Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/217

 Mozart's ‘Don Giovanni’ in February 1833. On 13 Aug. 1838 he created the part of the baron in G. A. Macfarren's ‘Devil's Opera’ at the English Opera House. Immediately afterwards he quitted England for America, where he first appeared as the Count in Rooke's ‘Amelie’ on 15 Oct. at the Old National Theatre, New York. In America he founded an operatic company, ‘The Seguin Troup,’ which met with success in the United States and Canada. Seguin is said to have been elected a chief by an Indian tribe, an honour he shared with Edmund Kean. He died in New York on 9 Dec. 1852. His was described as ‘one of the finest bass voices ever heard’ (Athenæum, 1853, p. 115), and he was an excellent comedian.

His wife, (1814–1888), born in 1814, whom he married about 1831, was his fellow-pupil, and subsequently a sub-professor at the Royal Academy of Music. Her services as a concert-singer were in considerable demand. She appeared at the King's Theatre, London, in 1836, under Laporte's management. On her husband's death she retired from the stage and devoted herself to teaching music in New York, where she died in August 1888.

[Authorities quoted in the text; Harmonicon, passim; Musical World, 1853, p. 38; Brown's American Stage; Banister's Life of G. A. Macfarren, p. 47.]

 SEIRIOL (fl. 530), Welsh saint, was son of Owain Danwyn ab Einion Yrth ap Cunedda Wledig, according to the Hafod MS. of ‘Bonedd y Saint’ (Myvyrian Archaiology, 2nd edit. p. 415) and later authorities (Myv. Arch. p. 429; Iolo MSS. pp. 113, 125). He was therefore a cousin and contemporary of Maelgwn Gwynedd [q. v.], and probably brother to the ‘Cuneglase’ (Cynlas) of Gildas. Becoming a monk, he founded the monastery of Penmon, Anglesey, which, with the offshoot on Priestholm or Puffin Island (known in Welsh as ‘Seiriol's Isle’), continued to exist in one form or another to the Reformation. The parish church of Penmon is dedicated to Seiriol, whose festival, according to the ‘History of Anglesey’ (1775), is 1 Feb. Tradition says that Seiriol and Cybi, who founded the monastery at Holyhead, used daily to meet near two springs (still bearing their names) at Clorach, near Llanerch y Medd, and that the difference in the position of the two travellers in relation to the sun caused a difference in their respective complexions, which was commemorated by the names ‘Seiriol Wyn’ (White) and ‘Cybi Felyn’ (Tawny) (, Beaumaris Bay, 1800). Matthew Arnold has embodied this tradition, though not quite correctly, in the sonnet beginning ‘In the bare midst of Anglesey they show.’

[Rees's Welsh Saints; authorities cited.]  SELBORNE,. [See, 1812–1895.]

SELBY, CHARLES (1802?–1863), actor and dramatist, born about 1802, was, in 1832, a member of the company at the Strand. Two years later he produced at the Adelphi a farce entitled ‘The Unfinished Gentleman.’ The idea contained in this he worked out in a series of papers which appeared in the ‘Sunday Times’ newspaper, and were, with illustrations by Onwhyn, reprinted in 1841 (London, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1859) under the title of ‘Maximums and Speciments of William Muggins, Natural Philosopher and Man of the World.’ From the quasi-autobiographical revelations in this work (which is for the most part a dull and unskilful imitation of the earlier style of Charles Dickens) it may perhaps be gathered that Selby was self-educated, and that in the course of a vagabond life he had visited Barbados, and had some nautical experience. In 1841–2 he was, with his wife, under Macready at Drury Lane. In 1842 he gave to the Strand a drama founded afresh on his sketches in the ‘Sunday Times,’ and in June supplied the same theatre with his very successful farce, ‘Boots at the Swan.’ During thirty years he remained before the public as actor and dramatist, in the former capacity playing principally character parts, in the latter supplying a long series of plays chiefly adapted from the French. On 17 April 1843 he was, at Drury Lane, the Emperor Matapa in Planché's ‘Fortunio and his Seven Gifted Servants.’ In January 1844 his ‘Dissolving Views’ was received with much favour at the Strand. In July of the same year three farces from his pen were running at the same house, whereat in September his ‘Antony and Cleopatra,’ a farce, was given. In June 1845 he gave, at the Adelphi, ‘Powder and Ball,’ a terpsichorean burletta. At this house he played the French Minister in a two-act play of Dion Boucicault, entitled ‘Peg Woffington,’ and in October he acted in his own adaptation of ‘Le Diable à Quatre.’ In August 1846 a new farce of Selby's was given at the Queen's, where Mrs. Selby was playing Mrs. Candour, and an adaptation of ‘Le Pas des Déesses’ at the Adelphi, at which house ‘Phantom Dancers’ followed in November. On 4 Feb. 1847, at the Haymarket, he was the original Lord Fipley in Boucicault's