Though the editors of the seventeenth century section of the NAEL elevate Carew (in their introduction to his work) over all the other Cavalier poets, the corpus or oeuvre of Carew was much slenderer than that of Herrick. Even slenderer is the poetic corpus of Sir John Suckling, which amounts to 90 poems in the authoritative Oxford English Texts edition by Thomas Clayton. The NAEL editors in their introduction to Suckling are quite correct in noting variety in Suckling's poetry, which veered from early religious poems (juvenalia) to later adult poems that include one of the most frankly obscene, and humorous, examples of the genre of the "paradoxical encomium" in the English Renaissance:

"The Deformed Mistress" (No. 36 in the OET edition)

I know there are some Fools that care
Not for the body, so the face be fair;
Some others, too, that in a female creature
Respect not beauty but a comely feature;
And others, too, that for those parts in sight
Care not so much, so that the rest be right.
Each man his humor hath; and faith 'tis mine
To love that woman which I now define.
First I would have her wainscot face and hand
More wrinkled far than any pleated band,
That in those furrows, if I'd take the pains,
I might both sow and reap all sorts of grains;
Her nose I'd have a foot long, not above,
With pimples embroidered, for those I love;
And at the end a comely pearl of snot,
Considering whether it should fall or not;
Provided next that half her teeth be out,
I do not care much if her pretty snout
Meet with her furrowed chin, and both together
Hem in her lips, as dry as good whit-leather.
One wall-eye she shall have, for that's a sign
In other beasts the best, why not in mine?
Her neck I'll have to be pure jet at least,
With yellow spots enameled; and her breast
Like a grasshopper's wing both thin and lean,
Not to be touched for dirt unless swept clean.
As for her belly, 'tis no matter, so
There be a belly, and a cunt below;
Yet if you will, let it be something high,
And always let there be a timpany*.                        *swelling
But soft, where am I now! Here I should stride
Lest I fall in, the place must be so wide --
And pass unto her thighs, which shall just
Like to an ant's that's scraping in the dust;
Into her legs I'd have Love's issues fall,
And all her calf into a gouty small;
Her feet both thick and eagle-like displayed*,             *splayed outwards
The symptoms of a comely handsome maid.
As for her parts behind, I ask no more,
If they but answer those that are before --
I have my utmost wish; and having so,
Judge whether I am happy, yea or no.
 

        Often the satirist, Suckling satirized in "A Song to a Lute" Ben Jonson's famous three-stanza play song (The Devil Is an Ass, II.vi) that became No. 4, "Her Triumph," in "A Celebration of Charis" (in NAEL and in NAEL Online Archive). Another example, parallel to but with more sustained wit than Herrick's "Upon Jack and Jill" (in NAEL) is "[Love's Offence"] (the editor's title in the OET edition):

"[Love's Offence]" (No. 55 in the OET edition)

1

If when Don* Cupid's dart                      *title of respect, used humorously
Doth wound a heart,
we hide our grief
and shun relief,
The smart* increaseth on that score            *wound; pain
For wounds unsearched* but rankle more.        *unprobed medically

2

Then if we whine, look pale,
And tell our tale,
men are in pain
for us again;
So, neither speaking doth become
The Lover's state, nor being dumb.

3

When this I do decry*,                        *observe
Then thus think I:
love is the fart
of every heart --
It pains a man when 'tis kept close,
And others doth offend when 'tis let loose.
 

G1. Prior to the divisions of seventeenth-century English poetry into the schools of Donne and Jonson, and into sacred and secular, a division had occurred in sixteenth-century English poetry. From the poetry of Wyatt would come the line of plain-spoken frankness or bluntness (Cf. Wyatt's "Madam, withouten many words" or "Farewell, Love" and comparable poems in NAEL), while from the poetry of Surrey would come the more ornamental and decorative line favored by many readers of the time. Which of the poems by Suckling in NAEL are in accord with the line of Wyatt's relatively plain-spoken poetry? How so?

S1. N&Q on "The Deformed Mistress"

S1.1 How does Suckling's "The Deformed Mistress" compare or contrast with Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 ("My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun")?

S2. N&Q on "[Love's Offence]"

S2.1 (a) How does the metaphor of flatulence in stanza 3 of "[Love's Offence]" logically apply to the preceding two stanzas, respectively? (b) How is scatological imagery used for satire from the New Testament, through Dante, through the English Renaissance, through Swift's Gulliver's Travels, through several of the comic films of Mel Brooks?

S3. N&Q on "Song: 'Why so pale and wan, fond lover?'

S3.1 How are repetition and colloquialism used expressively in the poem to convey elements of character (of the speaker, and of a lover's emotional or psychological state), as well as ideas or themes?

S4. N&Q on "Loving and Beloved"

S4.1 What key term from Cavalier poetry occurs in this poem, and in what context, and with what meaning or meanings?

S5. N&Q on "A Ballad upon a Wedding"

S6. N&Q on "Out upon It!"

S6.1 (a) How, as in Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 ("My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun"), does Suckling or the speaker transform the sentiment of Donne's poem "The Indifferent" into a back-handed romantic encomium? (b)How does plain speech, combined with the colloquialism notable in some of Donne's secular poetry, help convey in colloquialism and repetition any elements of character (of the speaker, and of a lover's emotional or psychological state), as well as ideas or themes?