" The best comment upon his works may be found in the
words of a reviewer: "Herrick trifled in this way solely in compliment to
the age; whenever he wrote to please himself, he wrote from the heart to
the heart." His _Litanie_ is a noble and beautiful penitential petition.
Sir John Suckling, 1609-1641: a writer of love songs. That by which he is
most favorably known is his exquisite _Ballad upon a Wedding_. He was a
man of versatile talents; an officer in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, and
a captain of horse in the army of Charles I. He wrote several plays, of
which the best are _Aglaura_ and _The Discontented Colonel_. While
evidently tinctured by the spirit of the age, he exceeded his
contemporaries in the purity of his style and manliness of his expression.
His wit is not so forced as theirs.
Edmund Waller, 1605-1687: he was a cousin of John Hampden. By great care
and adroitness he seems to have trimmed between the two parties in the
civil war, but was suspected by both. His poetry was like himself,
artificial and designed to please, but has little depth of sentiment.
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