ABSTRACT
Henry Fothergill Chorley managed to praise Arthur Sullivan and himself without quite violating the code of ethics which prevented him for reviewing or puffing his own works: Mr. Sullivan’s music contains four numbers, out of the nine, with which the rhymester has nothing to do. At the beginning of the 1860s there were a number of people whom Chorley counted as friends, notwithstanding his complaints about being alone and friendless. Before Chorley coasted into retirement, there were performers and composers whose careers he hoped to assist or to damage. When Alceste was performed in Paris in October 1861, Chorley was again excited by Pauline Viardot’s performance and by Christoph Willibald Gluck’s music. Chorley’s support for the music of Gounod and Sullivan continued up to and beyond his retirement from the Athenæum. In the summer of 1867, Chorley’s brother, John Rutter Chorley, died. With his remaining brother, William Brownsword Chorley, he seems to have had relatively little contact.
