Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/138

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
SAC
878
SAD

"Montezuma," which was eminently successful. This was followed by "Perseo," "Tamerlano," "The Cid," &c., all contributing to augment his fame. The cabals, however, of the King's theatre after a time proved equally injurious to his professional character and fortune; and hastily quitting London in 1781 he went to Paris, where he brought out two operas with no marked success. But collecting all his force he produced his "Œdipe," his masterpiece, which so firmly established his reputation in France, that his name is even now never mentioned in that country but with the utmost reverence. He died at Paris in 1786.—E. F. R.

SACHEVERELL, Henry, D.D., a notorious political parson, was born about 1672. His grandfather was a presybterian minister at Wincanton, and was silenced and imprisoned at the Restoration. His father was incumbent of St. Peter's church, Marlborough, and left a widow with a numerous family in very poor circumstances. Henry was educated by the widow of his godfather, an apothecary in Marlborough, who sent him to Magdalen college, Oxford, where he was chamber-fellow with Addison, who long continued his intimate friend. Sacheverell became a fellow of Magdalen, and a successful college tutor; and he wrote a number of Latin poems, some of which appeared in Musæ Anglicanæ. He took his degree of A.M. in 1696, of B.D. in 1707, and of D.D. in 1708. His first preferment was the living of Cannock in Staffordshire; and in 1705 he was appointed preacher of St. Saviour's, Southwark. Sacheverell owed his reputation, however, neither to his talents and learning nor to his virtues, but to his foolish and violent attack on the principles of the Revolution and the act of toleration, in two sermons, the first of which was preached at the assizes at Derby, 15th August, 1709, and the second before the lord mayor at St. Paul's, on the 5th November of the same year. The high and low church parties were very violent in their contentions at that time; and Godolphin the prime minister, exasperated by a nickname which was applied to him in one of these foolish discourses, insisted that the preacher should be impeached. In spite of the urgent advice of the sagacious Somers and other members of the government, Sacheverell was denounced by the house of commons as guilty of a "malicious, scandalous, and seditious libel," was tried before the house of lords, and found guilty. His sermons were ordered to be burned by the common hangman, and he was suspended from preaching for three years. But it was wittily said, the men who wished to roast a parson burned their own fingers in the flame. The clergy, the country gentlemen, and the mob united in espousing the cause of this foolish and factious divine; and so powerful was the display of church and tory feeling, that it emboldened the queen to turn out the ministry, and to dissolve the parliament. The elections went strongly against the late government; the policy of the country underwent an entire change; and the notorious peace of Utrecht was in consequence concluded by Harley and St. John. The new house of commons appointed Sacheverell to preach before them on the anniversary of the Restoration, and the queen presented him to the valuable rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn. He had besides, a good estate at Callow, Derbyshire, left him by a kinsman. Sacheverell was a weak, vain, and selfish man, and rendered himself notorious by his quarrels and lawsuits with his parishioners. He also concurred in one of the plots for the restoration of the Stewarts. He died in 1724.—J. T.

SACHS, Hans, the greatest and most prolific German poet of the sixteenth century, was born at Nuremberg, 5th November, 1494. Sprung from the lower ranks of life he grew up without a regular education, and was bred to the trade of shoemaking. At the same time he frequented the schools of the meister-singers, and during his travels took great pains to improve not only his professional, but also his poetic skill and literary accomplishments. After his return he settled at Nuremberg, where he enjoyed the universal respect of his fellow-citizens till his death, on the 25th of January, 1576. "The meister-singers," says Hallam, "were sufficiently prosaic in their original constitution; they neither produced, nor perhaps would have suffered to exhibit itself, any real excellence in poetry. But they became in the sixteenth century still more rigorous in their requisitions of a mechanical conformity to rule; while at the same time they prescribed a new code of law to the versifier, that of theological orthodoxy. Yet one man, of more brilliant fancy and powerful feeling than the rest, Hans Sachs, the shoemaker of Nuremberg, stands out from the crowd of these artisans. Most conspicuous as a dramatic writer, his copious muse was silent in no line of verse." The meister-singers, and Hans Sachs among them, were indeed artisans in poetry as well as in life. With respect, however, to theological orthodoxy, it is, on the contrary, one of H. Sachs' greatest merits to have declared himself in favour of the Reformation. In one of his finest allegories he hailed Luther as the "Wittemberg Nightingale," and at short intervals he sent abroad numbers of similar protestant songs and poems printed as broadsides, about two hundred of which are known. The "Schwänke," the best known and most popular of his poems, are not, as Hallam characterizes them, short comedies in one act, but rather comic and satirical tales. When on 1st January, 1567, Hans Sachs made an inventory of what he had written during the long period of fifty-two years, he himself numbered upwards of six thousand two hundred different pieces—viz., four thousand two hundred and seventy-five songs written according to the rules of the meister-gesang, two hundred and eight comedies and tragedies, about seventeen hundred schwänke, dialogues, fables, &c., and seventy-three psalms and hymns. Only part of this enormous collection has been printed, and even what was printed gradually sunk into oblivion, till Göthe brought the poet and his works again into notice. Göthe may have overrated his merit, but it cannot be denied that the artisan-poet has many claims to the respect and gratitude of posterity.—(See Life, by Ranisch, Altenburg, 1765; and by F. L. Hoffmann, Nuremberg, 1847.)—K. E.

SACHTLEVEN, SAFTLEVEN, or ZACHTLEVEN, Cornelis, a celebrated Dutch painter, was born at Rotterdam in 1612. He painted Dutch boors, drinking-pieces, &c., in the manner of the Ostades and Teniers; but though a very skilful painter he wanted the originality, the lightness of handling, and the clear bright colour of those masters. He was fond of painting poultry, which he represented with much cleverness. There are a few good etchings by him. The year of his death is unknown; he was alive in 1682.—J. T—e.

SACHTLEVEN, Herman, elder brother of the preceding, was born at Rotterdam in 1609, and was a scholar of J. van Goyen. Herman Sachtleven was an excellent landscape painter. His pictures are frequently river scenes, views on the Rhine and the Meuse, with boats filled with passengers, which, as well as the landscapes, are painted with great spirit and delicacy. He drew well and with taste, and was a pleasing colourist, but has something of mannerism. He made many drawings and sketches from nature in black chalk, which are much prized. He also executed thirty-six etchings of mountain scenes and landscapes with cattle, in which perhaps his artistic feeling is best displayed. He resided at Utrecht, and died there in 1685.—J. T—e.

SACKVILLE, George, Lord, third son of the first duke of Dorset, was born June 26, 1716; was educated at Westminster school, and at Trinity college, Dublin; entered the army in 1737, and served at Dettingen, at Fontenoy (where he was wounded), and at Culloden. In 1759 he was present with the forces at the battle of Minden, serving in the capacity of lieutenant-general under Prince Ferdinand, whose orders on that occasion he was subsequently accused of disobeying. To clear his reputation from this charge he demanded a court-martial, by whom he was found guilty and ordered to be dismissed from the army. George II. is said to have personally commanded his name to be erased from the list of privy councillors. After the accession of George III., however, Sackville rose again to eminence, was appointed one of the vice-treasurers of Ireland in 1765, and as secretary of state for the colonies under Lord North, conducted the American war. In 1770 he took the name of Germain, in consequence of having had bequeathed him certain property; in 1782 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Sackville; and he died in 1785. The authorship of the letters of Junius has been ascribed to him.—F.

SACKVILLE. See Dorset.

SACROBOSCO. See Holywood.

SACY, Baron de. See De Sacy.

SADEE or SADI. See Saadi.

SADEEL, Antoine de la Roche, a famous reformed preacher, was born in 1534 at Chabot, a chateau in the Maçonnais belonging to the family by his mother's side. He began his academic career at Paris, and studied law at Toulouse, but at a very early period in his life he was converted to the reformed doctrines, and by his twentieth year he was chosen to be a preacher of them. On this account he suffered persecution,