ever, on the praise of Lamb that Suett's reputation rests. Lamb declares him ‘the Robin Goodfellow of the stage. He came in to trouble all things with a welcome perplexity, himself no whit troubled for the matter. He was known, like Puck, by his note, “Ha! ha! ha!” sometimes deepening to “Ho! ho! ho!” … Thousands of hearts yet respond to the chuckling O La! of Dickey Suett … He drolled upon the stock of these two syllables richer than the cuckoo … Shakespeare foresaw him when he framed his fools and jesters. They have all the true Suett stamp, a loose and shambling gait, a slippery tongue, this last the ready midwife to a without-pain delivered jest, in words light as air, venting truths deep as the centre, with idlest rhymes tagging conceit when busiest, singing with Lear in “The Tempest,” or Sir Toby at the buttery-hatch.’
Suett, who lived latterly at Chelsea, was fond of low company, and used to spend much time in public-houses. He was a good singer and story-teller in social circles. His breakfast-table was always garnished with bottles of rum and brandy, and he frequently used, it is said, to qualify himself for his work on the stage by getting drunk. Stories told concerning Suett's wit are not convincing. He played, however, with some humour upon his own follies and vices.
The Mathews collection of pictures in the Garrick Club has three portraits of Suett by Dewilde—one in ordinary dress, a second as Endless in ‘No Song no Supper,’ and a third as Fustian in ‘Sylvester Dangerwood’ to the Dangerwood of Bannister. A portrait by Dewilde, engraved by Cawthorne, is in the National Art Library, South Kensington.
[Genest's Account of the English Stage; Gilliland's Dramatic Mirror; Oxberry's Dramatic Biography; Monthly Mirror, various years; Georgian Era; Kelly's Reminiscences; O'Keeffe's Recollections; Lamb's Essays; Leigh Hunt's Dramatic Essays; Hazlitt's Dramatic Essays; Clark Russell's Representative Actors; Marshall's Cat. of Engraved National Portraits; Doran's Annals of the Stage, ed. Low; Thespian Dict.; Tate Wilkinson's Wandering Patentee; Mathews's Table Talk.]
SUFFELD or SUTHFELD, WALTER (d. 1257), who is also called Walter Calthorp, bishop of Norwich, was a native of Norfolk, and studied at the university of Paris, where he was ‘regens in decretis.’ He was elected bishop of Norwich towards the end of 1243, but Henry III withheld his assent till 9 July 1244, hoping to prevent the translation of the former Bishop William de Raleigh [q. v.] He was confirmed by Boniface, the elect of Canterbury, at St. Albans the same year, and consecrated at Norwich by Fulk Basset, bishop of London on 19 Feb. 1245 (Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. p. 41; Matt. Paris, iv. 261, 378; Ann. Mon. ii. 336, i. 166). Soon afterwards he went to the Roman curia at Lyons, returning about March 1246 (Matt. Paris, iv. 555). Suffeld preached the sermon at Westminster on 13 Oct. 1247, when the vase containing the holy blood was brought thither by the king. He attended the parliament at London in February 1248, and in the following October went to the papal court, whence about a year later he returned with ‘a shameful privilege for extorting money in his bishopric’ (ib. iv. 642, v. 5, 36, 80). He was one of the bishops who attended the meeting at Dunstable on 24 Feb. 1251 to protest against the archbishop's right of visitation. Suffeld attended the parliament at London in April 1253, when the king promised to observe the charters. At the end of the year he was appointed by the pope to collect the tenth of ecclesiastical property which had been granted to the king. He was busy with this during all the subsequent year, and the new valuation of ecclesiastical property which was made under his direction was known as the ‘Norwich taxation,’ and became the basis of nearly all later clerical assessments (ib. v. 451, vi. 296; Ann. Mon. i. 326, 363–4, iii. 191).
Suffeld died at Colchester on 19 May 1257, and was buried in Norwich Cathedral. Miracles are said to have been worked at his tomb, for in a time of famine he had given all his plate and treasure for the use of the poor (Matt. Paris, v. 638). He founded the hospital of St. Mary and St. Giles at Norwich for poor priests and scholars (Cal. Papal Registers, i. 312), and built the lady-chapel of the cathedral. A synodal constitution and some statutes of his are printed in Wilkins's ‘Concilia,’ i. 708, 731. A document, ‘De potestate archiepiscopi Cantuariensis in prioriatu Cantuariensi,’ which was drawn up by Suffeld, is printed in Wharton's ‘Anglia Sacra,’ i. 174–5. There are two of his letters in the additamenta to Matthew Paris's ‘Chronica Majora,’ vi. 231–2. The substance of his will is given at length by Blomefield in his ‘History of Norfolk.’ His bequests included one to the scholars of Oxford. William de Calthorp, his nephew, was his heir.
[Matthew Paris's Ann. Monast. and Flores Historiarum, Cotton De Episcopis Norwicensibus (all three in Rolls Ser.); Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, iii. 486–92; Wharton's Anglia Sacra; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 700.]
