Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/467

  meddling with the affairs of state. Parsons now in vain denounced Cecil to the pope as a swindler, a forger, a spy, the friend of heretics, and the betrayer of his brethren; for as the Jesuit had made similar or more incredible accusations against all his other opponents, the charges were disbelieved or disregarded by the papal court. Cecil had several favourable audiences of the pope, and his ability and tact gained for him great credit with the clerical party, to whose cause he had attached himself. It is probably to his pen that we owe the 'Brevis Relatio,' or formal account of the proceedings in the case at Rome (printed in Archpriest Controversy, ii. 45–151). In 1606 he was chosen, together with Dr. Champney, to present to the pope the petition of a number of English priests for episcopal government. The indignant Parsons again denounced his adversary, and desired that he might be seized and put upon his trial (, Dodd, v. 10, 11, xiv–xx), but Dr. Cecil remained unharmed in fortune or character. He for some time held the appointment of chaplain and almoner to Margaret of Valois, the divorced wife of Henry IV, and settled down to a quiet life. There are even indications that he became friendly with the Jesuits. He handed over, indeed, copies of certain letters touching Garnet to the English ambassador; but Carew, forwarding them to Salisbury, 2 Feb. 1607, wrote that 'he [Cecil] is of late so great with Père Cotton that I dare not warrant this for clear water' (R. O. French correspondence). He died at Paris, according to Dr. John Southcote's Note Book (MS. penes the Bishop of Southwark), on 21 Dec. 1626.

 CELLIER, ALFRED (1844–1891), composer and conductor, son of Arsène Cellier, French master of Hackney grammar school, was born at Hackney, London, on 1 Dec. 1844. He was educated at the grammar school there, and at the age of eleven he became one of the children of the Chapel Royal, St. James's, where he had as a fellow chorister Sir Arthur Sullivan [q. v. Suppl.] Cellier held the following organ appointments: 1862, All Saints', Blackheath; 1866, Ulster Hall, Belfast (in succession to Dr. E. T. Chipp), and conductor of the Belfast Philharmonic Society; 1868, St. Alban's, Holborn. He soon, however, exchanged the organist's career for that of a composer and conductor. He was the first musical director of the Court Theatre (January 1871); from 1871 to 1875 director of the orchestra at the Opera Comique, Manchester; from 1877 to 1879 at the Opera Comique, London; in 1878–9 he was joint conductor, with Sir Arthur Sullivan, of the promenade concerts, Covent Garden, and he also held similar appointments at various theatres. He subsequently, owing to considerations of health, resided abroad, especially in America and Australia, Cellier's chief claim to fame rests upon his comic operas. The most successful of these was 'Dorothy,' which had an extraordinary popularity when produced at the Gaiety Theatre on 25 Sept. 1886, and a run of upwards of nine hundred nights. The opera was a fresh arrangement of his 'Nell Gwynne' music, produced ten years before, but with a new libretto. The song 'Queen of my Heart,' one of the most popular numbers in the opera, was a forgotten ballad composed by him several years before, and which had long been reposing on the shelves of a London music publisher. Cellier's other comic operas were: 'Charity begins at Home' (Gallery of Illustration, 1870); 'The Sultan of Mocha,' Prince's Theatre, Manchester, 16 Nov. 1874 (revived at Strand Theatre, London, with new libretto, 21 Sept. 1887); 'The Tower of London' (Manchester, 4 Oct. 1875); 'Nell Gwynne' (Manchester, 16 Oct. 1876); 'The Foster Brothers' (St. George's Hall, London, 1876); 'Dora's Dream' (17 Nov. 1877); 'The Spectre Knight' (9 Feb. 1878); 'Bella Donna, or the Little Beauty and the Great Beast' (Manchester, April 1878); 'After All' (London, 16 Dec. 1879); 'In the Sulks' (21 Feb. 1880); 'The Carp' (Savoy Theatre, 13 Feb, 1886); 'Mrs. Jarramie's Genie' (Savoy. 14 Feb. 1888); 'Doris' (Lyric Theatre, April 1889); and 'The Mountebanks,' libretto by W. S. Gilbert (Lyric Theatre, 4 Jan. 1892).

Gifted with a vein of melody, Cellier judged his genius to be best adapted to the production of comic opera, but his muse was often hampered by weak libretti. He was less successful in more serious work. His grand opera in three acts, 'Pandora' (to Longfellow's words), was produced in Boston, U.S.A., in 1881, but it has never been performed in England. He set Gray's 'Elegy' as a cantata for the Leeds musical festival