by it. He was always a devoted and an industrious musician, and from the day he left Leipzig his influence was powerfully exerted in favour of a wider and fuller recognition of musical culture. He was accused in some quarters of being unsympathetic towards Wagner and the post-Wagnerians, yet he had been one of the first to introduce Wagner’s music to English audiences. He was keenly appreciative of new talent, but his tastes were too eclectic to satisfy the enthusiasts for any particular school; he certainly had no liking for what he considered uninspired academic writing. Serious critics deplored, with more justification, that he should have devoted so much of his great natural gift not merely to light comic opera, but to the production of a number of songs which, though always musicianly, were really of the nature of “pot-boiling.” Sullivan was an extremely rapid worker, and his fertility in melody made it easy for him to produce what would please a large public. Moreover, it must be admitted that his great social success, so early achieved, was not calculated to nourish a rigidly artistic ideal. But when all is said, his genius remains undisputed; and it was a genius essentially English. His church music alone would entitle him to a high place among composers; and The Golden Legend, Ivanhoe; the In Memoriam overture, the “Irish” symphony and the charming “incidental music” to The Tempest and to Henry VIII. form a splendid legacy of creative effort, characterized by the highest scholarly qualities in addition to those beauties which appeal to every ear. Whether his memory will be chiefly associated with these works, or rather with the world-wide popularity of some of his songs and comic operas, time alone can tell. The Savoy operas did not aim at intellectual or emotional grandeur, but at providing innocent and wholesome pleasure; and in giving musical form to Gilbert’s witty librettos Sullivan showed once for all what light opera may be when treated by the hand of a master. His scores are as humorous and fanciful quâ music as Gilbert’s verses are quâ dramatic literature. Bubbling melody, consummate orchestration, lovely song’s and concerted pieces (notably the famous vocal quintets) flowed from his pen in unexhausted and inimitable profusion. If he had written nothing else, his unique success in this field would have been a solid title to fame. As it was, it is Sir Arthur Sullivan’s special distinction not only to have been prolific in music which went straight to the hearts of the people, but to have enriched the English repertoire with acknowledged masterpieces, which are no less remarkable for their technical accomplishment.
See also Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life-story, Letters, and Reminiscences, by Arthur Lawrence (London: Bowden, 1899). Besides being largely autobiographical, this volume contains a complete list of Sullivan’s works, compiled by Mr Wilfrid Bendall, who for many years acted as Sir Arthur’s private secretary. (H. Ch.)
SULLIVAN, JOHN (1740–1795), American soldier and political leader, was born in Somersworth, New Hampshire, on the 18th of February 1740. He studied law in Portsmouth, N.H., and practised at Berwick, Maine, and at Durham, N.H. He was a member of the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly in 1774, and in 1774–1775 was a delegate to the Continental Congress. In 1772 he had been commissioned a major of New Hampshire militia, and on the 15th of December 1774 he and John Langdon led an expedition which captured Fort William and Mary at New Castle. Sullivan was appointed a brigadier-general in the Continental army in June 1775 and. a major-general in August 1776. He commanded a brigade in the siege of Boston. In June 1776 he took command of the American army in Canada and after an unsuccessful skirmish with the British at Three Rivers (June 8) retreated to Crown Point. Rejoining Washington’s army, he served under General Israel Putnam in the battle of Long Island (August 27) and was taken prisoner. Released on parole, he bore a verbal message from Lord Howe to the Continental Congress, which led to the fruitless conference on Staten Island. In December he was exchanged, succeeded General Charles Lee in command of the right wing of Washington’s army, in the battle of Trenton led an attack on the Hessians, and led a night attack against British and Loyalists on Staten Island, on the 22nd of August 1777. In the battle of
Brandywine (Sept. 11, 1777) he again commanded the American right; he took part in the battle of Germantown (Oct. 4, 1777); in March 1778 he was placed in command in Rhode Island, and in the following summer plans were made for his co-operation with the French fleet under Count d’Estaing in an attack on Newport, which came to nothing. Sullivan after a brief engagement (Aug. 29) at Quaker Hill, at the N. end of the island of Rhode Island, was obliged to retreat. In 1779 Sullivan, with about 4000 men, defeated the Iroquois and their Loyalist allies at Newtown (now Elmira), New York, on the 29th of August, burned their villages, and destroyed their orchards and crops. Although severely criticised for his conduct of the expedition, he received, in October 1779, the thanks of Congress. In November he resigned from the army. Sullivan was again a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1780–1781 and, having accepted a loan from the French minister, Chevalier de la Luzerne, he was charged with being influenced by the French in voting not to make the right to the north-east fisheries a condition of peace. From 1782 to 1785 he was attorney-general of New Hampshire. He was president of the state in 1786–1787 and in 1789, and in 1786 suppressed an insurrection at Exeter immediately preceding the Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts. He presided over the New Hampshire convention which ratified the Federal constitution in June 1788. From 1789 until his death at Durham, on the 23rd of January 1795, he was United States District Judge for New Hampshire.
See O. W. B. Peabody, "Life of John Sullivan" in Jared Sparks’s Library of American Biography, vol. iii. (Boston, 1844); T. C. Amory, General John Sullivan, A Vindication of his Character as a Soldier and a Patriot (Morrisania, N.Y., 1867); John Scales, "Master John Sullivan of Somersworth and Berwick and his Family," in the Proceedings of the New Hampshire Historical Society, vol. iv. (Concord, 1906); and Journals of the Military Expedition of Major-General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians (Auburn, N. Y., 1887).
SULLIVAN, THOMAS BARRY (1824–1891), Irish actor, was born at Birmingham, and made his first stage appearance at Cork about 1840. His earliest successes were in romantic drama, for which his graceful figure and youthful enthusiasm fitted him. His first London appearance was in 1852 in Hamlet, and he was also successful as Angiolo in Miss Vandenhoff’s Woman’s Heart, Evelyn in Money and Hardman in Lord Lytton’s Not so Bad as we Seem. Claude Melnotte—with Helen Faucit as Pauline—was also a notable performance. A tour of America in 1857 preceded his going to Australia (1861) for six years, as actor and manager. He completed a trip round the world in 1866. From 1868–1870 he managed the Holbom theatre, where Beverley in The Gamester was one of his most powerful impersonations. Afterwards he travelled over the United States, Canada, Australia and England. Among his later London performances were several Shakespearian parts, his best, perhaps, being Richard III. He was the Benedick of the cast of Much Ado About Nothing with which the Shakespeare Memorial was opened at Stratford-on-Avon. He died on the 3rd of May 1891.
SULLY, JAMES (1842–), English psychologist, was born on the 3rd of March 1842 at Bridgwater, and was educated at the Independent College, Taunton, the Regent’s Park College, Göttingen and Berlin. He was originally destined for the Nonconformist ministry, but in 1871 adopted a literary and philosophic career. He was Grote professor of the philosophy of mind logic at University College, London, from 1892 to 1903, when he was succeeded by Carveth Read. An adherent of the associationist school of psychology, his views had great affinity with those of Alexander Bain. His monographs, as that on pessimism, are ably and readably written, and his textbooks, of which The Human Mind (1892) is the most important, are models of sound exposition.
Works.—Sensation and Intuition (1874), Pessimism (1877), Illusions (1881; 4th ed., 1895), Outlines of Psychology (1884; many editions), Teacher’s Handbook of Psychology (1886), Studies of Childhood (1895), Children’s Ways (1897), and An Essay on Laughter (1902).
