SIR JOHN, an English poet and dramatic writer, was the son of Sir John Suckling, comptroller of the household to King Charles I. and born at Witham in Essex in 1613. He discovered an uncommon propensity to the acquiring of languages, insomuch that he is reported to have spoken Latin at five years of age, and to have written it at nine. When he grew up, he travelled; but seems to have affected nothing more than the character of a courtier and fine gentleman; which he fo far attained, that he was allowed to have the peculiar happiness of making every thing he did become him. In his travels he made a campaign under the great Gustavus Adolphus; and his loyalty, if not his valour, appeared in the beginning of our civil wars; for, after his return to England, he raised a troop of horse for the king's service entirely at his own charge; and mounted them to completely and richly, that they are said to have cost him 12,000l. This troop, with Sir John at its head, behaved so ill in the engagement with the Scots, upon the English borders, in 1639, as to occasion the famous lampoon composed by Sir John Mennis; "Sir John he got him an ambling nag," &c. This ballad, which was set to a brisk tune, was much sung by the parliamentarians, and continues to be sung to this day. This disastrous expedition, and the ridicule that attended it, was supposed to have hastened his death; being seized by a fever, of which he died, at 28 years of age. He was a frightful wit, and an easy versifier, but no great poet. His works, consisting of a few poems, letters, and plays, have nevertheless gone through several editions.