The work has been widely praised, though the title is slightly misleading, focusing as it does on the formative lives of the 'Cavalier poets' rather than their exploits during the war itself ...
In the clip Stubbs tells us about the poet and bon viveur Sir John Suckling. Here was the archetypal Cavalier, raising his own troop to fight in Scotland in 1637 with dubious experience of command, more interested in dressing his "one hundred very handsome, proper young men" to look good in the field than providing them with useful kit.
Suckling actually played no part in events after Charles raised his standard in Nottingham; he fled to France in 1641 after his audacious plot to free Strafford from the Tower with French aid was uncovered.
Besides his poetry he did have one other claim to fame. According to John Aubrey, he was the inventor of cribbage.
Adrian Tinniswood's review of Stubbs' book in Literary Review
Great book, and well-deserved nominee for the Samuel Johnson prize last year. J. Williams.
ReplyDeleteWaited for it to come out in paperback - a good read but as you suggest it is more about the writers of the era rather than the cavalier soldiers who took part in the fighting (though some obviously did).
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