory world that thou canst find out to set thy heart upon, but that which has newly left off making of dirt-pies, and is but preparing itself for loam and a green sickness? Seriously (Charles) and without ceremony, 'tis very foolish, and to love widows is as tolerable an humour, and as justifiable as thine; for beasts that have been rid off their legs are as much for a man's use as colts that are unway'd, and will not go at all. Why the devil such young things? ”

“ And of how great consequence it is for the King to resume this right and be the author himself, let any body judge; since (as Cumneus said) those that have the art to please the people, have commonly the power to raise them.
To do things so that there shall remain no jealousy is very necessary, and is no more than really reforming, that is, pleasing them. For to do things that shall grieve hereafter, and yet pretend love, amongst lovers themselves, where there is the easiest faith, will not be accepted. ”

“ Examples of such loving folly our times afford but few; and in those there are, you shall find the stock of love to have been greater, and their strengths richer to maintain it, than is to be feared yours can be. ”

“ Would you not think him a madman who, whilst he might fair and easily ride on the beaten roadway, should trouble himself with breaking up of gaps? A well-wayed horse will safely convey thee to thy journey's end, when an unbacked filly may by chance give thee a fall. 'Tis prince-like to marry a widow, for 'tis to have a taster. ”

“ It will not be enough for the King to do what they desire, but he must do something more—I mean by doing more, doing something of his own, as throwing away things they call not for, or giving things they expected not. ”

“ To lie still now would at the best shew but a calmness of mind, not a magnanimity: since in matter of government, to think well at any time (much less in a very active) is little better than to dream well. Nor must he stay to act till his people desire, because 'tis thought nothing relishes else: for therefore hath nothing relished with them, because the King hath for the most part stayed till they have desired ”

“ To the guarding of these golden apples, of necessity must be kept those never sleeping dragons, Fear, Jealousy, Distrust, and the like; so that you are come to moralize Æsop, and his fables of beasts are become prophecies of you; for, while you have catched at the shadow, uncertain riches, you have lost the substance, true content. ”

“ The first Quære will be whether, as things now stand (kingdoms in the balance) the King is not to follow nature, where the conservation of the more general commands and governs the less: as iron by particular sympathy sticks to the loadstone, but yet, if it be joined with a great body of iron, it quits those particular affections to the loadstone, and moves with the other to the greater, the common country. ”

“ And when they see the King doing the same things with them, it will take away all thought and apprehension, that he thinks the things they have done already ill.
Now if the King ends the differences, and takes away suspect for the future, the case will fall out to be no worse, than when two duellists enter the field, where the worsted party (the other having no ill opinion of him) hath his sword given him again without further hurt, after he is in the other's power. But otherwise it is not safe to imagine what may follow, for the people are naturally not valiant, and not much Cavalier. ”

“ How strangely fantastical is he who will be an hour in plucking on a strait-boot, when he may be forthwith furnished with enough that will come on easily, and do him as much credit and better service? Wine, when first broached, drinks not half so well as after a while drawing. ”

“ Doubts and fears are, of all, the sharpest passions, and are still turning distempers to diseases. Through these false opticks 'tis, all that you see is, like evening shadows, disproportionable to the truth, and strangely longer than the true substance. These (when a handsome way of living, and expense suitable to your fortune, is represented to you) makes you in their stead see want and beggary, thrusting upon your judgment impossibilities for likelihoods, which they with ease may do, since (as Solomon saith) they betray the succours that reason offers. ”

“ Woman (besides the trouble) has ever been thought a rent-charge; and though through the vain curiosity of man it has often been inclosed, yet has it seldom been brought to improve or become profitable. ”

“ It faring with married men for the most part, as with those that at great charges wall in grounds and plant, who cheaper might have eaten melons elsewhere, than in their own gardens cucumbers. The ruins that either time, sickness, or the melancholy you shall give her, shall bring, must all be made up at your cost; for that thing a husband is but tenant for life in what he holds, and is bound to leave the place tenantable to the next that shall take it. To conclude, a young woman is a hawk upon her wings ”

“ To be a little pleasant in my instances: the very women have suffered reformation, and wear through the whole court their faces as little disguised now as an honest man's actions should be; and if there be any have suffered themselves to be gained by their servants, their ignorance of what they granted, may well excuse them from the shame of what they did. So that it is more than possible to be great and good ”

“ The wisest men and greatest states have made no scruple to make use of brave men whom they had laid by with some disgrace; nor have those brave men, so laid by, made scruple, or thought it a disgrace, to serve again when they were called to it afterwards.
These general motives of the state and common good I will not so much as once offer up to your lordship's consideration, though, as 'tis fit, they have still the upper end. Yet, like great olios, they rather make a show than provoke appetite. ”

“ Abruptness is an eloquence in parting, when spinning out of time is but the weaving of new sorrow. ”

“ I thank Heaven we live in an age in which the widows wear colours, and in a country where the women that lose their husbands may be trusted with poison, knives, and all the burning coals in Europe, notwithstanding the precedent of Sophonisba and Portia. ”

“ Falconers, that can but seldom spring right game, should still have something about them to take them down with. The lure to which all stoop in this world is either garnished with profit or pleasure; and when you cannot throw her the one, you must be content to shew out the other. ”

“ The rich talent that God hath given, or rather lent you, you have hid up in a napkin; and man knows no difference betwixt that and treasures kept by ill spirits, but that yours is the harder to come by. ”

“ A letter to a friend to dissuade him from marrying a widow which he had formerly been in love with, and quitted. At this time when no hot planet fires the blood, and when the lunaticks of Bedlam themselves are trusted abroad, that you should run mad, is (Sir) not so much a subject for your friends' pity as their wonder. 'Tis true, love is a natural distemper, a kind of small pocks. Every one either hath had it, or is to expect it, and the sooner the better. ”

“ There are two things which I shall not be ashamed to propound to you as ends, since the greater part of the wise men of the world have not been ashamed to make them theirs, and, if any has been found to contemn them, it hath been strongly to be suspected that either they could not easily attain to them, or else that the readiest way to attain to them was to contemn them. ”