John Suckling

Suckling was born at Whitton, between Twickenham and Hounslow, Middlesex, on February 10, 1609. His mother died when the boy was four years of age, in 1613. His father, descendant of a prominent Norfolk family, was appointed Comptroller of James I's household in 1622. Suckling matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1623 but left without taking a degree in 1626.

Suckling inherited extensive estates on his father's death in 1626, and was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1627. Just eighteen years old, he pursued a military and ambassadorial career in the Low Countries, and joined the English soldiers serving in the army of Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years' War. Suckling was knighted in September 1630. He returned to the English court in May, 1632, where he became very popular through his wealth and charm. He was known as a gamester, and is credited with having invented the game of cribbage.
In 1637, Suckling wrote the prose work Account of Religion by Reason. His play, Aglaura, was published in 1638 and performed twice for Charles I. The play had two different endings, one tragic and one happy. It was not a critical success, but it introduced the wonderful lyric poem "Why so pale and wan, fond lover?" In the same year, Suckling's comedy The Goblins was published. It was much influenced by Shakespeare's The Tempest and is generally thought to be Suckling's best.

Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
Prithee, why so pale?
Will, when looking well can't move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Prithee, why so pale?
Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Prithee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can't win her,
Saying nothing do't?
Prithee, why so mute?
Quit, quit for shame!
This will not move;
This cannot take her.
If of herself she will not love,
Nothing can make her:
The devil take her!

This lyric poem, which was written for his play named Aglaura, talks about the useless struggle of a lover trying to win the love and attention of a woman, that doesn’t really like him. Therefore, his friend keeps saying how worthless it is for the fond lover to look wan and quiet, for even when he speaks and looks well she doesn’t bother. Although it talks about love, the poem has a very rational approach on the subject, but then again it doesn’t go very deep in it, which is a trait shared by the cavalier poets.
Aglaura is a late Caroline era stage play, written by Sir John Suckling. Several aspects of the play have led critics to treat it as a key development and a marker of the final decadent phase of English Renaissance drama.Unusually, Suckling wrote the play as a tragedy, but added an alternative happy ending, so creating an optional tragicomedy. Suckling changed the ending for the April 1638 performance before the King, Charles I, and Queen Henrietta Maria.
"Why so pale and wan, fond lover," became a popular song of the era.
The last line of the second stanza--"Prithee why so mute?"-- is concerned not with a need to speak out but with the uselessness of silence (like paleness in the first stanza) ; in the third stanza the would-be lover is urged to give up and leave her—not to heaven, but to hell. After all, when neither the "looking well" nor "ill" nor "pale" can "move her" (stanza 1), "speaking well" or "saying nothing" and staying "mute" can’t "win her" (stanza 2), then he should “Quit”. The redoubled "quit," is rhetorically felicitous as well as forcefully imperative.