In 1863 Pauline Lucca was first seen, but she did not make her name until 1865, when she returned to play Selika in ‘L'Africaine.’ Gye failed entirely to appreciate Gounod's ‘Faust,’ declining over and over again to mount it until obliged to do so by its great success at Her Majesty's in 1863. An attempt was made in 1865 to amalgamate Her Majesty's and Covent Garden into the Royal Italian Opera Company, Limited, when Gye was to have had 270,000l. for his interest in the latter house, but the project came to nothing. In 1869, however, the two establishments were joined under the management of Gye, and a season commencing on 30 March left a profit of 22,000l. Mapleson, the lessee of Her Majesty's, and Gye dissolved their partnership in the autumn of 1870, when there is said to have been a mortgage of 150,000l on Covent Garden. Gye had much litigation between 1861 and 1872 with Brownlow William Knox, his partner in the Italian opera, who filed a bill in chancery against him (20 March 1861) for a dissolution of partnership and a production of accounts. The action was finally settled in Gye's favour by a judgment of the House of Lords on 8 July 1872 (Law Reports, 5 House of Lords, 656–688, 1872). In 1871 the Royal Italian Opera entered upon a period of prosperity, which lasted until Gye's death. During this time the profits were upwards of 15,000l. a year, despite increasing salaries of artists and other heavy expenses. Mdlle. Emma Albani, afterwards Mrs. Ernest Gye, made her début in 1872, and in the following year fully established her position on the stage. In 1874 eighty-one performances of thirty-one operas by thirteen composers were given. In 1875 Gye, finding that there was a growing taste for Wagner's music, produced ‘Lohengrin,’ and in 1876 ‘Tannhäuser’ and ‘Il Vascello Fantasma’ (‘Der fliegende Holländer’). During his last season (1878) the novelties were Flotow's ‘Alma’ and Massé's ‘Paul et Virginie.’ On 27 Nov. 1878 Gye was shot accidentally while a guest at Dytchley Park, Viscount Dillon's seat in Oxfordshire. He died from the effects of the wound on 4 Dec. 1878, and was buried at Norwood cemetery on 9 Dec. On the whole his management of the largest establishment of its kind in Europe was honourable to himself and advantageous to his many patrons, and, although his knowledge of music was very limited, his business abilities were great. He was probably by far the most successful lessee of any of the operatic establishments which have existed in England. On 5 Nov. 1878 he patented a new electric light, with which he proposed to illuminate the opera house. By his will he left the whole of his property, comprising Covent Garden Theatre and the Floral Hall, to his children, the management devolving on Mr. Ernest Gye and one of his brothers. Gye married Miss Hughes, by whom he had a numerous family.
[Gruneisen's The Opera and the Press, 1869; Era Almanac, 1871, pp. 16–21, by C. L. Gruneisen; Era, 8 Dec. 1878, p. 7; Times, 6 Dec. 1878, p. 11; Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 24 June 1876, pp. 297, 302, with portrait, and 7 Dec. 1878, pp. 271, 273, with portrait; London Figaro, Supplement, 15 April 1882, pp. 1–8; The Mapleson Memoirs (1888), i. 8, &c., ii. 285.]
GYLBY, GODDRED (fl. 1561), translator. [See under Gilby, Anthony, d. 1585.]
GYLES or GILES, HENRY (1640?–1709), glass painter, born about 1640, was fifth child of E[dmund?] Gyles, and resided in Micklegate, York. To him is due the revival of the art of pictorial glass painting, which had become quite extinct in England. His earliest dated window is the large west window of the Guildhall at York, painted in 1682. His best known work is the east window in the chapel of University College, Oxford, presented by Dr. Radcliffe in 1687. Gyles also presented some stained glass for the hall of the same college. He executed works for Wadham College, Oxford, and also for Trinity College and St. Catharine Hall at Cambridge. In 1700 he painted a large window for Lord Fairfax at Denton, Yorkshire. There were some figures painted by Gyles in the grammar school at Leeds, but these were disposed of in 1784 to a local antiquary. Gyles was a friend and correspondent of Ralph Thoresby [q. v.], the antiquary, whose diary and correspondence contain frequent allusions to him. His declining years were marred by ill-health, discontent, and domestic dissensions. In October 1709 he died at his house in York, and was buried in the church of St. Martin-cum-Gregory. Gyles was not particularly successful in colour or design, and little of his work can now be appreciated, owing to the perishable enamels which he employed. Francis Place [q. v.],Gyles's friend and fellow-citizen, engraved his portrait in mezzotint (copied by W. Richardson, and again for Walpole's 'Anecdotes of Painting'), and there is an interesting crayon drawing of him by his own hand in the print room at the British Museum.
[Robert Davies's Walks through the City of York; Thoresby's Diary and Correspondence; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford, ed. Gutch; Walpole's Anecd. of Painting; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Granger's Biog. Hist.; Winston's Hints on Glass Painting.]
