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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Edward J. Dent
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Handel
+
+Author: Edward J. Dent
+
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9089]
+This file was first posted on September 4, 2003
+Last Updated: May 8, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANDEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stan Goodman, and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HANDEL
+
+By Edward J. Dent
+
+
+
+{Illustration: G. F. HANDEL _from a woodcut by Eric King_}
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+_Chapter_ I
+
+Birth and parentage--studies under Zachow at Halle--Hamburg--friendship and
+duel with Mattheson--_Almira_--departure for Italy.
+
+_Chapter_ II
+
+Arrival in Italy--_Rodrigo_--Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and the
+Scarlattis--Naples: Venice: _Agrippina_--appointment at Hanover--London:
+_Rinaldo_.
+
+_Chapter_ III
+
+Second visit to London--Italian opera--George I and the _Water
+Music_--visit to Germany--Canons and the Duke of Chandos--establishment of
+the Royal Academy of Music.
+
+_Chapter_ IV
+
+Buononcini--Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino--death of George I--_The
+Beggar's Opera_--collapse of the Academy.
+
+_Chapter_ V
+
+Handel naturalized--partnership with Heidegger--_Esther_--the Opera of
+the Nobility--visit to Oxford--opera season at Covent Garden--Charles
+Jennens--collapse of both opera-houses.
+
+_Chapter_ VI
+
+Bankruptcy and paralysis--visit to Aix-la-Chapelle--the last
+operas--Vauxhall Gardens--Handel's "borrowings"--visit to
+Ireland--_Messiah_ and other oratorios.
+
+_Chapter_ VII
+
+_Judas Maccabaeus_--Gluck--Thomas Morell--incipient blindness--Telemann and
+his garden--last oratorios--death--character and personality.
+
+_Bibliography and List of Works_
+
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY
+
+  1685.... Birth at Halle.
+  1702.... Entered University; organist of the Cathedral.
+  1703.... Went to Hamburg.
+  1705.... First opera: _Almira_ (Hamburg).
+  1707.... Arrival in Italy.
+  1710.... Appointment at Hanover; first visit to London.
+  1711.... First London opera: _Rinaldo_.
+  1712.... Second visit to London.
+  1717.... Appointment to the Duke of Chandos.
+  1720.... Opening of Royal Academy of Music (Opera).
+  1726.... Naturalized as a British subject.
+  1728.... _The Beggar's Opera_. Collapse of the Academy.
+  1732.... First public oratorio: _Esther_.
+  1733.... Festival at Oxford.
+  1737.... Collapse of Opera; Handel bankrupt and paralysed.
+  1741.... Last opera: _Deidamia_.
+  1742.... _Messiah_ at Dublin.
+  1751.... First signs of blindness. Last oratorio _Jeptha_.
+  1759.... Death in London.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Birth and parentage--studies under Zachow at Halle--Hamburg--friendship and
+duel with Mattheson--Almira--departure for Italy.
+
+
+The name of Handel suggests to most people the sound of music unsurpassed
+in massiveness and dignity, and the familiar portraits of the composer
+present us with a man whose external appearance was no less massive and
+dignified than his music. Countless anecdotes point him out to us as a
+well-known figure in the life of London during the reigns of Queen Anne
+and the first two Georges. He lies buried in Westminster Abbey. One would
+expect every detail of his life to be known and recorded, his every private
+thought to be revealed with the pellucid clarity of his immortal strains.
+It is not so; to assemble the bare facts of Handel's life is a problem
+which has baffled the most laborious of his biographers, and his inward
+personality is more mysterious than that of any other great musician of the
+last two centuries.
+
+The _Memoirs of the Life of the late George Frederic Handel_, written by
+the Rev. John Mainwaring in 1760, a year after his death, is the first
+example of a whole book devoted to the biography of a musician. The author
+had never known Handel himself; he obtained his material chiefly from
+Handel's secretary, John Christopher Smith the younger. Mainwaring is our
+only authority for the story of Handel's early life. Many of his statements
+have been proved to be untrue, but there is undoubtedly a foundation of
+truth beneath most of them, however misleading either Smith's memory or
+Mainwaring's imagination may have been. The rest of our knowledge has to
+be built up from scattered documents of various kinds, helped out by the
+reminiscences of Dr. Burney and Sir John Hawkins. For the inner life of
+Mozart and Beethoven we can turn to copious letters and other personal
+writings; Handel's extant letters do not amount to more than about twenty
+in all, and it is only rarely that they throw much light on the workings of
+his mind.
+
+The family of Handel belonged originally to Breslau. The name is found
+in various forms; it seems originally to have been _Händeler_ signifying
+trader, but by the time the composer was born the spelling _Händel_ had
+been adopted. This is the correct German form of his name; in Italy he
+wrote his name _Hendel_, in order to ensure its proper pronunciation, and
+in England he was known, for the same reason, as Handel. The Handels of
+Breslau had for several generations been coppersmiths. Valentine Handel,
+the composer's grandfather, born in 1582, migrated to Halle, where two of
+his sons followed the same trade. His third son, George, born 1622, became
+a barber-surgeon. At the age of twenty he married the widow of the barber
+to whom he had been apprenticed; she was twelve years older than he was. In
+1682 she died, and George Handel, although sixty years of age, married a
+second wife within half a year. Her name was Dorothea Taust; her father,
+like most of his ancestors, was a clergyman. Her age was thirty-two. Her
+first child, born in 1684, died at birth; her second, born February 23,
+1685, was baptised the following day with the name of George Frederic.
+
+The town of Halle had originally belonged to the Dukes of Saxony, but after
+the Thirty Years' War it was assigned to the Elector of Brandenburg. George
+Frederic Handel was therefore born a Prussian. But Duke Augustus of Saxony
+was allowed to keep his court at the Moritzburg in Halle, and it was this
+prince who made George Handel his personal surgeon. After Duke Augustus's
+death in 1680, Halle was definitely transferred to Brandenburg, and the new
+Duke, Johann Adolf, took up his residence at Weissenfels, twenty-five miles
+to the south-west of Halle. At the time of George Frederic's birth, Halle
+had relapsed into being a quiet provincial town. The musical life of
+Germany in those days was chiefly centred in the numerous small courts,
+each of which did its best to imitate the magnificence of Louis XIV at
+Paris and Versailles. But the seventeenth century, although it produced
+very few musicians of outstanding greatness, was a century of restless
+musical activity throughout Europe, especially in the more private and
+domestic branches of the art. The Reformation had made music the vehicle of
+personal devotion, and the enormous output of a peculiarly intimate type of
+sacred music, both in Germany and in England, shows that there must have
+been a keen demand for it in Protestant home life.
+
+George Handel, the surgeon, seems to have hated music. There is no evidence
+that either his wife or her sister, who shared their home after her
+father's death in 1685, was musically gifted, but the mere fact of their
+being the daughters of a Lutheran pastor makes it probable that they had
+had some education in the art. We may safely guess that the composer
+inherited his musical talents from the Taust family. He showed his
+inclination for music at a very early age, with such insistence indeed
+that his father forbade him to touch any musical instrument. There is a
+well-known story of his contriving to smuggle a clavichord into a garret
+without his father's knowledge in order to practise on it while the rest of
+the family were asleep, but for this tale Mainwaring is our only authority.
+It is very probable that old Handel was irritated by the sound of his son's
+early efforts and regarded music as a waste of time; his wife may perhaps
+have encouraged the child's obvious abilities, taking care that he made
+music only in some part of the house where he would not disturb his father.
+
+At the age of seven he was sent to the Lutheran Grammar School, and he may
+very likely have had some instruction in singing while there. In any case
+there can be no doubt that he was taught more than the mere rudiments of
+music in childhood, however severe his father's opposition may have been.
+He was between seven and nine when his father took him to Weissenfels,
+where he was required to attend on the Duke. It is quite probable that the
+child may have been taken there several times, especially as a relative
+of his was in regular service in the Duke's establishment. One day he was
+allowed to play on the organ in the palace chapel; the Duke happened to
+hear him, made enquiries as to who the player was, and at once urged on the
+father the duty of having him properly trained for a musical career.
+
+Old Handel remained obstinate; he was determined that his son should have
+a liberal education and become a lawyer. By his own efforts he had raised
+himself to a position of some distinction and affluence; it was only
+natural that he should wish his son to enter on life with better advantages
+than he himself had enjoyed. He at any rate followed the advice of the Duke
+so far as to place the boy under the musical tuition of Friedrich Zachow,
+the organist of the Lutheran church at Halle.
+
+The next episode in George Frederic's career has considerably puzzled his
+biographers. Mainwaring asserts that in 1698 he went to Berlin, where he
+was presented to the Electress Sophia Charlotte and made the acquaintance
+of Ariosti and Giovanni Battista Buononcini, two famous Italian opera
+composers whom he was to encounter again, in London, many years later. But
+it is known that Ariosti did not arrive in Berlin until the spring of 1697,
+and Buononcini not until 1702. And as old Handel died in February 1697, his
+son cannot have been in Berlin later than about the end of 1696, if it is
+true (as Mainwaring says) that the Elector offered to send him to Italy, an
+offer which the father firmly refused to accept for him. If, on the other
+hand, Mainwaring is right in saying that young Handel went to Berlin with a
+view to obtaining a musical post there, it is hardly likely that he should
+have made the journey at ten years of age, and while his father was still
+living. It seems much more probable that if he ever did visit Berlin it was
+when he was of an age to form his own judgments as to his future career.
+
+Three days before his seventeenth birthday he matriculated as a law student
+of the University of Halle, but music must have been the chief occupation
+of his time. The composer Telemann, four years his senior, spoke of him
+as being already a musician of importance at Halle when he first met him
+there, probably in 1700. In March 1702 he was appointed organist at the
+Cathedral, although he belonged to the Lutheran Church, whereas the
+Cathedral was Calvinist; considerable scandal had been caused by the
+intemperance of the Cathedral organist, one Leporin, who was finally
+dismissed. That Handel should have been given the post at so early an age
+points to his ability and trustworthiness of character; it also suggests
+that efficient organists were rare among the Calvinist musicians.
+
+Mainwaring unjustly credited Zachow with Leporin's love of a cheerful
+glass, and other biographers have perhaps for this reason greatly
+underrated Zachow's musicianship. Zachow cannot indeed be classed as a
+great composer, but he was considerably more than merely a sound average
+teacher. For one thing, he possessed a large library of music. Handel was
+not only made to master the arts of counterpoint and fugue, but he was also
+set to study the works of other composers, and to train his sense of style
+by writing music in direct imitation of them. In those days there was
+no possibility of buying all sorts of music ready printed. Printing was
+expensive, and generally clumsy in execution as well; most music was copied
+by hand, and a musician who wished to acquire a library of music generally
+did so by borrowing it and copying it. Zachow employed Handel to copy music
+for him, and no doubt he copied a great deal for himself. Although the
+opportunities for hearing music would not be very liberal in a town like
+Halle, Handel, under Zachow, became a well-read musician as well as an
+accomplished one.
+
+During the seventeenth century the chief contribution of Germany to the
+art of music was religious, just as the German hymns were her chief
+contribution to poetry. In Italy, on the other hand, sacred music was of
+minor importance as compared with the development of opera. But in all
+music Italy led the way, and German sacred music was constantly influenced
+by the Italians, with the result that Italian dramatic methods were often
+used by German composers of sacred music, not with any loss of seriousness
+and dignity to its character, but rather to the intenser expression of that
+deep personal religious feeling which characterised both the poetry and the
+music of the Protestant nations.
+
+Zachow was well acquainted with the Italian masters, and his own Church
+music shows a vivid dramatic sense; it is easy to see how much Handel
+learned from him. But although Church cantatas and organ music may have
+sufficed for the majority of the innumerable worthy German musicians of
+those days, the form of music which excited the curiosity and interest of
+the livelier spirits was certainly opera. By 1700, opera had established
+itself all over Italy, supported mainly by the great princes, but at Venice
+maintained on a commercial basis by the citizens themselves since 1637. The
+first attempt at a German opera was made by Heinrich Schütz, at Torgau,
+ten years earlier. Vienna introduced Italian opera in 1631, and, generally
+speaking, the Catholic princes of Germany, who one after another followed
+the example of Vienna, preferred opera in Italian. Protestant Germany
+inclined more to opera in its own language, though towards the end of the
+century Italian gradually gained the upper hand at the more important
+courts. Native German opera owed its origin partly to the visit of the
+English comedians early in the century, and partly to the musical plays
+acted by school-boys; from the English "jigs" came the use of short popular
+songs, and from the school plays the tendency of the early German operas to
+be of a more or less sacred or edifying character.
+
+Handel's friend, the composer Telemann, tells us that it was not unusual
+for students from the University of Leipzig to go to Berlin to hear the
+Italian opera, which had been established by the Electress Sophia Charlotte
+in 1700, and this suggests that Handel's visit to Berlin may have
+taken place in 1703 rather than in his childhood. But he certainly had
+opportunities for seeing operas nearer home. There had been many German
+operas performed at Halle itself during the twenty years before Handel's
+birth, and Duke Johann Adolf opened an opera-house at Weissenfels in 1685,
+in which Philipp Krieger produced German operas regularly for the next
+thirty years. There was thus every reason for young Handel's growing
+ambitious to become a composer for the stage, although we have no evidence
+of his having ever attempted dramatic composition until he left Halle in
+1703.
+
+The most important of all the north German opera-houses was that of
+Hamburg, where the opera did not depend on the patronage of a court,
+but was organised, as at Venice, as a public entertainment. Hamburg had
+attempted German opera as early as 1648, and it is interesting to note that
+the English composer William Brade was one of those who provided the music;
+but the real history of the Hamburg opera may be said to begin with the
+performance of Theile's _Adam and Eve_ in the newly built theatre in the
+Goose-Market in 1678. When Handel arrived in Hamburg in the summer of 1703
+the biblical operas had long come to an end, and the theatre was under the
+management of Reinhold Keiser.
+
+Keiser was a musician of remarkable genius. His father was a disreputable
+organist, and his mother a young lady of noble family who had been hastily
+married at the age of sixteen. Born near Weissenfels in 1674, he had begun
+his operatic career at Brunswick at the age of eighteen; three years later
+he took over the direction of the opera at Hamburg, where he produced a
+large number of operas composed by himself. As a composer, Keiser had a
+singular fluency of melody in a style that hovers between those of Germany
+and Italy; had he been a man of more solid character he might have
+accomplished greater things. But he had inherited from his parents a love
+of pleasure and debauchery; extravagant in his private life, he was no less
+extravagant in his theatrical management, and was ready to provide his
+audiences with anything in the way of startling sensation. One of his most
+famous operas was on the subject of Störtebeker, a notorious highwayman
+(1704), in which murders were represented with the most disgusting realism.
+
+Hamburg was the Venice of the north and, like Venice, a city of pleasure;
+but its pleasures were often of a coarse and licentious description. Life
+in Hamburg was probably not much unlike that of Restoration London; but
+though Keiser may well be set beside Purcell, Hamburg had no dramatists to
+compare with Congreve, hardly even with Shadwell. Jeremy Collier, however,
+was far outdone in vituperation by the puritan clergy who, not altogether
+without reason, castigated the immorality of the Hamburg stage.
+
+Handel seems to have arrived in Hamburg in early summer of 1703, for we
+first hear of him there on July 2, when he met Johann Mattheson in the
+church of St. Mary Magdalen. It seems to have been a chance acquaintance,
+to judge from Mattheson's account; it stuck in Mattheson's memory for many
+years and he remembered especially the pastry-cook's boy who blew the organ
+for Handel and himself. Mattheson was four years older than Handel; he was
+one of those precociously gifted, versatile, attractive, and rather vain
+young men who are endowed with so many talents that they never achieve
+distinction in any branch of art. He is remembered now only by the literary
+work of his later life, in which he shows himself as a voluminous pedant
+and an embittered critic. He made friends with Handel on the spot, and took
+him under his own protection, providing him with almost daily free meals
+at his father's house. He evidently regarded him as a very simple and
+provincial young musician, a notable organist indeed, and a master of such
+learned devices as counterpoint and fugue, but a dull composer, turning out
+endless arias and cantatas with no sense of the fashionable Italian taste.
+
+It was Mattheson, by his own account, who introduced Handel to the musical
+life of Hamburg. The opera was closed for the summer, and Keiser's
+celebrated winter concerts, at which the wealthy society of Hamburg
+listened to the most famous singers and regaled themselves with tokay, had
+not yet begun; but there was no lack of social distractions, in which music
+no doubt played its part. In August the two friends made a journey to
+Lubeck, to compete for the post of organist at the Marienkirche in
+succession to Dietrich Buxtehude, who was nearly seventy and ready to
+retire. But both Buxtehude and the town council insisted that the new
+organist should marry his predecessor's daughter, in order to save the town
+the necessity of providing for her; she was considerably older than the
+two youthful candidates, and they both withdrew in haste. Late in life
+Mattheson married the daughter of an English clergyman; Handel remained a
+bachelor to the end of his days.
+
+It was no doubt through Mattheson that Handel, in the autumn, entered the
+opera band as a humble second violinist. He seems to have been of a very
+retiring and quiet disposition, although of a dry humour. Opera management
+at Hamburg was no less precarious than it was in London; Keiser could
+not afford the Italian singers patronised by the German princes, and his
+performances had often to be helped out by amateurs of all classes. On one
+occasion the harpsichord-player failed him; Handel took his place at
+short notice, and his musicianship was at once recognised. Unfortunately
+Mattheson, whose chronology is always rather uncertain, does not tell us
+when this occurred. In addition to his duties in the orchestra, Handel
+earned a living by teaching private pupils, and through Mattheson he was
+engaged by Mr. John Wyche, the English Envoy, as music-master to his small
+son Cyril.
+
+Early in 1704 Mattheson went to Holland, where he had some success in
+organising concerts at Amsterdam, and was offered the post of organist at
+Haarlem. He seems to have had some idea of seeking his fortune in England;
+he spoke English well, and may have had useful connexions in England
+through Mr. John Wyche. But in March Handel wrote to him that the Hamburg
+opera could not get on without him, and to Hamburg he returned. It soon
+must have become clear to him that Handel was rapidly outgrowing any need
+of his condescending patronage. A _Passion according to St. John_, the
+words of which had been written by Postel, an opera-poet turned pietist,
+had been set to music by Handel, and performed on Good Friday with marked
+success. Mattheson arrived too late to hear it, but it is significant that
+twenty years later he published a scathing criticism of it, although it is
+a work of little importance in relation to Handel's complete career, and
+can seldom have been performed. A Passion oratorio by Keiser was produced
+at the same time, it may well have been that Handel's work, youthful and
+conventional as it is, was enough to arouse the jealousy of both Keiser and
+Mattheson.
+
+Shortly after Easter, Keiser began the composition of a new opera,
+_Almira_, on a libretto by the local poet Feustking, but for some reason or
+other he found it necessary to call in Handel's assistance, and eventually
+left the whole work to Handel to compose. It was to be produced in the
+autumn. Handel seems to have consulted Mattheson over every detail of the
+opera; there exists a complete score in Mattheson's handwriting, with
+corrections and additions by Handel. Mattheson spent the summer enjoying a
+country holiday in Mecklenburg; Handel probably went on with his opera,
+at Hamburg. In October, just as the opera season was reopening, Mattheson
+contrived to get himself engaged by Sir Cyril Wych as tutor to his son;
+he also took over the boy's musical education, hinting that Handel
+was dismissed for neglect of his duties. In view of Handel's strictly
+honourable character it is difficult to believe that he was guilty of
+neglect, and we may naturally suppose him to have resented the loss of a
+lucrative appointment.
+
+The first opera of the autumn was not Handel's _Almira_, but an opera by
+Mattheson, called _Cleopatra_. Mattheson, always eager to exhibit his
+versatility, sang the part of Antony himself, and, not content with that,
+came into the orchestra as soon as Antony had died on the stage and kept
+himself in view of the audience by conducting at the harpsichord. For
+several performances Handel made no objection and gave up his seat to
+Mattheson when the moment came, but on December 5, for some reason or
+other, he refused, to the surprise and indignation of the composer. German
+musicians in those days were a quarrelsome crew; at the court of Stuttgart
+the musicians were so much given to knocking each other on the head with
+their instruments, even in the august presence of His Serene Highness, that
+there was hardly one left undamaged. It was only to be expected that the
+friends of Handel and Mattheson should egg them on to fight a duel in the
+street; luckily Mattheson's sword broke on a button of Handel's coat, and
+the duel ended. On December 30 a town councillor effected a reconciliation;
+the rivals dined together at Mattheson's house and went on to the rehearsal
+of _Almira_, which was brought out on January 8, 1705, with Mattheson as
+the principal tenor.
+
+_Almira_, the libretto of which was partly in German and partly in Italian,
+ran continuously for about twenty performances until February 25, when it
+was succeeded by _Nero_, another opera which Handel had hastily composed
+for the occasion. _Nero_, in which Mattheson sang the title part, was a
+failure. The music is lost, but the libretto survives, and that is enough
+to account for the collapse. The opera had three performances only. In the
+very same season Keiser re-set _Nero_ to music himself, and brought it
+out under the title of _Octavia_; shortly afterwards he did the same with
+_Almira_, which was performed in August of the same year. Although Keiser's
+operas were no more successful than Handel's, and his extravagance and
+mismanagement forced him to leave Hamburg for three years in order to avoid
+imprisonment, it is evident that he had made Handel's position in the
+theatre impossible. Handel withdrew into private life and devoted himself
+to earning a living by teaching. Mattheson says that Handel remained in
+Hamburg until 1709, and that he still worked in the theatre, but the first
+of these statements is certainly untrue, and the second probably so.
+Mattheson himself left the theatre after the failure of Handel's _Nero_,
+and his friendship with Handel seems to have come to an end. About Handel's
+subsequent life in Hamburg we know nothing, until the theatre was taken
+over by one Saurbrey in the autumn of 1706. Saurbrey commissioned an opera
+from Handel, but, owing to the confusion in which Keiser had left the
+affairs of the theatre, it could not be brought out until January 1708,
+when it was found to be so long that it had to be divided into two operas,
+_Florindo_ and _Daphne_, both of which were put on the stage successively.
+By that time Handel had left Hamburg for Italy; he evidently took little
+interest in the production of these works, neither of which has survived.
+
+It was during the run of _Almira_, says Mainwaring, that Handel made the
+acquaintance of Prince Gian Gastone de' Medici, son of the Grand Duke Cosmo
+III of Tuscany. Mainwaring's date is wrong, for it is known that Gian
+Gastone at that time was in Bohemia with his wife, a German princess, to
+whom he had been married against his will. But it is also known that he was
+in Hamburg for a few months during the winter of 1703-04, and, if he met
+Handel at that time, the rest of Mainwaring's story becomes much more
+credible than subsequent biographers have been willing to admit. According
+to Mainwaring, Handel became almost an intimate friend of the Prince; they
+often discussed music together, and the Prince lamented that Handel was
+unacquainted with the music and musical life of Italy. "Handel confessed
+that he could see nothing in Italian music which answered the high
+character His Highness had given it. On the contrary, he thought it so very
+indifferent, that the singers, he said, must be angels to recommend it."
+Gian Gastone urged him to come to Italy and hear for himself, intimating
+"that if he chose to return with him, no conveniences should be wanting."
+Handel declined the invitation, but resolved to go to Italy as soon as he
+could do so "on his own bottom."
+
+Gian Gastone was a spendthrift and a profligate; his moral reputation was
+of the worst, and he was chronically in debt. That, however, would not make
+it unthinkable that after a glass of wine he should invite Handel to come
+to Italy with him, but Handel may well have known enough about the Prince
+even then to reply to the proposal with tactful evasiveness. From what
+Mattheson says of Handel on his first arrival in Hamburg, it is quite
+likely that he was contemptuous of Italian opera music, and it is equally
+likely that after the success of _Almira_ his views on Italian opera
+underwent a change. It is obvious that Hamburg had no further chances to
+offer him, and the attraction of Italy was at that time so vivid to
+all young German musicians that not one of them would have refused an
+opportunity of making the journey.
+
+The date of Handel's departure from Hamburg is unknown, nor have we the
+slightest information as to his whereabouts until we hear of him at Rome in
+January 1707. Chrysander's statement that he spent Christmas 1706 with his
+mother at Halle is manifestly untrue. Mattheson says that he travelled to
+Rome with a Herr von Binitz, but nothing is known of this gentleman. His
+most natural route into Italy would be by the Brenner, the historic road of
+all German pilgrims.
+
+Handel may well have been glad to leave Hamburg, but Hamburg did not forget
+him. He is mentioned in a theatrical manifesto of 1708 as being already
+"beloved and celebrated in Italy"; Barthold Feind, one of the Hamburg
+librettists, who in 1715 translated Handel's _Rinaldo_, called him "the
+incomparable Handel, the Orpheus of our time"; and from 1715 to 1734 almost
+all of Handel's London operas were represented on the Hamburg stage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Arrival in Italy--_Rodrigo_--Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and the
+Scarlattis--Naples: Venice: _Agrippina_--appointment at Hanover--London:
+_Rinaldo_.
+
+
+Handel spent three years in Italy. The known facts about his life there are
+singularly few, and his biographers have often had to draw copiously on
+their imagination. They may perhaps be forgiven for doing so, since they
+rightly sought to emphasise the fact that these three years were the most
+formative period of Handel's personality as a composer. Handel came to
+Italy as a German; he left Italy an Italian, as far as his music was
+concerned, and, despite all other influences, Italian was the foundation of
+his musical language until the end of his life.
+
+On January 14, 1707, a Roman chronicler noted the arrival of "a Saxon, an
+excellent player on the harpsichord and a composer of music, who has to-day
+displayed his ability in playing the organ in the church of St. John
+[Lateran] to the amazement of everyone." This can hardly refer to anyone
+else than Handel, who throughout his sojourn in Italy was always known as
+"the Saxon" (_il Sassone_). We owe the discovery of this important document
+to Mr. Newman Flower. The next date known to us is that of April 11--on the
+manuscript of Handel's _Dixit Dominus_, composed in Rome.
+
+Most biographers have, however, assumed that Handel's first halt in Italy
+would have been made at Florence, in view of the fact that Gian Gastone de'
+Medici is known to have been at Florence from June 1705 to November 1706.
+The eldest son of the Grand Duke, Prince Ferdinand, was an enthusiastic
+patron of music, who employed the best musicians of the day to perform
+operas in his magnificent country palace at Pratolino, some twelve miles
+north of Florence. It has been suggested that Handel's first Italian opera,
+_Rodrigo_, was composed for Ferdinand and performed early in 1707, but, in
+view of Mr. Flower's discovery, this seems unlikely. Mr. Flower suggests,
+indeed, that Ferdinand did not take much interest in Handel, otherwise he
+would not have allowed him to go to Rome so soon. This is not impossible,
+for we know that Ferdinand found the operas of Alessandro Scarlatti too
+serious for his taste, and he may well have thought even less of Handel's
+music, which (as we can see from the score of _Rodrigo_) was still very
+German in style.
+
+Rome could offer Handel no opportunities either for composing operas or
+even for hearing them. Pope Clement X had permitted the opening of a public
+opera-house (the Teatro Tordinona) in 1671, but it was closed five years
+later by Innocent XI, who made every effort he could to suppress opera both
+in public and in private. Innocent XII, who became Pope in 1691, seems to
+have been, at first, less intolerant, for the theatre was rebuilt, and a
+few performances were given; but in 1697 he ordered its destruction on
+grounds of public morality. Except for a few performances of opera in
+private in 1701 and 1702 no operas were produced in Rome until 1709.
+
+Deprived of opera, the Romans devoted themselves to oratorio--which in
+musical style was much the same thing--and to chamber music. The most
+generous patron of music in Rome was the young Cardinal Ottoboni, who had
+been raised to the purple in his early twenties, in 1690. He had indeed
+composed an opera himself, which was performed in 1692, but he was more
+competent as a poet than as a musician; in 1690 Alessandro Scarlatti had
+set a libretto of his, _La Statira_.
+
+Handel was no doubt recommended to him by Ferdinand de' Medici, and at the
+Cardinal's weekly musical parties he soon came into contact with Domenico
+Scarlatti, as well as with Corelli and Pasquini. Alessandro Scarlatti had
+left Naples, probably for political reasons, in 1702, and at the end of
+1703 Ottoboni had secured him a subordinate post at the church of Santa
+Maria Maggiore, at the same time appointing him his private director of
+music. Domenico was a young man of Handel's own age--"a young eagle" as
+his father called him--brilliantly gifted, and (to judge from Thomas
+Roseingrave's impression of him) possessed of a singular personal
+fascination. "Handel," says Mainwaring, "used often to speak of this person
+with great satisfaction; and indeed there was reason for it; for besides
+his great talents as an artist, he had the sweetest temper, and the
+genteelest behaviour." We may indeed regard his friendship with Handel
+as safely authenticated. It is just possible that Handel may have met
+Alessandro Scarlatti at Pratolino in the previous autumn, as his opera _Il
+Gran Tamerlano_ was produced there in September; he may well have met him
+between January and April of 1707. From April to September Alessandro
+Scarlatti was in Urbino.
+
+Handel's movements now become very difficult to follow. It seems probable
+that his opera _Rodrigo_ was performed at Florence in the autumn of 1707;
+Mainwaring says that it was composed for Ferdinand de' Medici, but there is
+no record of any performance at Pratolino. As Handel is said to have been
+presented to Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover at Venice, he must have been
+there in October or November, as the Prince is known to have spent only
+those two months in that city. Whether Handel remained at Venice over
+Christmas, or whether he returned to Rome, is uncertain. Domenico Scarlatti
+is said to have identified him at Venice at a masquerade by his playing of
+the harpsichord. It would be most natural to suppose then that Handel
+and the two Scarlattis were in Venice together for the production of
+Alessandro's two operas, _Mitridate Eupatore_ and _Il Trionfo della
+Libertà_, both of which were brought out at Venice in 1707, but, as it is
+not known whether this took place at the beginning or at the end of the
+year, there is not sufficient evidence to support such a conjecture.
+
+During March and April 1708, Handel was the guest of Prince Ruspoli in
+Rome; this has been definitely ascertained by Mr. Flower. Prince Ruspoli
+was another great Roman patron of music, and Scarlatti frequently composed
+works for him; his _Annunciation Oratorio_ was performed under his auspices
+on March 25. On Easter Sunday, April 8, Handel made a triumphal appearance
+with _La Resurrezione_, which was given on a sumptuous scale, at Ruspoli's
+expense, in the Palazzo Bonelli, which he was occupying at the time.
+Corelli led the orchestra.
+
+After _La Resurrezione_, Handel seems to have returned to the patronage
+of Cardinal Ottoboni, in whose palace he produced a _serenata_ (i.e. an
+allegorical cantata) called _Il Trionfa del Tempo e del Disinganno_, which
+he remodelled fifty years afterwards as _The Triumph of Time and Truth_.
+The libretto was by Cardinal Pamphilij. It was the overture to this work
+which caused so much difficulty to Corelli. Handel, irritated at his lack
+of understanding, snatched the violin from his hand and played the passage
+himself, to show how it should be executed; Corelli, gentlest of souls,
+took no offence, although thirty-two years his senior and the greatest
+violinist living, but merely observed, "My dear Saxon, this music is in the
+French style, of which I have no knowledge."
+
+It has been assumed by many biographers that Handel attended the meetings
+of the Arcadian Academy, and since Prince Ruspoli was a great, benefactor
+to the Academy, this is extremely probable, although there is no evidence
+for it. Handel was not a member of the Academy, and various reasons for
+this have been suggested, such as that he was a foreigner and also too
+young to be admitted. It is more probable that his admission to that
+exclusive society was never even contemplated; musicians were generally
+engaged professionally for the concerts of the Italian academies, but very
+seldom admitted to the honour of membership. Corelli, Pasquini and
+Alessandro Scarlatti were all admitted together in 1705; they were the
+three senior and most distinguished composers of the time, and as no other
+musicians were then members, it may be assumed that these elections
+constituted an exceptional honour.
+
+
+Mainwaring relates that Cardinal Pamphili; on one occasion wrote a poem in
+honour of Handel and desired him to set it to music himself; in this poem
+"he was compared to Orpheus, and exalted above the rank of mortals." Later
+biographers, being unable to trace any music of Handel to this poem,
+assumed that Handel was too modest to sing his own praises; but he was not,
+for the original manuscript of the cantata was found by the present writer
+in the University Library at Münster in Westphalia. As Mainwaring informs
+us, Handel is compared by the poet (whose name is not given) to Orpheus and
+indeed exalted above him. "Orpheus," says the Cardinal, "could move rocks
+and trees, but he could not make them sing; therefore thou art greater than
+Orpheus, for thou compellest my aged Muse to song." The style of both words
+and music suggests that the whole cantata was thrown off, as Mainwaring
+suggests, on the spur of the moment, and this improvisation may well
+have taken place at one of the Arcadians' garden parties, for there is a
+well-known account of a similar improvisation by the poet Zappi and the
+composer Alessandro Scarlatti.
+
+Handel was by this time fully accepted as one of the leading musicians in
+Italy, for in June he composed a pastoral, _Aci, Galatea e Polifemo_, for
+the marriage of the Duke of Alvito at Naples on July 19. It was in July
+1708 that the Austrian Viceroy of Naples, Count Daun, was succeeded by
+Cardinal Grimani, who, towards the end of the year, persuaded Alessandro
+Scarlatti to return to the service of the royal chapel. As a good friend to
+Scarlatti, the Cardinal was sure to interest himself in Handel, and it was
+probably through him that Handel was commissioned to write an opera for
+Venice, as the Grimani were a great Venetian family and owned the principal
+opera-house there. How long Handel stayed at Naples we do not know; all
+that Mainwaring tells us is that he was taken up by a Spanish princess,
+but, as Naples had belonged to Spain for a hundred and fifty years, Spanish
+princesses can have been no rarities there, and it is impossible to
+identify this lady.
+
+From July 1708 until December 1709 we lose sight of Handel entirely. On
+December 26, the first night of the carnival season, his opera _Agrippina_
+was produced at Venice. The libretto was by Cardinal Grimani, who had
+already written other dramas for music, all produced, like Handel's, at the
+Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice. Venice was the first city which
+had undertaken opera on a commercial basis, open to the public on payment,
+whereas in other places it depended for many years on the munificence of
+princes and nobles. At Venice there existed not one theatre, but several,
+devoted to opera, each called after the name of the parish in which it was
+situated, and, of these, the theatre of St. John Chrysostom, built by the
+Grimani family and still standing (though much remodelled) under the name
+of Teatro Malibran, was the largest and most important. The Inquisition
+took a more tolerant view of opera than the Pope; a Venetian preacher
+admonished actors and singers to remember that they "were abominated of
+God, but tolerated by the Government by desire of those who took delight in
+their iniquities."
+
+_Agrippina_ aroused an extraordinary enthusiasm. "The theatre, at almost
+every pause, resounded with shouts and acclamations of _viva il taro
+Sassone!_ and other expressions of approbation too extravagant to be
+mentioned" (Mainwaring). The title part was sung by Margherita Durastanti,
+and another singer who appeared in the opera was Boschi, the famous bass;
+both of them were to sing for Handel in London later on. It is fairly
+certain that Boschi must have sung the part of Polyphemus in Handel's
+Italian _Aci e Galatea_ at Naples, for it bears a striking resemblance to
+other songs written for Boschi, whose voice was of exceptional range. The
+opera ran for twenty-seven nights.
+
+After this unprecedented triumph it seems surprising that Handel did not
+remain in Italy, where he had so many friends who could ensure his success.
+It is probable that by the time _Agrippina_ was performed, if not indeed
+long before, he had been promised the post of Kapellmeister to the court of
+Hanover. The actual appointment is dated June 16, 1710. But no sooner was
+Handel appointed than he at once obtained leave of absence, and went on,
+first to Düsseldorf, and then to London. It was probably the Elector's
+intention that he should spend some time in foreign travel before taking up
+regular duty.
+
+The three years which Handel spent in Italy at the most impressionable
+period of his life fixed the characteristics of his style as a composer,
+and we may well suppose that they exercised a decisive influence on his
+personality and character. His youth had been spent in the respectable
+middle-class environment of his home at Halle; then came the three years at
+Hamburg, fantastic and exciting, yet, despite all the artistic stimulus of
+Keiser's opera-house, inevitably sordid and provincial. Italy introduced
+him to an entirely different atmosphere--to a life of dignity and serenity
+in which a classical culture, both literary and artistic, was the matured
+fruit of wealth, leisure, and good breeding. That exquisite life found its
+highest musical expression in Alessandro Scarlatti, who at that period was
+incontestably the greatest of living musicians. On his style Handel formed
+his own, and it is interesting to note that of all Scarlatti's operas the
+one which most strikingly foreshadows the genius of Handel is _Mitridate_,
+which Handel may possibly have seen at Venice in the winter of 1707-08.
+The musical library of Handel's English friend Charles Jennens contained a
+large collection of Scarlatti's manuscripts, and there can be little doubt
+that it was Handel who brought them with him from Italy.
+
+In Venice, Handel had made the acquaintance of Prince Ernest of Hanover,
+younger brother of the Elector Georg Ludwig who was eventually to become
+King of England as George I. With Prince Ernest was Baron Kielmansegge, who
+for many years afterwards remained a firm supporter of Handel, and another
+Venetian acquaintance was the Duke of Manchester, English Ambassador to the
+Republic of Venice. Through Prince Ernest, and Kielmansegge, Handel was
+recommended to the court of Hanover; the Duke of Manchester gave him a
+pressing invitation to England. Music in Hanover was under the direction of
+an Italian, Agostino Steffani, who was not only a musician but priest and
+diplomatist as well. Born at Castelfranco in 1654, he was taken as a boy
+to Munich, where he studied music, and, in 1680 entered the priesthood; he
+produced several operas there, and about 1689 became Kapellmeister to the
+court of Hanover. Here he was employed on important diplomatic business;
+Pope Innocent XI made him titular Bishop of Spiga in the West Indies,
+and in 1698 he was Ambassador at Brussels. In 1709 he became the Pope's
+representative for North Germany, and it was doubtless owing to his heavy
+ecclesiastical duties that he resigned his musical post in favour of
+Handel, although Hanover remained his chief place of residence until his
+death in 1728. He was in Rome in 1708 and 1709, and it has been suggested
+that he made Handel's acquaintance there, but this hardly seems consistent
+with Handel's own statement, recorded by Hawkins in his _History of Music_:
+"When I first arrived at Hanover I was a young man under twenty; I was
+acquainted with the merits of Steffani and he had heard of me. I understood
+somewhat of music, and could play pretty well on the organ; he received me
+with great kindness, and took an early opportunity to introduce me to the
+Princess Sophia and the Elector's son, giving them to understand that I
+was what he was pleased to call a virtuoso in music; he obliged me with
+instructions for my conduct and behaviour during my residence at Hanover;
+and being called from the city to attend to matters of a public concern,
+he left me in possession of that favour and patronage which himself had
+enjoyed for a series of years." These statements of Handel seem, in fact,
+to point to his having visited Hanover before he went to Italy, possibly
+before he went to Hamburg, or, more probably, during the course of his
+Hamburg period, in which case one might conclude that the Electress Sophia
+had defrayed the cost of Handel's Italian journey. Even if Handel made
+a mistake as to his age, he clearly implies that his first meeting with
+Steffani took place in Hanover.
+
+At Düsseldorf, Handel was sure of a warm welcome, for the Elector Johann
+Wilhelm was a close friend of Steffani, and his wife was a sister of
+Ferdinand and Gian Gastone de' Medici; he was a man of extravagant tastes,
+and his opera-house was maintained on the most magnificent scale. But
+Handel did not stay there long; England was a greater attraction, and he
+arrived in London for the first time in the autumn of 1710.
+
+Nothing is known of Handel's early days in London, but it may be safely
+assumed that he was provided with letters of introduction to persons
+of influence. We meet him first in the company of Heidegger, a Swiss
+adventurer who achieved notoriety through his incredible ugliness, and from
+1709 onwards was concerned in the management of the opera at the Queen's
+Theatre in the Haymarket. Through Heidegger, Handel was introduced to Mary
+Granville, then a little girl of ten, whom he delighted by his performance
+on her own spinet. Her uncle, Sir John Stanley, asked her if she thought
+she should ever play as well as Mr. Handel. "If I did not think I should,"
+she cried, "I would burn my instrument!" Mary Granville, who, seven years
+later, married a Mr. Pendarves, and in 1743 became the wife of Dr. Delany,
+was for many years one of Handel's most faithful friends and supporters.
+
+In the reign of Queen Anne the musical life of London was developing in a
+new fashion as compared with what it was in the last twenty years of the
+previous century. The type of English opera which Purcell and Dryden
+had created came to an end with Purcell's death in 1695. Italian music,
+especially when sung by Italian singers, was gradually becoming more and
+more popular with London concert-audiences, and in 1705 Thomas Clayton
+produced at Drury Lane an opera called _Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus_. Clayton
+had visited Italy, and had brought back with him a collection of Italian
+songs; he got Peter Motteux to translate for him an old Italian opera
+libretto, and adapted these songs to it. How much of _Arsinoe_ was
+Clayton's own work is not known; Burney speaks of the opera with nothing
+but contempt. Yet it seems to have had some fair success, and was even
+revived the following year; but Clayton's _Rosamond_, to a libretto by
+Addison, did not survive three performances. It was followed by a series of
+Italian operas composed by Buononcini, Scarlatti, and others; at first the
+operas were in English, and sung by English singers, but gradually Italian
+was introduced, as at Hamburg, and in 1710 an opera called _Almahide_, the
+music of which Burney ascribes conjecturally to Buononcini, was given in
+Italian with an entirely Italian company. The victory of the Italians was
+due mainly to the marvellous singing and acting of Nicola Grimaldi, known
+as Nicolini, who first appeared in London in Scarlatti's _Pyrrhus and
+Demetrius_. Nicolini was not the first _castrato_ who had been heard in
+England; the famous Siface had been brought over by Queen Mary of Modena in
+1687. But Nicolini was the first who appeared on the English stage, and
+it was he who paved the way for Senesino, Farinelli, and the rest, and
+established that annual season of Italian opera which is not yet extinct.
+
+At the time when Handel arrived in London the opera company had migrated
+from Drury Lane to Vanbrugh's new theatre in the Haymarket, where it was
+under the management of Aaron Hill, an enterprising young man of Handel's
+own age who was ready to pursue any sort of career that chance might offer
+him, whether in literature, music, or business adventure. We may safely
+hazard a guess that it was Boschi who persuaded Hill to invite Handel to
+compose an opera for the Queen's Theatre, as Boschi had already sung, in
+November 1710, in _Hydaspes_, an opera by Francesco Mancini, in which
+Nicolini delighted his audience in a fight with a lion. Hill sketched a
+plot based on Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, and an Italian libretto was
+hastily provided by Giacomo Rossi, Handel composing the music at the same
+time, and often overtaking the poet. The music, in fact, was completed in
+a fortnight, and the opera of _Rinaldo_ was first produced on the stage on
+February 24, 1711. To judge from Burney's account of the preceding weeks
+of the season, coupled with this astonishingly rapid collaboration, it is
+probable that Hill was in a difficult situation, from which only a new and
+strikingly successful opera could save him. _Rinaldo_ achieved the desired
+success; it did more, it established Handel's reputation in England as a
+dramatic composer, and set London a new standard in Italian opera. The
+previous Italian operas had been works of little distinction, and some of
+them had even been _pasticcio_ operas, as they were called, put together
+from songs by various composers. Even Scarlatti's _Pyrrhus and Demetrius_
+paled beside the new opera of Handel, for it had been written as far back
+as 1694, and was in a style which Scarlatti himself had long abandoned.
+
+_Rinaldo_ had fifteen performances in the course of the season. It provoked
+bitter attacks from Addison in the _Spectator_ and from Steele in the
+_Tatler_, but everybody knew that Addison's vanity was wounded by the
+grotesque failure of _Rosamond_, and that Steele had interests in the
+playhouse. It was useless at that particular moment to champion the cause
+of English opera, for England happened to possess not a single composer who
+was equal to the task of writing one.
+
+The opera season came to an end in June, and Handel left London for
+Germany. He did not go straight back to Hanover, but stayed at Düsseldorf
+again, where the Elector was evidently desirous of keeping him as long as
+possible, for the Elector himself wrote more than once to Hanover to make
+excuses for Handel's prolonged absence from his official duties. Handel may
+well have felt that Hanover was a dull place as compared with London. There
+was no opera, and his chief function was to compose Italian chamber duets
+for the Princess Caroline of Ansbach; afterwards Queen of England. But
+he may well have taken pleasure in her service, for she was an excellent
+musician and no mean singer. In November 1711 Handel paid a visit to Halle,
+in order to stand godfather to his niece, Johanna Friderica Michaelsen, the
+daughter of his surviving sister, who eventually inherited the bulk of his
+fortune. Some biographers have stated that Handel had already revisited his
+birthplace in 1710 before going to London. Mainwaring is their authority
+for this, but Mainwaring habitually confused dates and more probably
+referred to the visit of 1711, for which we have the certain evidence of
+Friderica Michaelsen's baptismal register. It is clear that the alleged
+visit of 1710 was suggested merely by a desire to make the most of Handel's
+affection for his mother, which Mainwaring had already emphasised.
+Mainwaring, however, went beyond the truth in saying that she had become
+blind; she did eventually lose her sight, but not until some twenty years
+later.
+
+Handel appears to have remained at Hanover until the autumn of 1712, when
+he obtained permission to go to London again "on condition that he engaged
+to return within a reasonable time" (Mainwaring). What period was to be
+considered reasonable we do not know. Handel had certainly been planning
+this London visit for some time, as he was corresponding with friends in
+England, and was also taking some trouble to improve his knowledge of the
+English language. It is not surprising that he hankered after London, for
+London offered him a society which bore more resemblance to the world which
+he had known at Rome. The tradition of Italian culture had for generations
+been more firmly implanted in England than anywhere in Germany, except
+perhaps in Vienna, and, since those three years in Italy, Handel's musical
+outlook had become completely Italian, as his music shows. The few attempts
+which he made at German Church music present a curious contrast of style;
+one could hardly believe them to be the work of that Handel whom we have
+adopted as our own. German music at that date was provincial; Italian music
+was the music of the great world, because it was the music of the theatre.
+It was to the theatre that Handel looked forward, and London had what even
+Rome had not--an opera, and an Italian opera. The success of _Rinaldo_
+had shown him that London was the place where he might launch out into a
+triumphal career as a composer for the stage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Second visit to London--Italian opera--George I and the _Water
+Music_--visit to Germany--Canons and the Duke of Chandos--establishment of
+the Royal Academy of Music.
+
+
+For the greater part of the nineteenth century the Handelian type of opera
+was the laughingstock of musical critics; they wondered how any audiences
+could have endured to sit through it, and why the fashionable society of
+London should have neglected native music for what Dr. Johnson defined as
+"an exotic and irrational entertainment." The modern reader's impression
+of an Italian opera of Handel's days is a story about some ancient or
+mediaeval hero whose very name is often to most people unknown; if he
+happens to be someone as famous as Julius Caesar, the familiar episodes
+of his life are sacrificed to some imaginary and complicated intrigue
+presented in the form of long and elaborate songs, thinly accompanied, and
+separated by stretches of dreary recitative. But in those days persons of
+culture, in England as well as in Italy, were perhaps more interested in
+ancient history and in the history of the later Roman Empire than they are
+now; it is significant that Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ made its appearance
+just when the fashion for operas on subjects which might have been taken
+from its pages was coming to an end.
+
+The conventional treatment of those subjects, which makes all the operas
+seem exactly alike, was the result of a certain literary reform which had
+tended to standardise opera libretti under the influence of Racine, and
+it was really a movement towards dignity and dramatic unity after
+the monstrous confusion of the earlier Venetian operas. As to the
+conventionality of the music, and its forms of air and recitative, it can
+only be said that all serious Italian music was written in these forms; it
+was simply the normal musical style of the period, and must have been as
+natural to its own audiences as the style of Puccini or Richard Strauss at
+the present day. Handelian opera has often been described as a concert
+in costume, and Dr. Burney, writing as late as 1789, both admits this
+description and defends it.
+
+"An opera, at the worst, is still better than a concert merely for the ear,
+or a pantomime entertainment for the eye. Supposing the articulation to be
+wholly unintelligible, we have an excellent union of melody and harmony,
+vocal as well as instrumental, for the ear. And, according to Sir Richard
+Steele's account of Nicolini's action, 'it was so significant, that a deaf
+man might go along with him in the sense of the part he acted.'
+
+"No one will dispute but that understanding Italian would render our
+entertainment at an opera more rational and more complete; but without that
+advantage, let it be remembered by the lovers of Music, that an opera is
+the _completest concert_ to which they can go; with this advantage over
+those in still life, that to the most perfect singing, and effects of a
+powerful and well-disciplined band, are frequently added excellent acting,
+splendid scenes and decorations, with such dancing as a playhouse, from its
+inferior prices, is seldom able to furnish."
+
+Orchestral concerts in those days did not exist; concerts of any kind were
+rare, and the best were to be heard in that historic room over Thomas
+Britton's small coal shop, in Clerkenwell, where Handel himself sometimes
+played on a chamber-organ for the genuine musical enthusiasts of London
+society. It was no wonder that Italian opera became fashionable. Italian
+singers have always been unrivalled in popular favour, and in Handel's days
+they were not only something new to England, but were the exponents of a
+vocal art which admittedly has never been surpassed. The theatre was new
+and sumptuous; society was wealthy and at the same time exclusive; at the
+opera the great world met together as in a sort of club. People went to
+talk and to be seen as well as to see and hear; they do so in certain
+opera-houses still. And the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket possessed the
+greatest opera-composer living, a greater even than Scarlatti himself.
+
+It was a period when there was still a considerable tradition of
+musicianship among the amateurs of English society. Old Countess Granville,
+known to her younger relatives as "the Dragon," who had lived all through
+the age of Locke and Purcell, wrote, at the age of eighty, to her cousin
+Mrs. Pendarves--Handel's child friend Mary Granville--in 1734: "There is,
+I think, no accomplishment so great for a lady as music, for it tunes
+the mind." There were plenty of people in the great houses capable
+of appreciating the merits of Handel, or at any rate of constituting
+themselves his enemies.
+
+Handel must have arrived in England at least as early as the beginning of
+October 1712, for the manuscript of _Il Pastor Fido_, the first new opera
+which he produced, is dated, at the end, "Londres, ce 24 Octobre." The
+opera-house was now under the management of Owen MacSwiney, who seems to
+have been both incompetent and unreliable. _Il Pastor Fido_ did not attract
+the public, and was withdrawn after six performances, but Handel soon had
+another opera ready to take its place. _Teseo_ was finished on December
+19, and brought out on January 10, 1713; it was a romantic-heroic opera,
+closely modelled on _Rinaldo_, with an abundance of scenic effects. After
+the second performance MacSwiney disappeared, leaving the singers unpaid as
+well as the scene-painters and costume-makers. The company carried on the
+season undeterred, and the management was taken over by Heidegger. Handel's
+opera was performed twelve times--on the last night for the composer's
+benefit; between the acts he gave a performance himself on the harpsichord.
+
+For the moment, however, the operatic situation was not encouraging, and
+Handel turned his thoughts in other directions. He had stayed first at
+the London house of a Mr. Andrews of Barn Elms in Surrey, but he soon
+transferred himself to the house of Lord Burlington in Piccadilly. Lord
+Burlington was only seventeen years of age, but he and his mother made
+Burlington House an artistic and literary centre comparable with the
+palaces of Cardinal Ottoboni and Prince Ruspoli at Rome. As the libretto of
+_Teseo_ is dedicated to him, he must have taken Handel under his patronage
+soon after his arrival in England, but the precise date at which Handel
+went to live with him is uncertain. According to Hawkins, he stayed at
+Burlington House for three years, meeting Pope, Gay, and Dr. Arbuthnot, as
+well as many other "men of the first eminence for genius." But Gay does not
+seem to have met Lord Burlington until 1715, and Pope mentions him first
+in 1718. It is thought that Handel's little opera, _Silla_, may have been
+written for a private performance at Burlington House in 1714, and the
+dedication of _Amadigi_, Handel's next opera (1715), indicates that the
+music was composed within his patron's own walls.
+
+One of Handel's favourite haunts in London was St. Paul's Cathedral, where
+Brind the organist often persuaded him to play the organ after evening
+service, to the great delight of the congregation. He appears to have
+made Brind's acquaintance first through young Maurice Greene, then aged
+seventeen, who had been a chorister of St. Paul's, and, after his voice
+broke in 1710, was articled to Brind as a pupil. After service was over,
+Handel, Greene, and some of the members of the choir would repair to
+the Queen's Arms Tavern close by for an evening of music and musical
+conversation.
+
+This friendly association with St. Paul's was no doubt of great value to
+Handel in his next musical undertakings--the _Birthday Ode_ for Queen
+Anne, and the _Te Deum_ which celebrated the Peace of Utrecht in 1713.
+The Queen's patronage may very likely have been obtained for him by Lady
+Burlington, as she was one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber. These two
+works are important landmarks in Handel's career, as they were his first
+compositions to English words, and his first compositions for English
+ceremonial occasions. They marked him out as the natural successor to
+Purcell, and it is evident that in each case he took Purcell's similar
+composition as his model. Up till now he had been a foreigner engaged to
+provide Italian opera for the amusement of fashionable society; with the
+_Birthday Ode_ he became a court musician to the Queen of England, and with
+the _Te Deum_ his music entered St. Paul's.
+
+The practical result of the _Ode_ was a pension of £200 a year conferred
+on him by Queen Anne. It is clear that he now regarded England as his
+permanent home, regardless of the fact that he was officially the servant
+of the Elector of Hanover and had undertaken to return thither "within a
+reasonable time." But on August 1, 1714, the Queen died, and the Elector
+was proclaimed King of England. When George I came over to his new country,
+Handel did not dare to show himself at court, and all efforts on the part
+of his friends to effect a reconciliation with the King were in vain. The
+King went to see his new opera, _Amadigi_, which came out late in the
+season of 1715, but refused to pardon him, until Handel's old Venetian
+acquaintance, Baron Kielmansegge, now Master of the Horse, devised an
+ingenious expedient for surprising the King into clemency.
+
+One of the favourite amusements of London society was to make up a
+water-party on the Thames, with a band of musicians in attendance. Mrs.
+Pendarves describes a party of this kind in July 1722; they rowed up to
+Richmond, where they had supper, and "were entertained all the time by very
+good music [for wind instruments] in another barge." Baron Kielmansegge
+arranged that the King should go for an excursion of this kind, and that,
+without his knowledge, Handel should conduct appropriate music of his own
+in a barge that followed the King's. As the Baron was often in charge of
+the music for such occasions, this can have been a matter of no great
+difficulty; in any case it achieved the desired result. The King was
+enchanted with the music, and restored Handel to favour. As Mainwaring
+tells this story just before speaking of _Amadigi_, it has generally been
+assumed that this episode took place in the summer of 1715, but more
+recently it has been ascribed to 1717, on the strength of a long account of
+a royal water-party, with music by Handel, given in the _Daily Courant_,
+a newspaper of the period. This account was copied by the Envoy of
+Brandenburg at the court of St. James's and despatched by him to Berlin;
+the discovery of this document has led certain writers to cast doubt on
+Mainwaring's story. Streatfeild is probably right in suggesting that
+Mainwaring's story refers to an earlier water-party, and that Handel
+contributed music frequently for such occasions. He also points out that
+the celebrated _Water Music_ was not published until 1740, and that it may
+quite well have been collected from various aquatic programmes.
+
+Hawkins relates the story of the _Water Music_, evidently copying from
+Mainwaring; but Hawkins had known Handel personally, and had been supplied
+by him with certain reminiscences, one of which was unknown to Mainwaring.
+According to this anecdote, recorded by Hawkins, the reconciliation with
+George I was due to the violinist Geminiani, who had composed a set of
+sonatas dedicated to Baron Kielmansegge; Geminiani was a notoriously
+difficult player to accompany, and insisted on Handel, and no other, taking
+the harpsichord when he went to play the sonatas to the King.
+
+Mr. Flower, in his life of Handel, refuses all credit to Mainwaring's
+well-known tale, and takes the view that the King never had any quarrel
+with Handel at all. In any case it seems certain that he confirmed the
+pension granted to him by Queen Anne, and added a further £200 a year of
+his own. A few years later, Handel received yet another £200 a year--from
+Caroline of Ansbach, now Princess of Wales, for teaching her daughters the
+harpsichord, so that he enjoyed a settled income of £600 a year for the
+rest of his life.
+
+_Amadigi_, produced May 25, 1715, did not have many performances, as the
+season ended on July 9, but it attracted considerable attention, partly
+because that old favourite, Nicolini, sang in it again, and also on account
+of its elaborate staging. "There is more enchantment and machinery in this
+opera," says Dr. Burney, "than I have ever found to be announced in any
+other musical drama performed in England."
+
+During the following season, which did not begin until February 1716, both
+_Rinaldo_ and _Amadigi_ were revived, but Handel produced no new opera. The
+King seems to have wished to see Nicolini in his older parts; _Pyrrhus and
+Demetrius_ was revived, as well as other operas of the days before Handel's
+first arrival in England. In July, at the end of the season, George I
+returned to Hanover, where he remained until the end of the year. Handel
+accompanied him, but seems to have had freedom to travel, for he visited
+Hamburg, where he avoided meeting his old friend Mattheson, though he
+corresponded with him from a safe distance. He also went to Halle, where
+his mother was still living; Zachow, however, was dead, and had left his
+widow in straitened circumstances, with an idle and intemperate son. Handel
+helped the widow, and continued to send her money in later years, but he
+eventually came to the conclusion that it was useless to do anything for
+the son. From Halle he went on to Ansbach, no doubt on some commission
+from the Princess of Wales. At Ansbach he found an old friend from the
+University of Halle, Johann Christoph Schmidt, who was established in a
+woollen business. Although Schmidt was married and had a family, he was
+persuaded by Handel to leave these behind at Ansbach and to travel with
+him to London, where he spent the rest of his life as Handel's faithful
+secretary and copyist. His son came over later on, and, after Handel had
+provided for his education, assisted his father in looking after Handel
+during his old age.
+
+During these six months in Germany, Handel reverted for a moment to German
+music; he set what is known as the _Brockes Passion_, a sacred cantata
+in verse by the Hamburg poet Brockes, which had already been set once
+by Keiser. Later on it was set to music again by two of Handel's former
+friends, first by Telemann, and then by Mattheson. Little is known about
+the composition of this work; Handel apparently had a copy made after his
+return to England and sent this to Mattheson, and it was performed at
+Hamburg in 1717. Handel does not seem to have had it performed in England;
+he used up the music afterwards for other works. Chrysander attributed to
+1716 a set of nine German songs with violin _obbligato_ to semi-sacred
+words by Brockes; but there is some difficulty about accepting this date,
+for, although eight of the poems had already been printed by Brockes, there
+is one which is found only in the second edition of the book, printed in
+1724.
+
+The King came back to London in January 1717, and it is supposed that
+Handel came with him. The opera was on the verge of collapse. _Rinaldo_ and
+_Amadigi_ were once more revived for Nicolini, but Handel contributed no
+new work, and, after the season came to an end in July, there was no more
+Italian opera in London until 1720. It was during this period that Handel
+became musical director to the Duke of Chandos, for whom he composed works
+of a character new both to England and to himself.
+
+James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos, had built himself an Italian palace
+at Canons, near Edgware, in which he must have outdone even the magnificent
+Lord Burlington in sumptuousness and ostentation. Like a German princeling,
+he kept his choir and his band of musicians, though there seems to be no
+evidence that he was himself genuinely musical. The chapel of the house, a
+florid Italian baroque building with frescoes in the appropriate style by
+Italian painters, was opened in 1720, and the anthem for the occasion
+was no doubt one of Handel's. It is not known what music of Handel's was
+performed at the Duke's private concerts, but for the services of the
+chapel he composed the famous _Chandos Te Deum_ and the twelve _Chandos
+Anthems_. Here again Purcell was his model, but the style was Handel's
+own, a style indeed so appropriate to the formal stateliness of the Duke's
+establishment that these works have never become part of the ordinary
+cathedral repertory. It was to Purcell, and to some extent to Scarlatti
+too, that Handel owed the general plan of the anthems with their orchestral
+accompaniments, but even Purcell's anthems with orchestra had by that time
+been found too elaborate for general use.
+
+To the Chandos period belongs also a work which is still one of Handel's
+most popular compositions, the English _Acis and Galatea_, to words by John
+Gay. It was not a revision of the _serenata_ which he wrote at Naples, but
+an entirely new work. More important as a landmark in Handel's development
+is the masque of _Esther_, originally called _Haman and Mordecai_. About
+the early history of these works little is known; both were intended to be
+acted on the stage, and they were very probably performed in this way at
+Canons. The words of _Esther_ were adapted from Racine's play of the same
+name, and it has been suggested that Pope was the author.
+
+Handel's residence at Canons gave rise to two legends about him which
+are still so often repeated that their absurdity must be mentioned here,
+although they have been known for many years to be baseless. One is
+perpetuated by an inscription on the organ in the church at Whitchurch,
+to the effect that Handel composed the oratorio of _Esther_ on this
+instrument. Handel was never organist at Whitchurch; the church existed in
+his day, but it was an entirely separate building from the private chapel
+of the Duke of Chandos which was pulled down with the house. The organ of
+that chapel is now at Gosport. It need hardly be said that in any case it
+was not Handel's practice to compose his works on an organ. The other, and
+even more popular, legend is that of "The Harmonious Blacksmith." It was
+during the Canons period that Handel published his _Suites de Pièces pour
+le Clavecin_ (1720) which had probably been composed for the daughters
+of the Princess of Wales, and one of these suites contains the air and
+variations known by that familiar title. But the air was never called by
+this name before 1820; about that time a young music-seller at Bath, who
+had previously been a blacksmith's apprentice, earned the nickname of "the
+harmonious blacksmith" because he was always singing that particular tune.
+Somehow the name got transferred from the singer to the song, and in 1835
+the story of Handel's having been inspired to compose the tune after
+hearing a blacksmith at Edgware produce musical notes from his anvil was
+first put into print in a letter to _The Times_. Not long afterwards an
+imaginary blacksmith of Edgware was invented, and his alleged anvil sold by
+auction.
+
+Whether the air is Handel's own composition at all is a matter of
+uncertainty; there would be nothing in the least unusual about any composer
+taking another man's air as a theme for variations, and it has been
+suggested, with some plausibility, that the tune is that of an old French
+song.
+
+On August 8, 1718, Handel's sister Dorothea Sophia died of consumption
+at Halle. She was not more than thirty years of age; the other sister,
+Johanna, had died in 1709. The sermon preached at Dorothea's funeral on
+August 11, 1718, has been preserved, and tells us that one of her favourite
+texts from the Bible, which she was often in the habit of quoting, was,
+"I know that my Redeemer liveth." Chrysander suggested, and we may well
+believe, that the setting of these words in _Messiah_, given to a female
+voice, owed its inspiration to the memory of Dorothea Sophia. Handel was
+evidently much attached to her. To attend her funeral was impossible, and
+it was some months before Handel could visit Halle again; but on February
+20, 1719, he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, thanking him for all the
+kindness which he had shown to his sister, and promising to come to Halle
+as soon as his engagements permitted.
+
+Handel's inability to leave London before February 1719 was due to the fact
+that a new scheme for the promotion of opera in London was on foot. The
+first idea was probably suggested in the circle of the Duke of Chandos
+towards the end of 1718. It was the moment of the South Sea Bubble, and
+speculation had become the universal fashion. To revive the Italian opera a
+company was formed among members of the nobility; a capital of £50,000 was
+raised in shares of £100 each, and the King himself contributed £1,000.
+The new venture was called the Royal Academy of Music, in imitation of
+the _Académie Royale de Musique_, under which name the Paris opera was
+officially known. The French designation was obviously suggested by the
+Italian "academies," or literary and musical societies of the period; the
+expression _accademia di musica_ is still occasionally used in Italy to
+signify a concert. The directors engaged Nicolo Haym and Paolo Rolli as
+poets to provide libretti; for the music they naturally secured Handel, but
+also invited Buononcini over from Rome, and Attilio Ariosti from Berlin.
+Handel was sent at once to Dresden to select singers; on February 21 he is
+stated to have left London for that purpose, but it is possible that he may
+actually have started later, for in his letter to his brother-in-law, dated
+February 20, he says, "I beg you will not judge of my desire to see you by
+the delay of my departure, for to my great regret I find myself detained
+here by important business on which I may say my fortune depends, and it
+has dragged on longer than I expected.... I hope I shall be at the end of
+it in a month from now."
+
+Handel's exact itinerary is difficult to establish. We know that he went to
+Düsseldorf, where he engaged the singer Baldassari, but whether this was on
+the outward journey or later in the year is uncertain. From the letter to
+Michaelsen we should imagine that he went to Halle as soon as possible;
+the only authentic document which gives us any date is a letter from Count
+Flemming, a court functionary at Dresden, to Melusine von Schulenburg,
+daughter of George I's mistress the Duchess of Kendal, who in 1733 married
+Lord Chesterfield. Melusine was a pupil of Handel in London. The letter
+is dated from Dresden, October 6, 1719; the Count seems to have been much
+offended by Handel's behaviour, and suggests that he was "a little mad"
+(_un peu fol_). Count Flemming was evidently vain of his own musicianship,
+and this made him feel all the more hurt at Handel's obstinate refusal to
+accept his invitations. The Electoral Prince of Saxony was married about
+this time to an Austrian Archduchess, and the Elector had invited several
+of the most famous Italian singers, headed by the composer Lotti, to
+Dresden to grace the occasion, hoping to make contracts with them for the
+winter season. Handel's object in Dresden was to tempt these celebrities to
+London by the offer of English guineas, so that he was naturally obliged to
+be extremely discreet in his relations with the officials of the court.
+
+He certainly played the harpsichord at court, for in the following February
+(1720) a sum of 100 ducats was paid to him; this however cannot indicate
+that he was actually in Dresden at that date, and may easily have been
+a delayed payment for earlier services. Handel's negotiations with the
+singers were only moderately successful, for he was unable to secure anyone
+except Signora Durastanti for the opening of the London opera, even though
+that was delayed until April 1720. The others remained at Dresden, but it
+is probable that Handel's offers had not been without their attractions,
+for the Italian singers at Dresden gave so much trouble to the management
+that the Elector suddenly dismissed the whole crew in February 1720; none
+of them, however, appeared in London before the autumn season.
+
+Handel's visit to Halle this year is of peculiar interest because of
+the attempt made by J. S. Bach to become acquainted with him. Forkel's
+biography of Bach (1802) is the only authority for this story. Bach in 1719
+was in the service of the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen; hearing that Handel was
+in the neighbourhood, he went over to Halle, a distance of about twenty
+miles, but found that Handel had already departed for London. The exact
+date of Handel's return is not known, but as there was a meeting of the
+shareholders of the opera on November 6, 1719, he may have been in England
+by that time. He was not himself one of the actual directors of the
+company; the only professional member of the board was Heidegger. Burney
+suggests that the affairs of the company were none too prosperous even
+before the season began; and it is strange that so long a delay took place
+between the first initiation of the scheme in the winter of 1718 and the
+first rise of the curtain on April 2, 1720. Handel, at any rate, must have
+felt his own position to be secure, for it was about this time that he took
+the house at what was then 57 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, where
+he resided for the rest of his life. His name appears first in 1725 among
+the ratepayers of the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, but not long
+ago a lead cistern was found in the house, bearing his initials and
+the date 1721. On what terms he took the house is not known; it is not
+mentioned in his will.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Buononcini--Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino--death of George I--_The
+Beggar's Opera_--collapse of the Academy.
+
+
+The opening performance of the Royal Academy of Music was undistinguished;
+it is hard to understand why the noble directors should have begun their
+season with _Numitor_, an opera by Porta, a Venetian composer, who is
+described in the book of words as "Servant to His Grace the Duke of
+Wharton." The Duke of Wharton was not one of the directors. The company,
+moreover, was more English than Italian; it included Baldassari,
+Durastanti, and a second woman called Galerati, together with Anastasia
+Robinson, who afterwards became Countess of Peterborough, Mrs. Turner
+Robinson, wife of the organist of Westminster Abbey, Mrs. Dennis, and Mr.
+Gordon. _Numitor_ ran for five performances; on April 27 it was succeeded
+by Handel's new opera _Radamisto_, in which the same singers took part,
+except that Mrs. Dennis did not appear, and Mr. La Garde sang the part of
+Farasmane. It is interesting to note that two of the male parts were taken
+by women--Radamisto (Durastanti) and Tigrane (Galerati). This looks as if
+the management had found it impossible to secure a sufficient number of
+Italian _castrati_, who probably demanded exorbitant fees.
+
+_Radamisto_ fared little better than _Numitor_; an enormous crowd came to
+the first night, and many were turned away, but the opera was not performed
+more than ten times in the season. It was probably above the heads of the
+audience, for it is one of Handel's finest works for the stage and a great
+advance on any of his previous operas. The only other opera performed was
+_Narciso_, by Domenico Scarlatti, which was even less successful than the
+others. Chrysander seems to suggest that Scarlatti came to London with the
+idea of being a rival to Handel, but it is much more likely that Handel
+himself persuaded the Academy to invite the friend of his youth.
+
+The season ended on June 25. _Radamisto_ was printed, and was published by
+Handel himself at his own house.
+
+A really serious rival to Handel appeared in the autumn. Lord Burlington
+had made the acquaintance in Rome of Giovanni Buononcini, and had heard his
+opera _Astarto_. Perhaps he had had enough of Handel after three years of
+his close company in Burlington House; in any case he probably thought
+himself a better judge of music than Handel. He secured Buononcini for
+the Academy, and the season opened on November 19 with _Astarto_. The
+dedication to the Earl of Burlington is signed by Paolo Rolli, and no other
+author's name is mentioned; but the libretto was really by Apostolo Zeno
+(1708). _Astarto_ had ten performances before Christmas, and twenty
+afterwards; _Radamisto_ was revived again, but Buononcini established
+himself firmly in the favour of a large party. Although Burney speaks very
+disparagingly of the music, it is not in the least surprising that the
+opera attracted the public. In the first place, it had the advantage of
+a magnificent cast of singers--Senesino, Boschi, Berenstadt, Berselli,
+Durastanti, Salvai, and Galerati, and this sudden blaze of vocal splendour
+would in itself have made the success of any opera, especially of one which
+opened the season. Besides, Buononcini's music was pleasing and, after a
+far longer stage experience than Handel's, he naturally wrote what singers
+enjoyed singing. It must further be added that Buononcini himself was a
+striking personality; he had produced operas at Berlin and Vienna, as well
+as in various Italian cities, and was a man of the world, accustomed to the
+society of courts. Besides, Buononcini was a stranger and a novelty; Handel
+was becoming an established institution--indeed, he was well on the way to
+becoming an English composer.
+
+The same singers, with the addition of Anastasia Robinson, appeared in the
+season of 1721-22. A curious experiment was tried in _Muzio Scevola_,
+of which the first act was composed by Filippo Mattei, the second by
+Buononcini and the third by Handel, each act having an overture and
+concluding chorus. Some biographers have supposed that this was intended to
+be a trial of strength, and that the contest resulted in the acknowledged
+triumph of Handel; but Burney is probably right in saying that the
+collaboration was merely a device to save time in getting the opera ready,
+and Burney further points out that Buononcini's position remained as strong
+as ever. It was in fact due to Buononcinci's next two operas, and not to
+Handel's, that the Academy was able to declare a dividend of seven per
+cent.
+
+Handel's _Floridante_ (December 9, 1721) had a moderate success only, and
+against Handel's one opera (except for a few performances of _Radamisto_ at
+the very beginning of the season) Buononcini had three works to his credit.
+The following season brought Handel better fortune, and a decline in the
+popularity of Buononcini. In November and December, _Muzio Sceaola_ and
+_Floridante_ were revived; on January 12, Handel produced a new opera,
+_Ottone_, with a new singer, Francesca Cuzzoni, who eclipsed all the other
+women singers completely, until after some years she herself was driven
+into eclipse by her historic rival Faustina Bordoni.
+
+_Ottone_ contains one number at least which is familiar to everyone who
+knows the name of Handel--the gavotte at the end of the overture. This
+spirited piece of music won popularity at the outset, and even to-day it
+is probably the best known melody of Handel, after the "Harmonious
+Blacksmith." But the real success of _Ottone_ was made by Cuzzoni.
+
+How Cuzzoni came to be engaged at the opera is not clear. Handel cannot
+possibly have ever heard her sing; it has been suggested that she was
+engaged by Heidegger. She was about twenty-two, and had made her first
+appearance at Venice in 1719, after which she sang in various Italian
+theatres. She had a voice of extraordinary range, beauty, and agility; she
+was equally accomplished both in florid music and in airs of a sustained
+and pathetic character, and she was never known to sing out of tune. In
+appearance she was anything but attractive: she was short, squat, and
+excessively plain-featured. She was uneducated and ill-mannered, impulsive
+and quarrelsome. Her arrival in London was delayed for some reason, so
+the management sent Sandoni, the second harpsichord-player, to meet
+her, probably at Dover. On the way to London they were married; Sandoni
+doubtless had an eye to the money which she was to earn.
+
+Her first air in _Ottone_, "Falsa imagine," fixed her reputation as an
+expressive and pathetic singer (Burney); she had at first refused to sing
+it, on which Handel remarked to her, "Madame, je sais que vous êtes une
+véritable diablesse, mais je vous ferai savoir, moi, que je suis Béelzebub,
+le chef des diables," seized her round and waist, and threatened to throw
+her out of the window. Handel had similar trouble with Gordon, the English
+singer who came in for a small part in _Flavio_, which was given on May 14.
+Gordon found fault with Handel's method of accompanying, and threatened to
+jump on the harpsichord.
+
+"Oh," replied Handel, "let me know when you will do that, and I will
+advertise it; for I am sure more people will come to see you jump than to
+hear you sing."
+
+Two more operas by Buononcini were given, but his relations with the
+Academy were not very cordial. He had been taken up by the Marlborough
+family, and was commissioned to compose the funeral anthem for the burial
+of the great Duke in June 1722. On May 16, 1723, Mrs. Pendarves informed
+her sister that the young Duchess had settled £500 a year for life on
+Buononcini, "provided he will _not_ compose any more for the ungrateful
+Academy, who do not deserve he should entertain them, since they don't know
+how to value his works as they ought." The contract, however, seems not to
+have been carried out by the composer. Mrs. Pendarves evidently took the
+news from the day's issue of a weekly journal, adding only the name of the
+Duchess, which the paper had suppressed. What the paper tells us is that
+the Academy had not engaged Buononcini for the coming season.
+
+Senesino and Cuzzoni had made life impossible for the other singers.
+Durastanti retired to the Continent; Anastasia Robinson left the stage, and
+married her old admirer Lord Peterborough. Senesino and Cuzzoni, however,
+were indispensable to the success of the opera, and probably the ridiculous
+affectations of the one and the abominable manners of the other were not
+without their attraction to a public which could enjoy all the pleasure of
+gossiping about them without having to put up with them at close quarters.
+
+The season of 1723 began in November with Buononcini's _Farnace_ and
+Handel's _Ottone_; in January 1724 a new opera, _Vespasiano_, by Attilio
+Ariosti, was given, and ran for nine successive nights. Ariosti was never
+a very troublesome rival to Handel; he was a man of amiable character, and
+apparently quite content to remain aloof from the party politics of the
+opera-house. On February 14, Handel produced his _Giulio Cesare_, one of
+his finest dramatic works; it has been revived with considerable success
+in recent years, partly owing to the fact that modern audiences are more
+familiar with the episode of Caesar and Cleopatra than with the subjects of
+Handel's other operas. _Giulio Cesare_ had the advantage of a strong cast;
+Senesino sang the title part, with Berenstadt and Boschi to support him,
+and the women included Cuzzoni, as well as Durastanti and Mrs. Robinson,
+who had not yet quitted the opera company.
+
+Another masterpiece of Handel's, _Tamerlano_, inaugurated the autumn season
+of 1724 in October; in December appeared Ariosti's _Artaserse_, in January
+_Giulio Cesare_ held the stage till the production of another Handel opera,
+_Rodelinda_, which came out on February 13, and ran for thirteen nights.
+Two more operas, by Ariosti and Leonardo Vinci of Naples, completed the
+season, but it was evidently Handel who scored the greatest triumphs,
+unless the honours should more properly go to Cuzzoni, as Rodelinda, and
+her brown silk gown trimmed with silver. All the old ladies, says Burney,
+were scandalised with its vulgarity and indecorum, "but the young adopted
+it as a fashion so universally, that it seemed a national uniform for youth
+and beauty."
+
+Cuzzoni created a further sensation in the summer by giving birth to a
+daughter. Mrs. Pendarves made much fun of the event. "It is a mighty
+mortification it was not a son. Sons and heirs ought to be out of fashion
+when such scrubs shall pretend to be dissatisfied at having a daughter;
+'tis pity, indeed, that the noble name and family of the Sandonis should be
+extinct! The minute she was brought to bed she sang' La speranza,' a song
+in _Otho_."
+
+Revivals of _Rodelinda_ and _Ottone_ took place in the following season,
+and, in March 1726, Handel produced _Scipio_, in which the famous march was
+heard for the first time on the rise of the curtain.
+
+
+But Cuzzoni's throne was soon to be sharply contested. Ever since 1723 the
+directors of the opera had been trying to secure Faustina Bordoni, and at
+last, with a promise of £2,500 for the season (Cuzzoni received £2,000),
+they succeeded. Faustina was born of a patrician family at Venice in 1700;
+she had been brought up under the protection of Alessandro Marcello,
+brother of the well-known composer, and had made her debut at Venice at the
+age of sixteen. She sang mostly at Venice for several years, and in 1718
+she appeared there in Pollaroli's _Ariodante_, along with Cuzzoni herself.
+She sang at Munich in 1723, and in the summer of 1725 she went to Vienna,
+where she stayed six months, enjoying an extraordinary success. Nearly
+forty years afterwards the Empress Maria Theresa recalled with pride how
+she herself, at the age of seven, had sung in an opera with Faustina. At
+the end of March 1726 she left Vienna for London, where she made her first
+appearance, on May 5, in Handel's new opera _Alessandro_, which had been
+designed especially to show off both Faustina and Cuzzoni in parts of
+exactly equal importance and difficulty. The immediate result was to divide
+London society into two parties: young Lady Burlington and her friends
+supported Faustina; Cuzzoni's admirers were led by Lady Pembroke. Lady
+Walpole succeeded in getting both to sing at her house; neither would sing
+in the presence of the other, but the hostess tactfully managed to draw
+first one and then the other out of the music-room while her rival
+enchanted the guests. Mrs. Pendarves also contrived to be on good terms
+with both. She heard Cuzzoni in November privately, or perhaps at a
+rehearsal, and writes, "my senses were ravished with harmony." The opera
+was expected to begin about the middle of December, "but I think Faustina
+and Madame Sandoni [i.e. Cuzzoni] are not perfectly agreed about their
+parts." The opening, however, was delayed by the absence of Senesino, who
+had gone to Italy and did not return until fairly late in December.
+
+It was probably owing to this fact that opera in English was offered at the
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Marcantonio Buononcini's _Camilla_,
+first given in London in 1706, was revived by a mainly English cast of
+singers. Mrs. Pendarves went to see it, and her criticisms are significant
+for the taste of the time. "I can't say I was much pleased with it, I liked
+it for old acquaintance sake, but there is not many of the songs better
+than ballads."
+
+Faustina--"the most agreeable creature in the world in company"--dined with
+Mrs. Pendarves for a small musical party on January 26. On the previous day
+there was the first rehearsal of Handel's _Admeto_. It was the moment, says
+Burney, of Handel's greatest prosperity and English patronage. _Admeto_
+exhibited conspicuously what Dr. Burney called Handel's "science "; it was
+evidently considered to be complicated in style, though at the same time
+both pathetic and passionate. "Music," says Burney, "was no longer regarded
+as a mere soother of affliction, or incitement to hilarity; it could now
+paint the passions in all their various attitudes; and those tones which
+said nothing intelligible to the heart began to be thought as; insipid as
+those of 'sounding brass or tinkling cymbals.'" These words of Burney make
+one realise that Handel's London operas must have affected their audiences
+almost in the way in which the operas of Wagner startled the audiences of
+the nineteenth century. Handel himself, like Wagner, was steadily
+developing his own dramatic powers, and it is important to bear in mind
+that it was only those marvellous singers of Handel's day, such as
+Senesino, Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Boschi, who could inspire him to the
+creation of such music as they only were competent to interpret.
+
+_Admeto_ was received with respect, and although the partisans of the
+"rival queens" were noisy in their applause, no actual disturbance took
+place until Admeto was followed by Buononcini's _Astyanax_ on May 6. On the
+first night of the new opera each side did its best to drown the opposite
+party's favourite with a chorus of catcalls. The behaviour of the audience
+became more and more disgraceful as the opera was repeated, until on the
+last night (June 6), when the Princess of Wales was present, Cuzzoni and
+Faustina delighted the sporting instincts of the nobility and gentry of
+England by indulging in a free fight on the stage.
+
+Five days later George I died suddenly at Osnabruck. George II was crowned
+on October 11, to the music of Handel's Coronation Anthems. The opera
+season reopened a month later. Apparently the quarrel between Cuzzoni and
+Faustina had been patched up; probably neither of them wanted to lose their
+English contracts. They appeared together in Handel's _Riccardo Primo_, and
+again in _Siroe_ (February 5, 1728), as well as in _Tolomeo_ (April 30),
+but the battle seems to have been won by Cuzzoni, who obtained the more
+important parts. We hear of no more disturbances; the fact was that the
+audiences were too thin to be noisy.
+
+Mrs. Pendarves, always a devoted supporter of Handel, was pessimistic from
+the beginning of the season. "I doubt operas will not survive longer than
+this winter," she wrote on November 25; "they are now at their last gasp;
+the subscription is expired and nobody will renew it. The directors are
+always squabbling, and they have so many divisions among themselves that I
+wonder they have not broke up before; Senesino goes away next winter, and I
+believe Faustina, so you see harmony is almost out of fashion."_Admeto_ was
+revived on June 1, 1728; this was Faustina's last appearance, and the last
+night of the Royal Academy of Music. The opera was announced for June 11,
+but Faustina declared herself indisposed. The opera was shut up and the
+company disbanded. Faustina went with Senesino to Paris, and thence to
+Venice, where Cuzzoni also made her appearance, and continued in the local
+dialect the campaign of slander against Faustina's alleged immoralities.
+
+There were many reasons for the collapse of the opera. It had been carried
+on with reckless extravagance, and the noble directors were in all
+probability not very expert men of business. The scandalous behaviour of
+all concerned in _Astyanax_ may well have caused a falling-off in the
+subscriptions. Mrs. Pendarves, who was a lady of unimpeachable conduct,
+continued to go to the opera, but she was a serious lover of music and
+a personal friend of Handel. The failure of the Academy is generally
+attributed to the success of _The Beggar's Opera_, which had been brought
+out at Lincoln's Inn Fields on January 29, 1728, and at once took London
+by storm. A letter of Mrs. Pendarves, dated January 19, but evidently
+continued later, tells us that she went to a rehearsal of _Siroe_: "I like
+it extremely, but the taste of the town is so depraved, that nothing will
+be approved of but the burlesque. The _Beggar's Opera_ entirely triumphs
+over the Italian one." Even Mrs. Pendarves could not help enjoying it, once
+she had seen it.
+
+It is probable that Handel himself had contributed to the downfall of the
+Academy. Out of the 487 performances given between 1720 and 1728, Handel's
+works obtained 245, Buononcini's 108, and Ariosti's 55. The great singers
+had drawn the public to listen to Handel's operas, but it is clear from
+many contemporary allusions that Handel's music was too severe to be an
+attraction in itself, except to cultivated musicians like Mrs. Pendarves.
+The same accusations were made against Handel that were made in later years
+against Mozart and Wagner--that his operas were noisy and overloaded with
+learned accompaniments. The Italian opera was killed, not so much by the
+fact that _The Beggar's Opera_ made its conventions ridiculous (for its
+conventions could at that time have been ridiculous only to quite unmusical
+people), as by the incontestable attraction of the new work itself. It was
+witty and outspoken, with abundance of topical satire; its music consisted
+of the tunes that everybody knew, and it presented the public with the
+irresistible fascinations of Lavinia Fenton, who was soon to become the
+Duchess of Bolton.
+
+Handel may well have resented the success of _The Beggar's Opera_, but
+the collapse of the Academy was in reality no great disaster for his own
+interests. In the first place, he had done very well out of it from a
+financial point of view; the noble directors might have lost their
+money, but he had been only their paid servant, in which capacity he had
+accumulated enough to invest no less than £10,000 of his own in the next
+operatic venture. He obviously realised the strength of the position which
+he had built up for himself both as a composer and as a man of business.
+The most important result of the Academy's career had been to provide
+Handel with the opportunity of consolidating his own style as a composer
+of musical drama. Like all the court composers of his age he had provided
+whatever his patrons required--chamber music, water music, minuets for
+court balls, Church music for royal ceremonial; but the music on which his
+own heart was set was that of the theatre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Handel naturalized--partnership with Heidegger--_Esther_--the Opera of
+the Nobility--visit to Oxford--opera season at Covent Garden--Charles
+Jennens--collapse of both opera-houses.
+
+
+Handel had by this time definitely decided to make England his home; on
+February 13, 1726, he had been naturalised as an English subject. He had
+every reason to regard England as the best place in which to live. He
+enjoyed the protection of the German court; George II and Queen Caroline
+gave him indeed a good deal more encouragement than George I. The
+appointments of composer to the Chapel Royal and composer to the court were
+purely honorary, but they strengthened his position. As to the opera-house,
+he must by now have felt that he was its unquestioned autocrat, and he
+could not help being aware that he was without a rival in Europe as far as
+the stage was concerned, for old Scarlatti had gone to his grave, and the
+younger generation had produced no composer of such outstanding eminence.
+And in England music was generously rewarded from a material point of view;
+high fees were paid, not only to singers, but to teachers as well, and
+England was also one of the few countries where music-printing was a
+flourishing business. A good proportion of Handel's savings must have come
+from the sale of his published compositions; among Handel's contemporaries
+no other composer in Europe had so many of his works printed during his
+lifetime. English society seemed always ready to subscribe for a new
+musical work, and neither in Paris nor in Amsterdam was music so admirably
+engraved as in London.
+
+Encouraged by the Princess Royal, Handel went into partnership with
+Heidegger, who had also made his own profits out of the opera, as well as
+out of his notorious masquerades; they leased the King's Theatre for a
+period of five years. The first thing to do was to secure new singers, and
+for this purpose Handel went to Italy, probably in the autumn of 1728.
+Heidegger had already tried to bring back Senesino and the two "costly
+canary-birds," as Colley Cibber called them, but they had had enough of
+London, and probably of Handel too. Little is known of the details of this
+Italian journey; it has been said that Handel travelled with Steffani,
+but this is impossible, as Steffani died at Frankfurt early in the year.
+Mainwaring tells us that, at Rome, Cardinal Colonna invited him to his
+palace, but that Handel, hearing that the Pretender was staying there,
+prudently declined the invitation. In engaging singers he seems to have
+been perhaps more prudent than was desirable, for his new company did not
+contain any very distinguished names. In place of Senesino he obtained the
+_castrato_ Bernacchi; his new first woman was Signora Strada del Po', who
+was a fine singer, but so unattractive in appearance that London nicknamed
+her "The Pig." It is interesting to note that he also engaged a tenor,
+Annibale Fabri, although in those; days tenors were considered only fit for
+old men's parts of minor importance, and at Naples were generally given the
+parts of comic old women. Fabri's wife and another woman were announced
+as good actresses of male parts. "Fabri has a tenor voice," wrote Mrs.
+Pendarves, "sweet, clear and firm, but not strong enough, I doubt, for the
+stage. He sings like a gentleman, without making faces, and his manner is
+particularly agreeable." Perhaps Handel's friendship with Mrs. Pendarves
+had given him a sure insight into the taste of English gentlewomen.
+
+In the summer of 1729 Handel paid a visit to his mother at Halle; she was
+then blind and half paralysed. Bach sent his son Friedemann over from
+Leipzig to beg Handel to come and see him, as he was himself too ill to
+make the journey, but Handel not unnaturally declined. Towards the end of
+June he passed through Hanover, and also went to Hamburg, where he engaged
+a German bass Riemschneider.
+
+The opera season began on December 2, with Handel's _Lothario_, but it
+had only a moderate success. After a few revivals of _Giulio Cesare_, he
+brought out a second new opera, _Partenope_, on February 24. Despite its
+many beauties, it was even less successful than _Lothario_. Handel's
+audience did not go to the theatre to listen to his music; they went to
+hear the singers, and Bernacchi, who was no longer a young man, was a poor
+substitute for Senesino. Strada was the only member of the company who
+interested the audience. For the next season something better had to be
+found, and through Francis Colman, the English Envoy at Florence, Senesino
+was persuaded to accept 1,400 guineas instead of the 2,000 that he had
+received before. He opened the season of 1730 on November 3, with his
+former rôle of Scipio. For the moment Handel remained in the background;
+the next opera was a _pasticcio_, that is, an opera made up of favourite
+songs from various operas stuck into any convenient libretto. On February 2
+there came out the new opera of Handel, _Poro_, which turned the tide once
+more in the composer's favour. Later on, _Rinaldo_ and _Rodelinda_ were
+revived, but the season came to an early end on May 29. For the following
+winter some changes were made in the cast. Senesino and Strada were
+of course indispensable, and the most important new acquisition was
+Montagnana, the bass, for whom Handel was to write some of his most
+celebrated songs.
+
+After revivals of _Tamerlano_ and _Admeto_, Handel brought out _Ezio_ on
+January 15, 1732; it had only five performances. _Sosarme_ (February 19)
+had ten; it is remembered now by the exquisite song, "Rendi 'l sereno al
+ciglio," which was sung by Strada. The remainder of the season presented
+nothing of any special interest until on the last night Handel offered his
+subscribers a new type of entertainment in the shape of _Acis and Galatea_.
+
+On Handel's birthday, February 23, Bernard Gates, the master of the
+children of the Chapel Royal, arranged a private performance of _Esther_,
+which had been neglected since its first performance at Canons some twelve
+years before. Among the boys who sang and acted in the "masque" were Beard,
+who afterwards became Handel's favourite tenor, and Randall, eventually
+Professor of Music in Cambridge, who took the part of Esther. The
+performance was repeated twice before a paying public at the Crown and
+Anchor Tavern, where concerts were often held, and on April 20 a rival
+organisation advertised a further performance of Esther at the concert-room
+in Villiers Street. On this occasion it was described as "an oratorio or
+sacred drama," and was evidently sung without action. Princess Anne wished
+to see it on the stage of the opera-house but the Bishop of London forbade
+a dramatic performance. As the bishop's ban was ultimately the cause of
+Handel's turning his attention to oratorio in preference to opera, it has
+sometimes been suggested that Handel might have created a new type of
+national English opera on biblical subjects if only his lordship had not
+interfered. In justice to the bishop it has to be pointed out that his
+objection seems to have been raised, not against the dramatic presentation
+of Bible stories (for he did not discountenance Gates' performances by the
+choristers at the Crown and Anchor), but against their presentation in
+a regular theatre by professional opera singers. Such prejudice may be
+difficult to understand at the present day, but even well into the middle
+of the nineteenth century persons of severe morality regarded the theatre
+and all who belonged thereto with stern disapproval, and the notorious
+scandals associated with Cuzzoni and Faustina, to say nothing of Heidegger,
+were not likely to have washed out the memory of Jeremy Collier's
+denunciations.
+
+"The sacred story of _Esther_, an oratorio in English," was accordingly
+announced for May 2, with the information that "there will be no acting
+on the stage, but the house will be fitted up in a decent manner for the
+audience; the Musick [i.e. the orchestra] to be disposed after the manner
+of the coronation service." Within a fortnight, Thomas Arne, father of the
+composer, advertised a performance of _Acis and Galatea_ at the Little
+Theatre in the Haymarket "with all the choruses, scenes, machines, and
+other decorations, being the first time it was performed in a theatrical
+way." The laws of the time gave no protection to musical and dramatic
+copyright. Handel could only reply by giving a performance of the work
+himself; his one advantage was that as composer he could remodel the score
+and make several new additions to it. But he did not have the work acted;
+it was sung in costume with a background of appropriate scenery. Even in
+this form it obtained four performances; Senesino and Strada took part in
+it, singing in English.
+
+Such a setting may appear strange to modern readers, but, even if it was
+a new idea for England at the time, it was a fairly well established
+tradition on the Continent, and Handel may very likely have seen a similar
+entertainment in Italy. The subscribers to the opera would see little in
+it that was incongruous. They were accustomed to see singers in all operas
+wearing dresses that differed very little from their own, and scenery which
+recalled their own Italianate gardens and palaces; Handelian opera, in any
+case, left little scope for what most people now call acting. At the same
+time we may be pretty sure that concert singers, especially Italians,
+allowed themselves far more liberty of spontaneous expressive movement than
+Victorian oratorio singers holding their music-books in front of them by
+traditional convention.
+
+Four more performances of _Acis and Galatea_ were given at the opera-house
+in December 1732; Handel evidently saw that it would be a sure attraction.
+_Alessandro_ and _Tolomeo_ were revived, and on January 23 he produced a
+new opera, _Orlando_, which had ten performances, with six more later in
+the season. _Orlando_ is one of Handel's most original operas; he seems
+always to have derived a peculiar inspiration from the poems of Tasso and
+Ariosto, as in the case of _Rinaldo_. _Orlando_ is a thoroughly romantic
+opera--Chrysander even compares it with those of Weber--full of episodes of
+madness and magic; it is so far removed from the ordinary conventions of
+its time that we can well imagine it to have startled both its audiences
+and its singers.
+
+The affairs of the opera-house were going badly, and it is probable that
+there were considerable dissension within its walls. It is certain that
+relations between Handel and Senesino were becoming more and more strained;
+_Orlando_ was the last opera of Handel's in which he sang. It seems fairly
+certain also that Heidegger was none too loyal as a partner. Heidegger was
+in a strong position, for he was the actual owner of the stock of scenery
+and other appurtenances taken over from the original Academy. He seems to
+have lent the theatre to Buononcini for some performances of _Griselda_,
+and, when the lease came to an end, it was Heidegger who left Handel in the
+lurch and allowed a rival organisation to secure it.
+
+There was, too, a further reason for the general hostility against Handel.
+Encouraged by the success of _Acis and Galatea_, he had composed a new
+oratorio, _Deborah_, which was performed at the opera-house on March 17,
+by the King's command. For this work prices were doubled; tickets were a
+guinea each, and admission to the gallery half a guinea, instead of five
+shillings. At the second performance the normal prices were charged. The
+raising of prices for an extraordinary performance might well seem nothing
+unreasonable; but the event came exactly at the moment of the popular
+outcry against Walpole's Excise Bill, and the satirists of the day seized
+the opportunity of comparing Handel with Walpole.
+
+Handel was now nearly fifty years of age. In the days of _Rinaldo_ he had
+been a young man of twenty-five, making friends with those of his own age
+or younger, a new attraction with all the fascination of genius and youth.
+In the course of a generation he had become an established institution. He
+had made a success; he had amassed a fortune; he had secured to himself the
+unshaken confidence of the court; but he had inevitably made enemies. The
+native musicians were very naturally jealous of the foreigner, and the
+numerous foreign musicians in London jealous of one who made more money out
+of the extravagant English than they did themselves. The Italian singers
+found him tyrannical, and society very probably resented his rough manners.
+Society had engaged him to provide music for their entertainment, and he
+took up the unheard-of attitude of expecting society to pay its guineas
+for whatever music he chose to write. England, one might almost say, had
+spoiled him, for it was only in England that "The Great Bear," as he was
+sometimes called, could go his own way--a musician behaving with the
+complete disregard of public opinion which was considered the exclusive
+privilege of the English nobility. In any other country he would have
+been forced either to pander to the taste of a court or to relapse into
+obscurity. It was not until after the French Revolution that a Beethoven
+could display the independence of Handel in the aristocratic environment of
+Vienna.
+
+The English nobility, having set Handel this example, claimed their own
+rights, and organised a rival opera-house at Lincoln's Inn Fields. They had
+no difficulty in seducing, first Senesino, then Montagnana, and finally
+Heidegger. Only Strada remained faithful to Handel. Buononcini having lost
+their favour, they engaged as composer the Neapolitan Nicolo Porpora,
+famous then as a great trainer of singers, and still more famous in later
+years as the teacher of Haydn. If Handel had the King and Queen on his
+side, the nobility could count on the support of Frederick Prince of Wales,
+who was immensely popular throughout the country and was on the worst
+possible terms with his royal parents. The Opera of the Nobility, as the
+new syndicate was called, was making its plans in good time, directly after
+the end of Handel's season.
+
+In July 1733, Handel was invited to Oxford for a series of performances
+of his works, and it was proposed to confer on him the honorary degree of
+Doctor of Music. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Holmes, was a loyal Hanoverian,
+and hoped by honouring Handel to do something to counteract the Jacobite
+reputation of the University. _Esther_ and _Deborah_ were performed, as
+well as the Utrecht _Te Deum_ and _Jubilate_, and the Coronation Anthems;
+Handel further provided a new oratorio, _Athaliah_. The degree he refused
+to accept, for what reason has never been explained. Various suggestions
+have been offered. The Abbé Prevost, who was in England at the time, says
+that he refused the degree out of modesty; later biographers have differed
+in their views as to whether modesty was one of Handel's characteristics.
+Others have supposed that he refused to pay the fee of £100 that was
+demanded, but it is inconceivable that a fee should have been demanded
+for an honorary degree, although it would naturally have been paid by
+candidates who took the degree in the normal way. The concerts were
+attended by large audiences, many music lovers coming over from Eton and
+Cambridge, although there was considerable resentment at the price of
+admission--five shillings, a small amount compared with Handel's London
+charges. This "Handel Festival" at Oxford is significant, for it shows
+that in the space of no more than a year oratorio had begun to make a wide
+appeal, even outside London, although it was a form of composition that was
+new to English audiences. _Esther_, considered as a masque to be acted,
+might be said to continue the English traditions of the previous century,
+but there was no precedent in England for anything like _Esther_ in concert
+form. The only English works which offered anything remotely like oratorio
+were the odes of Purcell and Blow for the musicians' festivals on St.
+Cecilia's Day, apart from the greater services and anthems of Purcell,
+which were composed, not for entertainment, but for liturgical use.
+
+After the Oxford concerts, Handel and Schmidt went to Italy to look for
+singers. They heard Farinelli, the most famous _castrato_ of the century,
+but did not engage him; perhaps his demands were too high. The _castrato_
+whom they did engage was Carestini, who, though less celebrated, was at any
+rate a singularly artistic singer. Durastanti came back, and, in place of
+Montagnana, Handel contented himself with Waltz, a German, who is often
+described as having been Handel's cook. Burney, at any rate, recorded that
+he was said to have filled this office, but Burney remembered him chiefly
+as a popular comic singer. He had sung Polyphemus in Arne's pirated
+performance of _Acis and Galatea_, and owing to the defection of
+Montagnana, took his place in _Athaliah_ at Oxford. He had "a coarse figure
+and a still coarser voice" (Burney).
+
+Handel opened his season on October 30, 1733. He had already finished the
+composition of a new opera, _Ariadne_, but it was not brought out until
+January 26, 1734. The reason, no doubt, was that an opera on the same
+subject by Porpora was produced by the Opera of the Nobility on December
+29. Handel would no doubt have heard that it was in rehearsal, and
+have postponed his own production until he could see how Porpora's was
+succeeding. The two operas obtained the same number of performances, but
+Handel's theatre was seldom full, and many opera-goers were dissatisfied at
+his giving them oratorios, such as _Deborah_ and _Acis_, on opera nights;
+these, however, seem to have been commanded by the King, and that in itself
+would make them all the more unpopular.
+
+In March the Princess Royal was married to the Prince of Orange, and Handel
+was commissioned to write a wedding anthem. He also provided a secular
+entertainment in the shape of _Parnaso in festa_, described as a
+_serenata_. It was not unlike a masque; Apollo and the Muses appeared in
+costume on Mount Parnassus, but apparently there was no acting. The music
+was adapted from _Athaliah_, which, so far, had only been heard at Oxford.
+Oratorio was also attempted by Handel's rival; Mrs. Pendarves heard a work
+of his at Lincoln's Inn Fields in March. "It is a fine solemn piece of
+music," she wrote, "but I confess I think the subject too solemn for a
+theatre. To have words of piety made use of only to introduce good music,
+is reversing what it ought to be, and most of the people that hear the
+oratorio make no reflection on the meaning of the words, though God is
+addressed in the most solemn manner." Needless to say, it was "not equal
+to Mr. Handel's oratorio of Esther or Deborah." Mrs. Pendarves was at this
+time a near neighbour of Handel's in Lower Brook Street; one of her letters
+describes a small musical party (her musical parties were always small) a
+month later. Apparently there were not more than ten guests, including Lord
+Shaftesbury, who begged another guest to bring him, and was admitted as
+being "a profess'd friend of Mr. Handel"; the only professional musicians
+present were Handel and Strada. "I never was so well entertained at an
+opera! Mr. Handel was in the best humour in the world, and played lessons
+and accompanied Strada and all the ladies that sung from seven o' the clock
+till eleven." In such company Handel could evidently be more agreeable than
+on the stage at rehearsals, and it is interesting to note that the amateurs
+had no timidity about singing before Strada, and that Handel was willing to
+accompany all of them alike.
+
+In July 1734, Handel's lease of the King's Theatre came to an end, and he
+found the theatre let at once by some means to his rivals, the Opera of the
+Nobility. He therefore entered into an arrangement with Rich for the use of
+his new theatre in Covent Garden, but his autumn season actually opened at
+Lincoln's Inn Fields on October 5. The probable reason for this was that
+the Princess Anne was spending the summer in England and wished to hear
+some of Handel's operas. She was a remarkably gifted musician, and Handel
+considered her to be the best of his pupils; she not only sang and played
+the harpsichord well, but was thoroughly grounded in the theoretical side
+of music and quite capable of composing a fugue, according to a Dutch
+musician who became acquainted with her after her marriage. She came to
+England on July 2 for a long stay, and at once persuaded Handel to give
+three additional performances of _Il Pastor Fido_, which he had revived
+that season. _Pastor Fido_ and _Ariadne_ were given again for her in
+October; probably Covent Garden was not quite ready for performances.
+Princess Anne left England on October 21, and her last words at parting
+were to beg Lord Hervey to do all he could to help Handel.
+
+The chief attraction to the public at Covent Garden was probably not Handel
+but Mlle Sallé, a French dancer who had been engaged by Rich. The first
+performance at the new theatre was a ballet, _Terpsichore_, in order that
+she might inaugurate the season. _Terpsichore_, which includes songs and a
+chorus, served as prologue to _Il Pastor Fido_. The next opera was _Oreste,
+a pasticcio_ made up by Handel himself from his own works; on January 8,
+1735, he produced his Ariodante, an opera over which he had spent the
+unusually long time of ten weeks. The score was begun on August 12 and
+finished on October 24. The story is taken from Ariosto, and, as with
+Orlando, Handel found that it afforded opportunities for his peculiar vein
+of romanticism. On April 16 he followed it up with Alcina, again on a
+subject from Ariosto, and one of even more romantic character. Ariosto's
+enchantress Alcina was the model for Tasso's better-known Armida, who
+provided both Lulli and Gluck with one of their most dramatic heroines, and
+Burney says, with some justice, that Handel's Alcina gave birth to all the
+Armidas and Rinaldos of modern times. Both Ariodante and Alcina contained a
+large amount of ballet music, and the dances in Alcina, intermingled
+with choruses in the French manner, are among Handel's most attractive
+compositions.
+
+Mrs. Pendarves, after the rehearsal of Alcina, described Handel as himself
+"a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments," but he could not
+prevail against the enchantments of Farinelli, who had been engaged by the
+rival opera company. There could be no competing against a combination that
+included along with him Senesino, Cuzzoni, and Montagnana. The one powerful
+counter-attraction that Handel could offer was oratorio on Wednesdays and
+Fridays in Lent, when operas were not allowed to be given. Porpora's David,
+which the rival management put on, had no chance against Esther, Deborah,
+and Athaliah. Alcina carried the Opera on to the end of the season, the
+well-known air "Verdi prati," which Carestini had at first refused to
+sing, being encored at every performance. Handel's alleged angry retort to
+Carestini in comical broken English has been often quoted from Burney; but
+Schoelcher very sensibly observed that Handel was pretty certain to have
+conversed with Carestini in Italian.
+
+The newspapers informed the world in May that Handel was going to spend the
+summer in Germany. His health had been seriously undermined, and it
+may well have been possible that he had talked of taking a cure at
+Aix-la-Chapelle; but on this occasion he went no farther than Tunbridge
+Wells. It was probably in the earlier part of 1735 that he made the
+acquaintance of Charles Jennens, a young man who was eventually to play a
+great part in his life, for on July 28 he wrote to Jennens to say that he
+was just starting for Tunbridge.
+
+The letter is so short that it may be quoted here in full, for it gives us
+a great deal of interesting information.
+
+  London,
+  _July 28, 1735_.
+  Sir,
+
+  I received your very agreeable letter with
+  the enclosed Oratorio. I am just going to Tunbridge;
+  yet what I could read of it in haste,
+  gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I shall
+  have more leisure time there to read it with all
+  the attention it deserves.
+
+  There is no certainty of any Scheme for
+  next Season, but it is probable that something
+  or other may be done, of which I shall take
+  the liberty to give you notice, being extremely
+  obliged to you for the generous concern you
+  show upon this account.
+
+  The Opera of Alcina is a writing out, and
+  shall be sent according to your direction. It is
+  always a great pleasure to me if I have an
+  opportunity to show the sincere respect with
+  which I have the honour to be,
+
+  Sir,
+  &c., &c.,
+
+  GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL.
+
+Jennens was a conspicuous figure in the London society of his day. At the
+time of this correspondence he was thirty-five, and unmarried; he
+had inherited vast wealth in his youth and spent it freely. He was
+ostentatious, even for an age when extravagance was fashionable; but
+although he was conceited and on occasions foolish, he was certainly
+possessed of considerable intellectual gifts, and the things which
+interested him most in life were literature, music, and the fine arts. The
+letter shows us that he must have admired _Alcina_ sufficiently to ask
+the composer for a copy of the score. He also seized the opportunity of
+offering him a libretto for a new oratorio. He had a very good opinion of
+himself as a poet, and it is possible that he foresaw the importance of the
+new type of semi-dramatic entertainment which Handel was creating. There
+were plenty of Italian poetasters, even in London itself, who could put
+together a conventional opera-book, but English oratorio was still in the
+making, and it was not so easy to find a literary framework for it.
+
+In any case, it was evident that Italian opera was a precarious enterprise.
+In October the papers again gave out that Handel was going to give
+oratorios and concerts at Covent Garden; no operas were announced, and for
+the time being Handel appeared to have abandoned opera altogether. He made
+no move until Lent 1736, and then brought out _Alexander's Feast_ (February
+19), which he had set to music in the previous two months. Those ever
+popular favourites _Esther_ and _Acis and Galatea_ followed it, and, as in
+the foregoing season, Handel played organ concertos between the acts of
+these works. It is evident that as Handel could not secure the great
+Italian singers for his oratorios he felt obliged to offer his public some
+other display of virtuosity, and his own performance on the organ seems to
+have been considered a very powerful attraction.
+
+The marriage of the Prince of Wales to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
+(April 27, 1736) provided him with unexpected opportunities for coming
+before the public. It seems to have been at the desire of the Princess
+herself that he undertook a short Italian opera season of eight
+performances, which eventually was extended to ten. _Atalanta_, Handel's
+new opera for this season, in which the chief singer was Gizziello,
+then making his first appearance in England, was composed especially to
+celebrate the royal nuptials, and seems to have finally converted the
+Prince of Wales to the music of Handel. He now became a regular supporter
+of Handel's theatre, with the result that the King promptly withdrew his
+patronage, as he refused to be seen in the same house as the Prince.
+Encouraged by this sign of princely favour, Handel reopened Covent Garden
+in November with a revival of _Alcina_, followed by _Atalanta_. Three more
+new operas were ready, or nearly so; Handel seems to have prepared himself
+for the winter in better time than usual. But neither _Arminio_ (January
+12, 1737), nor _Giustino_ (February 16), nor even _Berenice_, with its
+famous minuet (May 18), could save Handel from ruin. The rival opera-house
+was in no better case. Handel was obliged to close Covent Garden on June 1,
+and the Haymarket followed suit ten days later. Opera at both houses had
+been killed, mainly by the folly of party strife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Bankruptcy and paralysis--visit to Aix-la-Chapelle--the last
+operas--Vauxhall Gardens--Handel's "borrowings"--visit to
+Ireland--_Messiah_ and other oratorios.
+
+
+The collapse of the Opera left Handel not only bankrupt, but with seriously
+endangered health. In April 1737 it had been announced that he was
+"indisposed with the rheumatism," from which he made a slight temporary
+recovery; but before the season was over it became clear that he was
+suffering from paralysis. "His right arm was become useless to him," says
+Mainwaring, "and how greatly his senses were disordered at intervals, for a
+long time, appeared from an hundred instances, which are better forgotten
+than recorded." With some difficulty his medical advisers persuaded him to
+go to the sulphur bath of Aix-la-Chapelle, where, according to Mainwaring,
+he submitted to prolonged and drastic treatment. His cure was considered
+remarkably rapid, and the nuns (presumably nursing sisters) who heard him
+play the organ within a few hours of leaving his bath ascribed it to a
+miracle. "Such a conclusion," observes our clerical biographer, "in such
+persons was natural enough."
+
+It has been asserted that during his stay at Aix, Handel composed a cantata
+for the five-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Elbing, a town in
+East Prussia between Danzig and Königsberg. A German researcher about 1869
+appears to have discovered documents at Elbing mentioning the cantata,
+with the name of the poet and that of a local singer, Jean du Grain, who
+composed the recitatives; Handel "of London" was said to have composed the
+choruses. No trace of the music has survived, and there seems to be no
+evidence whatever to connect this work with Handel's visit to Aix. Nor is
+it possible to suggest any reason why the authorities of this remote place
+should have applied to Handel for a composition.
+
+According to Mainwaring, Handel stayed six weeks at Aix; the London papers
+announced his return on November 7, 1737. The management of the Opera
+had now been taken over by Heidegger, but the death of Queen Caroline on
+November 20 caused all theatres to be closed from that date until the end
+of December. It was announced in the papers that the Opera would reopen
+on January 10 with a new oratorio by Handel, called _Saul_, but this
+performance did not take place, and the theatre actually reopened on
+January 7 with his new opera _Faramondo_. This opera was the first work
+that Handel had undertaken after his return to London, but its composition
+was interrupted by that of the Funeral Anthem for the Queen. Although she
+died on November 20, Handel did not receive the King's command to write the
+anthem until December 7, as George II was strangely undecided in making
+arrangements for the funeral. It was finally fixed for December 17, and
+a special organ was hurriedly built for it in Henry VII's chapel at
+Westminster Abbey. Handel's anthem was performed by 80 singers and 100
+instrumentalists. Queen Caroline had been one of his most faithful friends,
+and his gratitude and affection for her found utterance in music which
+Burney placed "at the head of all his works for expression, harmony and
+pleasing effects."
+
+It was at ten at night on Christmas Eve that Handel finished the score of
+_Faramondo_; on Boxing Day he began the composition of _Serse_. _Faramondo_
+had only six performances, and _Serse_ did not appear on the stage until
+April 15, when it ran for five nights only. It is remembered now, if at
+all, by the fact that the first song in it is the so-called "celebrated
+Largo," but the opera as a whole is of curious interest. "He was neither
+in health, prosperity, or spirits," says Burney, "when it was composed;
+appearances remain in his foul score [i.e. rough copy] of a mind
+disturbed, if not diseased. There are more passages, and even whole pages,
+cancelled in this score, than in any one of all his former operas."
+_Serse_, it must be explained, is a comic opera, and the only comic opera
+that Handel ever wrote. What induced him to attempt this style it is
+difficult to conceive. It is of course true that the failure of Handel's
+earlier operas was largely due to the success of _The Beggar's
+Opera_ (1728), and of other comic entertainments which succeeded
+it--_Hurlothrumbo_ (1729), _Pasquin_ (1736) and _The Dragon of Wantley_
+(1737). A new type of comic opera had arisen in Italy too, and comic
+_intermezzi_ were first seen in Italian grand opera in London in January
+1737, although it was not until 1748 that a real company of Italian
+comic-opera singers came over to England. But what is more important to
+notice is that the whole style of Italian opera was changing during the
+second quarter of the century. Handel had continued to develop his own
+style, based on the grand manner of old Scarlatti, but Handel's operas were
+practically unknown outside London and Hamburg; in Italy, Scarlatti's style
+had already become old-fashioned before his death in 1725, and opera was
+moving on towards the lighter and flimsier manner of Galuppi, who first
+came to London in this year of _Serse_, 1738.
+
+In choosing the libretto of _Serse_, Handel seems to have been making a
+desperate attempt to keep up with the taste of the day. Humour he had
+in plenty; one has only to recall _Acis and Galatea_. But the humour of
+_Serse_, diverting as it is to the modern historical student, is neither
+the musical nor the dramatic humour of 1737; the plot bears no resemblance
+whatever to the Neapolitan comic operas of Vinci and Pergolesi, but rather
+recalls the very early operas, based on Spanish comedies, composed by
+Alessandro Scarlatti in the 1680's. _Serse_ was revived a few years ago
+in Germany, considerably cut about and reduced to one act, in which
+arrangement it had some success; but we can well understand its complete
+failure on its first London production.
+
+The only satisfaction which Handel received in that unfortunate season of
+1738 was the proceeds of his benefit concert at the Haymarket on March 28,
+organised for him by his friends, apparently rather against his own wish.
+According to Burney the net receipts were £800; Mainwaring puts the figure
+at £1,500. Even if we accept Burney's estimate, the sum is remarkable,
+and particularly so in view of the known hostility of a large section
+of society towards the composer. It can only be supposed that Handel's
+physical and mental collapse had been grave enough to awaken a wide-spread
+sense of pity for his misfortunes. Another mark of popular appreciation
+was the erection of a statue of Handel, executed by Roubiliac, at Vauxhall
+Gardens, in recognition of the pleasure which his music had afforded to the
+frequenters of that famous resort. This piece of "laudable idolatry," as
+Burney calls it, was thus described by a contemporary journalist: "Mr.
+Handel is represented in a loose robe, sweeping the lyre, and listening to
+its sounds; which a little boy sculptured at his feet seems to be writing
+down on the back of a violon-cello. The whole composition is in an elegant
+taste." Commissioned by an impresario who had made a fortune out of the use
+of Handel's music, it now appropriately adorns the vestibule of Messrs.
+Novello's music-shop in Wardour Street.
+
+Charles Jennens, writing to his cousin Lord Guernsey on September 19, 1738,
+remarks that "Mr. Handel's head is more full of maggots than ever." Towards
+the end of July he had begun the composition of _Saul_, for which Jennens
+had provided the libretto three years before. It is evident that Handel
+intended to startle his audiences with his new oratorio scheme. He had
+ordered a new organ for the theatre at a cost of £500, constructed so that
+he might have a better command of his performers, and he had also acquired
+another instrument, which Jennens calls a "Tubalcain"--in other words a set
+of bells played from a keyboard--which he intended to use in the scene in
+which the Israelites welcome David after his victory over the Philistines.
+It is curious that Handel should have dramatised the insanity of Saul just
+after he had himself recovered from mental derangement.
+
+No sooner was _Saul_ finished (September 27) than Handel, four days later,
+began the composition of _Israel in Egypt_. _Saul_ was first performed on
+January 16, 1739, and enjoyed a moderate success, but _Israel_ (April 4)
+was a failure, even after it had been shortened and made more attractive by
+the insertion of Italian opera songs.
+
+_Israel in Egypt_ is the most conspicuous example of a strange and almost
+unaccountable habit which from about this period began to show itself in
+Handel's methods of composition--the incorporation of large quantities
+of music by other composers. Samuel Wesley was the first person to draw
+attention to this practice of Handel's, though only in a private letter of
+1808. In 1831 Dr. Crotch, in his professorial lectures at Oxford, named no
+less than twenty-nine composers whom Handel had "quoted or copied." The
+researches of Chrysander, Dr. Max Seiffert, Ebenezer Prout, and Sedley
+Taylor eventually proved beyond dispute that not only _Israel_, but several
+other works of Handel were largely made up from the music of other men.
+
+Chrysander maintained that Handel began appropriating other men's ideas
+as early as 1707, for not only _Rodrigo_ and _Agrippina_, but also _La
+Resurrezione_ and the _Laudate pueri_ show obvious reminiscences of
+Keiser's opera _Octavia_ (Hamburg, 1705). These were probably subconscious,
+like Handel's reminiscences of Scarlatti and others at this period; they
+need not be taken any more seriously than Schubert's frequent reminiscences
+of Beethoven. But in _Atalanta_ (1736) and _Giustino_ (1737), Prout
+discovered quotations and adaptations several bars long from a _Passion_ by
+Graun, which is known to have been composed not many years before. Further
+fragments of this _Passion_ were identified by Prout in _Alexander's Feast_
+and the _Wedding Anthem_ (1736); _Saul_, like _Israel_, incorporates
+several movements from a _Te Deum_ by Urio (_fl_. 1660). From this date
+onwards until the end of his career Handel systematically drew upon the
+works of other musicians.
+
+There has been much controversy over this question, and many attempts have
+been made to explain away Handel's "borrowings" so as to leave no moral
+stain on his character, which indeed, by all contemporary accounts, was
+scrupulously upright. Sedley Taylor (1906) was certainly anxious to clear
+Handel's character, but still more concerned to arrive at the exact truth,
+and his method of presenting the evidence throws a new light on Handel's
+procedure. He showed that in most cases Handel made frequent alterations in
+the music which he utilised, almost as if Stradella (to cite one name
+out of many) had been a young pupil to whom he was giving a lesson in
+composition.
+
+A careful study of these alterations suggests a reason for Handel's action
+which seems not to have occurred to any previous writer on the subject. No
+one seems to have noticed hitherto that Handel's "borrowings" begin in
+1736 on a small scale, and become more frequent in 1737, after which they
+develop into a regular habit. It seems only natural therefore to connect
+them with Handel's mental collapse; it became acute in the spring of 1737,
+but it may well have been approaching in the previous year.
+
+There is no need to go so far as to suggest that Handel suffered from moral
+insanity and was incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong; but
+it is quite conceivable that his paralytic stroke affected his brain in
+such a way that he may sometimes have had a difficulty in starting a
+composition. Biographers of Handel have more than once drawn attention to
+phases in which he seems to have suffered from the inability to make a
+definite decision. Indecision is a common symptom of overstrained nerves,
+and anyone who has attempted musical composition or taught it to students
+will understand the hesitation and uncertainty which often attends the
+first writing down of a musical theme, although, once the initial idea has
+been settled, the continuation and development of it may proceed without
+difficulty. Any musician who studies the examples printed by Sedley Taylor
+will at once exclaim that for a man of Handel's experience, to say nothing
+of his fertility or indeed of his genius, it would have been far less
+trouble to compose an original setting of given words than to adapt them
+so laboriously to music written by someone else for a totally different
+purpose. But after his attack of paralysis there may well have been
+occasional moments when Handel could not make up his mind to write down an
+idea of his own, but may very likely have found that when once he had an
+idea ready on paper before him, whether that of another composer or an
+old one of his own, he could then continue to compose, and often make
+alterations in the music under his eyes which transformed it from a
+commonplace into a masterpiece.
+
+In the autumn of 1739 Handel transferred his concerts to the smaller
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where at first there seemed some hope of
+success. On November 17 he produced his setting of Dryden's _Ode for St.
+Cecilia's Day_; it was repeated several times, _Alexander's Feast_ and
+_Acis and Galatea_ being added to the programmes. But a month later an
+exceptionally severe frost set in; the Thames was frozen over, and for two
+months it was useless to open the theatre, owing to the impossibility of
+warming it adequately. In February he produced _L'Allegro_, adapted by
+Charles Jennens from Milton's _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, to which
+Jennens had added a third part of his own, _Il Moderato_; but the public,
+whether from indifference to the work or from fear of the cold, refused to
+come to it. Handel was once more on the verge of ruin, but that did not
+prevent him from giving a performance of his two most popular works, _Acis_
+and _Alexander's Feast_, for the benefit of a new musical charity.
+
+The charity in which Handel was so keenly interested had been founded in
+1738 to assist impoverished musicians and their families; it still carries
+on its honourable work under the title of the Royal Society of Musicians of
+Great Britain.
+
+The same year saw the inauguration of another charitable institution which
+owed much to the continued generosity of Handel, the Foundling Hospital.
+Like Hogarth, who was also a benefactor, Handel did not confine his support
+to an occasional gift, but took the warmest personal interest in the place,
+and eventually both he and Hogarth were made governors of it.
+
+The managers of the Opera had found themselves quite unable to continue
+productions on the grand scale of former years. In the winter of 1739-40
+there had been an insignificant season at Covent Garden; it seems to have
+been directed by the Italian composer Pescetti, who, in the following
+winter, started concerts at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket. Mrs.
+Pendarves, who during the last few years had not lived much in London, and
+had thus dropped out of Handel's life, wrote in November: "The concerts
+begin next Saturday at the Haymarket. Carestini sings, Pescetti composes;
+the house is made up into little boxes, like the playhouses abroad." Dr.
+Burney gives a comic account of the undertaking. "The opera, a tawdry,
+expensive and meretricious lady, who had been accustomed to high keeping,
+was now reduced to a very humble state. Her establishment was not only
+diminished, but her servants reduced to half-pay. Pescetti seems to
+have been her prime minister, Carestini her head man, the Muscovita her
+favourite woman, and Andreoni a servant for all work." Concerts and
+_pasticcios_ formed the main repertory, and Burney ascribes such success as
+they enjoyed to the fact that the Little Theatre was a "snug retreat" in
+which those who had the courage to quit their firesides during the great
+frost might keep reasonably warm.
+
+Handel had nothing to do with this theatre, but in 1740 again rented the
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where on November 8 he revived _Parnaso
+in Festa_ "in its original oratorio manner, with the addition of scenes,
+dresses and concertos on the organ and several other instruments." It had
+but one performance; on the 22nd, Handel produced a new opera, or, as
+Burney calls it, an _operetta_, which had no more than two performances.
+This was _Imeneo_. On January 10, 1741, he brought out another new opera,
+_Deidamia_, which ran for three nights. _Imeneo_ is a work of little
+importance; _Deidamia_, on the other hand, contains several very beautiful
+songs. But Dr. Burney, notwithstanding his admiration of it, has to admit
+that much of it was old-fashioned, in the style of Handel's youth, and
+sometimes "languid and antique." To Handel's admirers to-day such criticism
+may seem ridiculous, but to his audiences of 1741 these reversions to an
+earlier style would certainly have been most unwelcome.
+
+_Deidamia_ was Handel's last work for the stage; the glorious achievements
+of his youth and maturity had come to a hopeless end. His own public had
+unjustly neglected him, posterity consigned his operas to oblivion.
+
+At some period during the summer of 1741 Handel received an invitation from
+the fourth Duke of Devonshire, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to go over
+to Dublin and give concerts there for the benefit of the local hospitals.
+It is very probable that Mrs. Pendarves may have helped to secure this
+engagement for Handel. She had spent a year and a half in Ireland in
+1731-32, and her letters give a lively account of society in Dublin.
+Matthew Dubourg, an excellent violinist, was at the head of the Viceroy's
+band, and musical entertainments were frequent, for to judge from Mrs.
+Pendarves' descriptions the Irish bishops and deans lived almost as
+magnificently as the cardinals in Rome. Mrs. Pendarves was naturally a very
+popular guest in Dublin society; she was a remarkably fine harpsichord
+player for an amateur, and was constantly in demand as a performer at
+private parties. There was no one in London or Dublin who had a more
+intelligent understanding of Handel's music, and her enthusiasm for his
+works was unbounded. She kept constantly in touch with Dublin life when in
+England, for she corresponded with Dean Swift, and, what was more important
+still, she had in 1730 made the acquaintance of Dr. Delany, an Irish
+clergyman, whom she was to marry in 1743.
+
+Handel did not leave London until the first week of November. During
+the summer he had been occupied with the composition of a new oratorio,
+_Messiah_, the words for which had been chosen and arranged by Jennens,
+apparently with a good deal of assistance from his chaplain, the Rev. Mr.
+Pooley. Whether _Messiah_ was composed with a view to production in Dublin
+is not known; it was begun on August 22 and finished on September 14. A
+fortnight later he had completed the first act of _Samson_. On the way to
+Holyhead he stopped at Chester, where he was obliged to stay several days
+on account of contrary winds which prevented his embarking. He seized
+the opportunity to try over some of the choruses of _Messiah_ with local
+church-singers, and Burney, who was at school at Chester, gives an amusing
+account of the little rehearsal, at which Handel was roused to grotesque
+fury by the inability of the bass, a printer by trade, to read "And with
+His stripes" at sight. On November 18 he arrived in Dublin, and opened his
+season at Neal's new music-hall in Fishamble Street on December 23 with a
+performance of _L'Allegro_, interspersed with concertos. A few days later
+he wrote a long letter to Jennens describing the unprecedented success
+which he had enjoyed. Dublin received him with open arms, and he thoroughly
+enjoyed his triumph, the more so as he felt himself to be in unusually good
+health.
+
+A series of concerts followed, at which various oratorios and other works
+were performed. On April 8, 1742, there was a rehearsal of _Messiah_, open
+to those who had taken tickets for the first performance, which took place
+on Tuesday, April 13. The choir was provided by the singers from the two
+cathedrals, some of whom took the male solo parts as well; the female
+soloists were Mrs. Cibber and Signora Avolio. Over seven hundred persons
+were present, and about £400 was divided between the three charities, the
+Relief of Prisoners, Mercer's Hospital, and the Charitable Infirmary.
+
+_Saul_ was performed on May 25, and a second performance of _Messiah_ took
+place on June 3. Handel left Ireland on August 13. In another letter to
+Jennens he says that his plans for the winter are undecided; for "this time
+twelve-month" (i.e. September 1743) he intended to continue his oratorios
+in Ireland. For some reason or other this second visit to Ireland never
+took place.
+
+It was not until February 17, 1743, that Handel came before the London
+public again with _Samson_, which, unlike most of his oratorios, had
+an immediate success. He had by this time dropped the Italian singers
+altogether, and depended mainly on Mrs. Cibber and John Beard, a tenor who
+had more sense of artistic style than power of voice. Mr. Flower says that
+his voice was more powerful than sweet; Horace Walpole, who heard him, said
+that he had only one note in it, and Mrs. Pendarves, whose judgment was
+probably more trustworthy, said that he had no voice at all. The first
+London performance of _Messiah_ was given on March 23, but it had no more
+than two subsequent repetitions this season. There were many reasons why it
+should have fallen flat. Jennens himself was extremely dissatisfied with
+it. _Israel_ had been a failure too, and it is extremely probable that
+musical people, accustomed to the Italian opera, were estranged by a
+setting of Bible words in prose instead of a libretto in verse laid out on
+more or less dramatic lines.
+
+William Law's _Serious Call_ had been published in 1729; the book makes
+frequent allusions to the frivolity of Italian opera, and opera-going is
+picked out as one of the chief characteristics of irreligious persons. In
+1739 John Wesley first began to preach in the open air; in 1742 Edward
+Young's _Night Thoughts_ achieved its extraordinary popularity. These three
+events were all significant of the religious movement that was taking place
+among the more cultured classes in England, and this movement undoubtedly
+affected Handel's oratorio concerts. The ultra-religious were shocked
+at the association of sacred subjects with the theatre; those who could
+combine religion with culture, like Mrs. Delany, who was now approaching
+the age of piety, were Handel's most earnest supporters. It is quite
+probable that the section of society which preferred its culture unmixed
+with religion resented the attitude of the second party even more than that
+of the first, because the second party belonged to their own social class,
+and this resentment may well have contributed to the ever-increasing
+hostility shown by many social leaders toward Handel. And Handel's personal
+oddities were becoming rapidly more acute, partly owing to increasing age,
+and still more owing to recurrences of paralysis and associated mental
+derangement. He had another attack in this very year--1743.
+
+_Messiah_ and _Samson_ were composed at a more favourable moment, and show
+little use of borrowed material, except that _Messiah_ incorporates some
+of Handel's own chamber duets, the melodies of which were more suitably
+illustrative of their original Italian words than of the sentences from
+Scripture to which he adapted them. But his next important work, the _Te
+Deum_ in celebration of the victory at Dettingen (June 27), begun in July
+and performed on November 27, incorporates no less than nine movements from
+the Latin _Te Deum_ by Urio already drawn upon for _Israel in Egypt_. Mrs.
+Delany "was all raptures," and thought it "excessively fine."
+
+It is curious that, whereas the Dettingen _Te Deum_ was largely based on
+borrowed material, Semele, composed in the previous month of June, should
+be, as far as is at present known, entirely original. The libretto had been
+written by Congreve in 1707 for an opera, and it was only natural that
+its theatrical sense and its literary grace and distinction should have
+inspired Handel to one of his loveliest works. Handel was never quite at
+home in the English language, but in his later years he seems to have
+developed a feeling for English poetry, more especially for that of
+approximately his own time. But _Semele_ did not attract the opera
+audience; it became increasingly clear that the opera party would have
+nothing to do with Handel, and were in fact deliberately doing all they
+could to bring him to ruin. Mrs. Delany and a few other great ladies
+remained faithful, but they were in a small minority. It was evidently the
+younger generation who were in opposition; Mrs. Delany alludes to them as
+"the Goths--the fine ladies, the _petits maîtres_ and the ignoramuses," and
+seemed surprised that they allowed the oratorio to be performed without
+making a disturbance. Mrs. Delany was settling down to being the wife of a
+dean.
+
+_Joseph_ (March 2, 1744) fared no better, and Handel himself "was mightily
+out of humour about it" at the rehearsals. The summer was devoted to the
+composition of _Belshazzar_, for which Jennens had supplied the libretto.
+The collaboration was not altogether happy, for although Jennens had
+considerable sense of the picturesque, and offered Handel opportunities for
+what may be called spectacular music on the grand scale, his literary style
+was pompous, rhetorical, and long-winded. Handel protested perpetually
+against the length of the work, for the Handelian style of composition
+naturally extended the prolixity of the words; Jennens greatly resented the
+musician's criticism, and insisted on printing the poem in full.
+
+When the winter came, Handel produced nothing of importance until January
+5, when he brought out _Hercules_, a secular oratorio which he had composed
+in the summer during intervals when _Belshazzar_ had to be laid aside owing
+to Jennens' delays. _Belshazzar_ was given on March 27. _Semele, Joseph_,
+and _Saul_ were revived, but, whatever oratorio was given, the theatre was
+almost empty, and the season came to a premature end on April 23. Handel
+was again suffering from some form of illness, and was unable to take any
+part in the performances, although he was present at them. Lady Shaftesbury
+describes "the great, though unhappy, Handel, dejected, wan and dark,
+sitting by, not playing on, the harpsichord," and adds that "his light had
+been spent in being overplied in music's cause." Hawkins states definitely
+that Handel became blind in 1751, and this date has been generally
+accepted; Lady Shaftesbury's letter suggests that he was already blind,
+or partially so, as early as March 1745, unless the word "light" is to be
+taken as meaning the light of his reason. This interpretation, in fact, is
+confirmed by a later letter of Lord Shaftesbury in October, in which he
+says: "Poor Handel looks something better. I hope he will entirely recover
+in due time, though he has been a good deal disordered in the head."
+Another friend of Handel's, William Harris, met him in London, in August,
+when he seems at first not to have recognised Harris and to have behaved
+with some oddity; "he talked much of his precarious state of health, yet he
+looks well enough."
+
+It has generally been stated that in 1745 Handel again became bankrupt, but
+Barclay Squire pointed out that his name does not occur in the official
+lists of bankrupts. It must be remembered that, however disastrous his
+opera or oratorio seasons were, he had always his permanent pension of £600
+a year to fall back on, and Hawkins states that this pension, originally
+granted by Queen Anne and George I, was punctually paid throughout his
+life.
+
+From the end of August, London was in a panic over the Jacobite rebellion
+under the Young Pretender, Charles Edward. The Opera remained closed on
+account of the prejudice against the Papist Italian singers; at the other
+theatres patriotism expressed itself in appropriate music. Purcell's
+"Genius of England" was sung at one, Arne's recently composed "Rule,
+Britannia" at another, and on November 14 a "Chorus Song, set by Mr. Handel
+for the _Gentlemen Volunteers_ of the City of London," was sung by Mr. Lowe
+at Drury Lane. The words suggest that the anonymous author was familiar
+with the Epilogue to Purcell's _King Arthur_; Handel's music is neither in
+his own style nor in Purcell's, but resembles the poorest sort of English
+patriotic song of the early eighteenth century. Patriotic poetry was well
+illustrated by an additional verse for "God Save the King" which was
+printed in this same month:
+
+  _From France and Pretender
+  Great Britain defend her,
+  Foes let them fall;
+  From foreign slavery,
+  Priests and their knavery,
+  And Popish Reverie,
+  God save us all._
+
+On December 6 the Pretender began his retreat from Derby, and panic was
+allayed. Handel seized the opportunity to compose and bring out his
+_Occasional Oratorio_, about half of which was taken from _Israel in
+Egypt_; it contains a well-known quotation of "Rule, Britannia," and the
+point of the quotation is made clearer when we know that it was one of the
+patriotic songs sung at the theatres during the period of panic.
+
+The Duke of Cumberland's defeat of the Pretender at Culloden on April
+16, 1746, finally disposed of the Jacobites, and Handel made a further
+contribution to the national rejoicings in "A Song on the Victory over the
+Rebels," which was printed in the _London Magazine_ for July. The words
+were by John Lockman; the first and last verses are as follows:
+
+  _From scourging rebellion and baffling proud France,
+  Crown'd with laurels behold British William advance:
+  His triumph to grace and distinguish the day,
+  The sun brighter shines and all nature's gay.
+
+  Ye warriors on whom we due honours bestow,
+  O think on the source whence our late evils flow;
+  Commanded by William, strike next at the Gaul,
+  And fix those in chains would Britain enthral._
+
+In the same month Handel began the composition of a new oratorio in honour
+of the Duke; this was _Judas Maccabaeus_, for which he had discovered a
+new librettist, the Rev. Thomas Morell, formerly Fellow of King's College,
+Cambridge. Morell has given a lively account of his collaboration with the
+great man, whom he did not fear to criticise. Handel's retorts to him have
+been reproduced as if they were outbursts of righteous indignation against
+a snarling poetaster, but, in view of many other records of Handel's
+rough tongue and genial humour (in which he seems often to have resembled
+Brahms), we need not take them too seriously. It is quite clear that
+Morell was more amused than offended, and the fact that they continued to
+collaborate up to the end of Handel's career as a composer shows that they
+must have remained on completely friendly terms.
+
+Morell, to judge from the contemporary portrait of him, must have been a
+rather comic little figure with a strong sense of humour. He was a scholar,
+and something of a musician too. The academic primness of his verses has
+endeared him to all lovers of Handel, and to no one more than Samuel
+Butler; they are always admirably suited to their purpose, neat and
+scholarly, concise and direct, with never a word too many. They run easily
+for a singer, and it is not improbable that Morell was acquainted with the
+works of that great model of all opera-poets, Metastasio, for his words,
+like Metastasio's, acquire an unexpected beauty when they are sung.
+
+Handel must have felt himself fully restored to health in the summer
+of 1746, for _Judas_, which was written in five weeks, contains no
+"borrowings," apart from a few numbers added some ten years later and
+adapted from some of his early Italian opera songs. It was not performed
+until April 1, 1747.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Judas Maccabaeus--Gluck--Thomas Morell--incipient blindness--Telemann and
+his garden--last oratorios--death--character and personality.
+
+
+The new oratorio met with surprising success. In the first place, Handel
+had given up the subscription system, and opened the theatre to all comers.
+The relief produced by the victory of Culloden had no doubt encouraged
+the general public to spend more money on entertainments; the Duke of
+Cumberland was a popular hero, and, through the _Occasional Oratorio_,
+Handel's name had come to be associated with him. _Judas_ was naturally
+patronised by the court and by the Duke himself, who had made a handsome
+present to Morell in recognition of his literary laurels. And a new class
+of enthusiasts appeared in the shape of the Jews, we are told, who were
+attracted by the glorification of a national hero of their own. We do not
+hear much of the Jewish community in London in the days of Handel, and
+it cannot have been a very large one, but they appear to have been worth
+Handel's consideration. It may be mentioned that Handel's early librettist
+in London, Nicolo Haym, must have been a Jew, to judge from his name.
+Handel, at any rate, was sufficiently impressed to ask Morell to find
+another Jewish subject for his next oratorio; this was _Alexander Balus_,
+produced the following year.
+
+The Italian opera party had this year engaged Gluck as a composer, and he
+too celebrated the Duke of Cumberland's achievements with an opera, _La
+Caduta dei Giganti_ (January 5), which was a complete failure. It must
+have been put together in a hurry, for all of the "favourite songs" in it,
+published by Walsh (and no other record of the music remains), were taken
+from earlier operas of Gluck's; in any case they are poor stuff, and from
+Burney's description of the singers it is no wonder that the opera had no
+success. Gluck called on Handel, who told someone that he knew no more of
+counterpoint than his cook. Gluck was just under thirty, Handel just over
+sixty, and one can understand Handel's attitude; in any case he gave him
+some plain and practical advice as to how to please an English audience,
+which was not much use to Gluck, as he never visited this country again.
+Handel was quite right in his criticism, for Gluck was always very clumsy
+in his technique; and, at any rate, Gluck found him friendly enough and
+spoke of him forty years later with the profoundest respect. It is probable
+that Gluck heard _Judas_, as he was still in London in April.
+
+A significant indication of the new popularity which Handel had acquired
+was the production of a _pasticcio_, at the Italian Opera in November 1747,
+made up chiefly from the operas of Handel; but the experiment was not
+repeated. In the autumn of 1748 a company of Italian comic-opera singers
+came over to London; they brought an entirely new type of entertainment,
+and after their success Handelian opera was buried for ever.
+
+_Alexander Balus_ was not one of Handel's popular works; _Joshua_ (March
+23, 1748) is now pretty well forgotten, but was a great attraction when
+new, mainly because it contained "See the Conquering Hero," which was
+afterwards transferred to _Judas Maccabaeus_. "What the English like is
+something that they can beat time to," said Handel to Gluck. He agreed with
+Hawkins in not caring very much for it himself, but added, "you will live
+to see it a greater favourite with the people than my other fine things."
+_Joshua_ contains two "borrowings," one from Handel's own opera _Riccardo_,
+and another from Gottlieb Muffat.
+
+The productions of the next year (1749) were _Susanna_ (February 10) and
+_Solomon_ (March 17); it is not known who wrote their libretti, though
+_Solomon_ has been tentatively ascribed to Morell. _Susanna_ was remarkably
+successful, perhaps on account of its story, which has always been a
+favourite with the painters of the later Renaissance. One can understand
+Lady Shaftesbury's saying, "I believe it will not insinuate itself so much
+into my approbation as most of Handel's performances do, as it is in
+the light operatic style." _Solomon_ was a complete contrast, with its
+magnificent scenes of oriental pageantry.
+
+The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 1748) had no doubt contributed, as
+the victory of Culloden did, to make people more inclined to enjoy the
+pleasures of life, with beneficial results to the organisers of music and
+drama. The King ordered a grand celebration of the event to take place
+on April 27, 1749, and preparations for it were begun as early as the
+preceding November. The famous theatrical architect Servandoni was
+commissioned to design an elaborate entertainment of fireworks on a
+colossal scale to be let off in the Green Park, accompanied by the music of
+Handel. The Fireworks Music was scored for fifty-six wind instruments. A
+rehearsal of it (without fireworks) was held at Vauxhall Gardens a week
+before, at half a crown admission, and it is said to have been attended by
+a crowd of twelve thousand persons. At the actual performance the fireworks
+were a disastrous failure, owing to various accidents, but Handel's music,
+accompanied by the firing of ordnance, was the real event of the evening. A
+month later Handel repeated the music at the Foundling Hospital, along with
+selections from Solomon, and a new work, composed for the occasion, known
+as the Foundling Anthem. His next act of generosity was to present the
+hospital with an organ, which he inaugurated on May 1, 1750, with a
+performance of Messiah. Henceforth the performance of Messiah at the
+Foundling Hospital for the benefit of the institution became an annual
+event, and it was this charitable association which really secured the work
+its subsequent popularity.
+
+Handel's next oratorio, Theodora (March 16, 1750), came out at a bad
+moment, for a series of earthquakes were being felt in London, with the
+result that many people took refuge in the country, and those who stayed
+behind were reluctant to go to the theatre. The blame for the neglect which
+has always overtaken Theodora has been very unjustly laid on Morell. Handel
+himself, remembering the successes of Judas and Susanna, observed to the
+poet, "The Jews will not come to it, because it is a Christian story; and
+the ladies will not come, because it is a virtuous one." Theodora was
+always Handel's favourite among his oratorios, and he considered the
+chorus, "He saw the Lovely Youth," to be far beyond anything in Messiah.
+None the less, the theatre was half empty when Theodora was given. "Never
+mind," said Handel, with grim humour, "the music will sound all the
+better."
+
+An old acquaintance reappeared this year in London in the shape of Cuzzoni,
+who had continued her quarrelsome career at Venice, Vienna, and Stuttgart.
+An unsuccessful benefit concert was given for her, at which Giardini the
+violinist made his first appearance in London. Handel engaged her to sing
+in Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, but her voice was gone. She was
+arrested for debt and bailed out by the Prince of Wales; after a few years
+in Holland, where she was again in prison, she died in destitution at
+Bologna.
+
+In the summer Handel went to Germany for the last time. Nothing is known of
+his movements there beyond the fact that on the journey out he met with a
+carriage accident between the Hague and Haarlem. He was seriously injured,
+but was stated in a London paper of August 21 to be out of danger. Nor is
+it known when he returned; we have no further news of him until in January
+he began work on Jephtha. Morell says that he himself wrote Jephtha in
+1751, but, as Handel had completed the first act on February 2, it is
+probable that Morell, like Jennens, supplied him with the words in
+instalments.
+
+The composition of the music suffered various interruptions owing to the
+failure of Handel's eyesight, and possibly to a return of mental disorder
+(Streatfeild). He was able to play the organ at the Foundling Hospital
+in May, and directly afterwards went for a short visit to Cheltenham,
+returning to London on June 13. He resumed work on Jephtha, and finished it
+on August 30. It was some time this year (the precise date is unknown) that
+he consulted Samuel Sharp, a surgeon of Guy's Hospital, who told him that
+he was suffering from gutta serena, and that freedom from pain in the
+visual organs was all that he had to hope for during the remainder of his
+days. It was a severe shock, especially to a man whose general physical and
+mental health was already undermined, and it is no wonder that Handel began
+to give way to periods of profound depression. The condition of Handel's
+eyes, and of his hand as well, may be clearly observed in the autograph of
+Jephtha, and it may be noted that here he again reverted to the process of
+"borrowing"--this time from five Masses by Habermann, a composer twenty
+years his junior, published in 1747.
+
+It may well be asked how Handel acquired the original copies of all the
+works which he utilised in his later years, since it is obvious that they
+could not have been well known or easily available to musicians in England.
+A guess may be hazarded that he obtained them through his old friend
+Telemann at Hamburg. Telemann, it will be remembered, had been a close
+friend of Handel's during their student days at Halle; whether they met
+again in Germany after Handel had taken up his residence in London is
+not known, but it is quite probable. The fact remains that Handel was
+undoubtedly in friendly correspondence with Telemann in 1750, for in
+December of that year he wrote a long letter to him (in French) thanking
+him for a theoretical work. Telemann appears to have been a keen gardener,
+and had evidently asked Handel to send him some rare plants. Handel's reply
+suggests that he was not much interested in gardening himself, but was most
+anxious to do all he could to give Telemann pleasure.
+
+Another letter (again in French) to Telemann, dated September 20, 1754,
+explains that Handel had set about procuring the plants when Captain
+Carsten of Hamburg, by whose ship he intended to send them, told him that
+Telemann was dead; but, after another voyage to Hamburg and back, Carsten
+brought the news that Telemann was alive and in good health. He also
+brought a list of the rare plants desired, and Handel writes to say that he
+has obtained almost all of them, and will send them by Captain Carsten when
+he sails for Hamburg again in December.
+
+It is true that there is no mention of any parcel of music in these
+letters, beyond Telemann's "System of Intervals," but they suggest that
+they were part of a longer correspondence. Telemann was keenly interested
+in contemporary music, as his correspondence with Graun shows; he also
+seems to have asked Graun to send him plants from Berlin. He is the most
+likely person to have sent musical works of interest to Handel; possibly
+they were sent on loan, and returned after Handel had made the extracts
+which are to be seen in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.
+
+Jephtha was produced on February 26, 1752. Handel's oratorios had by now
+become a lucrative undertaking, and it was characteristic of English
+audiences that they came in crowds to see Handel playing the organ in his
+blindness, and enjoy the luxury of tears when Beard sang "Total Eclipse!"
+Sharp, the oculist, recommended Handel to employ as his assistant John
+Stanley, who had been blind from early childhood and was a singularly
+accomplished organist. Handel burst out laughing. "Mr. Sharp, have you
+never read' the Scriptures? Do you not remember? If the blind lead the
+blind, they both fall into the ditch."
+
+He underwent various operations, but derived only partial benefit from
+them. During these last years he led a very retired life, but he continued
+to play the organ at his oratorios, at first from memory, and later
+extemporising the solos in his concertos, which were always an integral
+feature of his concerts. The profits of these were enormous, and when he
+died in 1759 he left investments to the extent of 20,000. Composition
+naturally became a more difficult matter after blindness set in, but new
+songs were added to many of the oratorios, and in 1758 he made a complete
+revision of his old Italian cantata, Il Trionfo del Tempo. Morell
+translated it into English, and seventeen new numbers were added. Some of
+these were new, but many were adapted from other works of Handel's, chiefly
+from Parnasso in Festa, and there are also borrowings from Lotti and Graun.
+Two choruses by Graun had already been utilised in the revision of the
+Italian version which Handel brought out in 1737.
+
+All this time John Christopher Schmidt, now known as Smith, had been his
+indispensable factotum. Smith made fair copies of his music, and managed
+his affairs for him, though Handel, almost up to the end, seems to have
+discussed his investments in person with his financial adviser, Mr. Gael
+Morris, in the City. Smith's son, who had come with his father to London as
+a child, had been educated under Handel's direction, and in 1754 became the
+first organist of the Foundling Hospital. In Handel's later years it was
+the son who assisted him at the performances of the oratorios and acted as
+his musical amanuensis. There is a curious story of a quarrel which took
+place at Tunbridge Wells, about four years before Handel's death, between
+the two old men. The cause of it is not known, but it is stated to have
+been quite trivial; old Smith left Handel abruptly, and Handel vowed he
+would never see him again. The son attempted to heal the breach and even
+went so far as to say that he would refuse to assist Handel at his concerts
+any more unless Handel restored to his father the legacy which after the
+quarrel he had intended to leave to the son; young Smith foresaw that he
+himself would be accused of having deliberately alienated the affections of
+Handel from his father in order to secure the money for himself.
+
+Handel apparently yielded to some extent, but it is clear that he was not
+reconciled to old Smith for a long time. "About three weeks before his
+death," we are told, in Coxe's Anecdotes of Handel and Smith, published
+soon after young Smith's death, "Handel desired Smith junior to receive the
+sacrament with him. Smith asked him how he could communicate, when he was
+not at peace with the world and especially when he was at enmity with
+his former friend, who, though he might have offended him once, had been
+faithful and affectionate to him for thirty years." Handel was much
+affected by Smith's words, and the reconciliation took place. Religion had
+gained a strong hold upon Handel in his years of suffering; he spoke much
+to Hawkins and others of his delight in setting the Scriptures to music,
+and he was a regular worshipper at St. George's, Hanover Square.
+
+His last appearance in public was at the performance of Messiah on April 6,
+1759, but at the end of it he was seized with a fainting attack, took to
+his bed, and died during the night between the 13th and 14th of April. He
+was buried in Westminster Abbey on the evening of the 10th; the choirs
+of the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's joined the Abbey choir in singing the
+burial music of Dr. Croft, and it is said that three thousand people were
+present.
+
+Handel's will, executed June 1, 1750, left the bulk of his fortune to his
+niece and goddaughter Johanna Friderica Floerken (nee Michaelsen) of Gotha;
+other relatives were also left legacies. To Christopher Smith (junior) he
+left 500, besides his large harpsichord, his chamber organ, his portrait
+by Denner, and his manuscripts. He had at one time thought of leaving the
+manuscripts to the University of Oxford, and, having already promised them
+to Smith, offered him a legacy of £3,000 if he would resign all claim to
+them. Smith refused, and also refused an offer of £2,000 made for them,
+after Handel's death, by Frederick the Great. He kept them until 1772, when
+he presented them to George III in return for a pension of £200 a year. But
+he did not hand over the whole of the manuscripts to the King, and a
+large collection of rough sketches and fragments was acquired by Lord
+Fitzwilliam, who bequeathed them to the University of Cambridge.
+
+The foregoing pages will have shown how singularly few are the definite
+facts about Handel's life which can be ascertained with any degree of
+certainty. There are a number of portraits which give some idea of his
+outward appearance, but most of them represent him as a man of middle age,
+and the anecdotes of his life and habits recorded by various contemporaries
+belong mostly to the same period. It is almost impossible to form any idea
+of his private character and his inward personality. Biographers of
+musicians often attempt to deduce their characters from their musical
+works, but it need hardly be said that such a procedure is thoroughly
+unreliable.
+
+Portraits are notoriously unsafe as guides to the interpretation of
+character, but if the miniature reproduced by Mr. Flower as having been
+painted in Rome is an authentic likeness of Handel as a young man and it
+certainly bears some resemblance to the portrait by Denner painted about
+1736 or 1737--he must have been singularly attractive in those days. It
+cannot have been his musical abilities alone that won him the immediate
+friendship of Telemann at Halle and Mattheson at Hamburg; and, although he
+seems from his earliest days to have been ambitious and determined to make
+a career for himself, his contemporaries give the impression that he was
+retiring rather than self-assertive. In later life he was often described
+as bearish and rough-mannered, but this cannot have been the case in his
+youth, or he would never have achieved the position which he held in the
+most cultured and distinguished society of Rome and Naples. His visit to
+Italy must inevitably have been a wonderful education in the humanities,
+otherwise he could never have been received as he was on his first visit
+to London by the society which most nearly resembled that of his Italian
+friends and patrons.
+
+Professional musicians, and especially those connected with the theatre,
+were regarded in England as being more or less disreputable, unless they
+held university degrees and posts of distinction. Handel moved among them
+in his professional life, as was only natural, but his more intimate
+friendships seem, throughout his career, to have been confined mainly
+to the innermost circle of the well-bred amateurs; we must not forget,
+however, that it was only persons of that class whose letters and memoirs
+have come down to us. Burney and Hawkins at any rate were well acquainted
+with the professional world, and their testimony tends to confirm that
+Handel stood more or less aloof from it. It was only in later life that he
+associated on terms of friendship with such a person as Mrs. Cibber, the
+singer. In an age when all opera-houses were, with some truth, regarded as
+centres of sexual promiscuity, it is indeed remarkable that not the least
+evidence exists, with one solitary exception, that Handel was ever even
+alleged to have had an illicit love-affair. Mr. Flower discovered a copy of
+Mainwaring's biography, with marginal notes said to be in the handwriting
+of George III, and there we read: "G. F. Handel was ever honest, nay
+excessively polite, but like all Men of Sense would talk all, and hear
+none, and scorned the advice of any but the Woman he loved, but his
+Amours were rather of short duration, always within the pale of his own
+profession." The _Anecdotes of Handel and Smith_ mention two occasions on
+which he was said to have become engaged to be married, or nearly so, but
+the writer is so reticent that little faith can be placed in his statement,
+and in any case the _Anecdotes_, published in 1799, are not very reliable
+as far as Handel is concerned.
+
+It is not difficult to understand that there were two Handels, one
+"excessively polite" (which, in the language of the eighteenth century,
+does not mean that he was servile and cringing, but simply that he behaved
+like a man of good breeding), as he appeared to such people as Mrs. Delany
+and the Harris family, and the other as he showed himself at rehearsals,
+or in the society of men friends of more or less his own standing--bluntly
+outspoken and perhaps at times inconsiderate. The hostility of a large
+number of social leaders may well have been aroused in the first instance
+by some careless harsh word.
+
+"The figure of Handel was large," says Burney, "and he was somewhat
+corpulent and unwieldy in his motions; but his countenance, which I
+remember as perfectly as that of any man I saw but yesterday, was full of
+fire and dignity; and such as impressed ideas of superiority and genius. He
+was impetuous, rough, and peremptory in his manners and conversation, but
+totally devoid of ill-nature or malevolence; indeed there was an original
+humour and pleasantry in his most lively sallies of anger or impatience,
+which, with his broken English, were extremely risible. His natural
+propensity to wit and humour, and happy manner of relating common
+occurrences in an uncommon way, enabled him to throw persons and things
+into very ridiculous attitudes. Handel's general look was somewhat heavy
+and sour, but when he did smile, it was his sire the sun, bursting out of
+a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good
+humour, beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other."
+
+Both Burney and Hawkins record that outside his profession he was said to
+be ignorant and dull, and the fact that they are at pains to defend him on
+this charge shows that there was apparent ground for it. Pepusch said of
+him that he was "a good practical musician," which is what one might well
+expect of Pepusch, whose devotion to antiquarian learning aroused the
+amusement rather than the admiration of his contemporaries. Handel was at
+any rate keenly interested in painting, like Corelli, and the third codicil
+to his will, dated August 4, 1757, mentions two landscapes by Rembrandt,
+one a view of the Rhine, which he bequeathed to one of the Granvilles from
+whom he had received both as a gift.
+
+Another characteristic of Handel's for which his early biographers are
+hard put to find an excuse was his enormous appetite for food and drink,
+satirised by his once intimate friend the painter Goupy in a well-known
+print called "The Charming Brute," in which Handel is represented with the
+head of a pig, seated at an organ, with various comestibles disposed at his
+feet. In this connexion it may be noted that for all his gluttony Handel
+was never accused of drunkenness; if he exceeded in the pleasures of the
+table, it was as a gourmet and a connoisseur. Yet it is recorded that he
+never led an extravagant life, and apart from this particular weakness
+he lived as simply in the days of his wealth as in those of his poverty.
+Generosity to those in distress was at all times characteristic of him.
+
+Although Handel became a naturalised British subject, none of his
+contemporaries would ever have dreamed of regarding him as an Englishman,
+or as a composer of English music. Burney's account of the commemoration
+festival of 1784 may be regarded as an official panegyric, but even in
+that he goes no further than to say that Handel, "though not a native
+of England, spent the greatest part of his life in the service of its
+inhabitants, improving our taste, and introducing among us so many species
+of musical excellence, that, during more than half a century, while
+sentiment, not fashion, guided our applause, we neither wanted nor wished
+for any other standard. Indeed, his works were so long the models of
+perfection in this country, that they may be said to have formed our
+national taste." In the pages which deal with the character of Handel as a
+composer, he says that he united "the depth and elaborate contrivance of
+his own country with Italian elegance and facility." Handel's music, he
+holds, was from the first congenial to the English temperament, but he
+never regards it as being at all English in style, though in other writings
+he naturally recognises the occasional indebtedness of Handel to the
+influence of Purcell. It was only in the nineteenth century that Handel
+came to be regarded as a national institution. His own country for the most
+part neglected his works; his operas were thought impossible to revive, and
+the oratorios were considered by most Germans as being "too English"--an
+opinion which the writer of this book frequently heard expressed in Germany
+some fifty years ago. Since 1920 there has been an astonishing revival
+of Handel in Germany, beginning with the restoration to the stage of his
+operas--the last works of his which most people would have thought suitable
+for presentation to modern audiences--and much energy has been expended
+by German critics on an attempt to demonstrate the essentially Germanic
+character both of Handel's music and of his personality.
+
+The more closely we study Handel in relation to his own times, and in
+relation to the general history of music, the clearer it becomes that Goupy
+the caricaturist was only right when he put into Handel's mouth the words,
+"I am myself alone."
+
+The foundation of Handel's musical style was Italian, and it was only
+natural that this should be the case, for, in his days, Italy dominated
+European music as she did European architecture. All music in the grand
+manner, except in France, was Italian in its tradition, and if ever there
+was a composer who illustrated the grand manner throughout his life, it was
+Handel. France had produced a grand manner of her own, though not without
+an initial impulse from Italy; in all other countries north of the Alps
+native music was only for the humbler classes of society. When Handel
+condescended to it, as he did in the political excitement of 1745, he
+deliberately adopted the musical style of a tavern song.
+
+Handel's serious music was never written for popular audiences; in his
+later oratorios he sometimes admittedly wrote down to the taste of the
+middle classes, but we have the records of his conversations with Gluck,
+Hawkins, and others to prove how little respect he had for that taste. He
+composed for the needs of the moment, and not with a view to immortality,
+but he composed for a society which was cultured enough to desire, even in
+its entertainments, grace, dignity, and serenity.
+
+If Handel's works have for later generations become a source of joy and
+delight to a very different social class, it is because they are the
+musical equivalents of those palaces and gardens of Handel's day which
+are now national monuments and open to all comers. We walk beneath their
+colonnades, peopling them in imagination with the gracious and stately
+figures of the past; and from the museum of memory there arise the unheard
+strains of Handel's music:
+
+  _Hark! the heavenly sphere turns round,
+  And silence now is drown'd,
+  In ecstasy of sound!
+  How on a sudden the still air is charm'd,
+  As if all harmony were just alarm'd
+  And every soul with transport fill'd!_
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+Mainwaring, J.: _Memoirs of the Life of the Late G. F. Handel_. London.
+1760.
+
+Burney, Charles: _A General History of Music_. London. 1776-89.
+
+Burney, Charles: _An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster
+Abbey, etc._ London. 1785.
+
+Hawkins, Sir John: _A General History of the Science and Practice of
+Music_. London. 1776.
+
+Coxe, W.: _Anecdotes of G. F. Handel and Y. C. Smith_. London. 1799.
+
+Schoelcher, Victor: _The Life of Handel_. London. 1857. The first attempt
+at a complete and documented biography.
+
+Chrysander, Friedrich: _G. F. Händel_. Leipzig. 1858-67. This biography
+does not go beyond 1740, but it is the most valuable source for carefully
+documented facts.
+
+Delany, Mary: _Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs.
+Delany_. Edited by Lady Llanover. London. 1861-62.
+
+Taylor, Sedley: _The Indebtedness of Handel to Works by Other Composers_.
+Cambridge. 1906.
+
+Robinson, Percy: _Handel and His Orbit_. London. 1908.
+
+Streatfeild, R.A.: _Handel_. London. 1909. The best biography of Handel and
+critical study of his works in English.
+
+Squire, W. Barclay: _Handel in 1745_ (Riemann-Festschrift). Leipzig. 1909.
+
+Rolland, Romain: _Haendel_. Paris. 1910.
+
+Flower, Newman: _George Friederic Handel: His Personality and His Times_.
+London. 1923.
+
+This book contains much new biographical matter. I have to thank Mr. Flower
+for kind permission to make use of his valuable discoveries.
+
+Leichtentritt, Hugo: _Händel._ Stuttgart. 1924. Biography based mainly on
+Streatfeild; gives a detailed analysis of all Handel's works.
+
+Young, Percy M.: _Handel._ London. 1947.
+
+
+
+
+HANDEL'S WORKS
+
+OPERAS
+
+  _Almira_ (Hamburg, 1705).
+  _Nero_ (Hamburg, 1705, music lost).
+  _Florindo_ (Hamburg, 1707, music lost).
+  _Dafne_ (Hamburg, 1707, music lost).
+  _Rodrigo_ (Florence, 1707?).
+  _Agrippina_ (Venice, 1709).
+
+The following operas were all produced in London:
+
+  _Rinaldo_ (1711).
+  _Il Pastor Fido_ (first version, 1712).
+  _Teseo_ (1712).
+  _Silla_ (1714).
+  _Amadigi_ (1715).
+  _Radamisto_ (1720).
+  _Muzio Scevola_ (1721, only Act III by Handel).
+  _Floridante_ (1721).
+  _Ottone_ (1723).
+  _Flavio_ (1723).
+  _Giulio Cesare_ (1724).
+  _Tamerlano_ (1724).
+  _Rodelinda_ (1725).
+  _Scipione_ (1726).
+  _Alessandro_ (1726).
+  _Admeto_ (1727).
+  _Riccardo I_ (1727).
+  _Siroe_ (1728).
+  _Tolomeo_ (1728).
+  _Lotario_ (1729).
+  _Partenope_ (1730).
+  _Poro_ (1731).
+  _Ezio_ (1732).
+  _Sosarme_ (1732).
+  _Orlando_ (1733).
+  _Arianna_ (1734).
+  _Parnasso in Festa_ (1734).
+  _Il Pastor Fido_ (second version, 1734).
+  _Terpsichore_ (1734).
+  _Ariodante_ (1735).
+  _Alcina_ (1735).
+  _Atalanta_ (1736).
+  _Arminio_ (1737).
+  _Giustino_ (1737).
+  _Berenice_ (1737).
+  _Faramondo_ (1738).
+  _Serse_ (1738).
+  _Jupiter in Argos_ (1739, announced but never performed).
+  _Imeneo_ (1740).
+  _Deidamia_ (1741).
+
+ORATORIOS:
+
+  _St. John Passion_ (German, Hamburg, 1704).
+  _La Risurrezione_ (Italian, Rome, 1708).
+  _Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno_ (Italian, Rome, 1708).
+  _Aci, Galatea e Polifemo_ (Italian, Naples, 1709).
+  _Brockes Passion_ (German, Hanover, 1716).
+
+All the following oratorios are in English:
+
+  _Esther_ (first version, London, 1720).
+  _Acis and Galatea_ (London, 1720).
+  _Esther_ (second version, London, 1732).
+  _Debora_ (London, 1733).
+  _Athalia_ (Oxford, 1733).
+  _Alexander's Feast_ (London, 1736).
+  _Saul_ (London, 1739).
+  _Israel in Egypt_ (London, 1739).
+  _Ode for St. Cecilia's Day_ (London, 1739).
+  _L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato_ (London, 1740).
+  _Messiah_ (Dublin, 1742).
+
+HANDEL 139
+
+The following oratorios were all produced in London:
+
+  _Samson_ (1743).
+  _Semele_ (1743).
+  _Joseph_ (1743).
+  _Belshazzar_ (1744).
+  _Hercules_ (1744).
+  _Occasional Oratorio_ (1746).
+  _Judas Maccabaeus_ (1747).
+  _Alexander Balus_ (1747).
+  _Joshua_ (1747).
+  _Solomon_ (1748).
+  _Susanna_ (1748).
+  _Theodora_ (1749).
+  _The Choice of Hercules_ (1749).
+  _Jephtha_ (1752).
+  _The Triumph of Time and Truth_ (1757).
+
+SACRED WORKS:
+
+  _Laudate Pueri_ (Rome, 1707).
+  _Dixit Dominus_ (Rome, 1707).
+  _Nisi Dominus_ (Rome, 1707).
+  _Gloria Patri_ (Rome, 1707).
+  _Salve Regina_ (1707?).
+  _Silete Venti_ (1707?).
+  _Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate_ (London, 1713).
+  _Te Deum_ in D (1714?).
+  _Te Deum_ in B flat (Chandos) (1718-20).
+  _Te Deum_ in A (1727?).
+  _Twelve Chandos Anthems_ (1716-19).
+  _Four Coronation Anthems_ (1727).
+  _Wedding Anthem for Princess Anne_ (1734).
+  _Wedding Anthem for the Prince of Wales_ (1736).
+  _Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline_ (1737).
+  _Dettingen Te Deum_ (1743).
+  _Dettingen Anthem_ (1743).
+  _Foundling Hospital Anthem_ (1749).
+
+SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC:
+
+  _Birthday Ode for Queen Anne_ (1713).
+  _Italian Cantatas, Duets and Trios_.
+  _German Songs_.
+
+INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC:
+
+  _Six Concertos_ (so-called "Oboe Concertos"), published 1734.
+  _Three Concertos_ ("Select Harmony"), published 1741.
+  _Twelve Grand Concertos_, op. 6 (published 1740).
+  _Three Concertos a due cori_.
+  _Overtures, Marches, Dances, etc_.
+  _Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra_.
+  _Concerto for Violin and Orchestra_.
+  _Water Music_ (1715-17).
+  _Forest Music_ (1742, probably spurious).
+  _Music for the Royal Fireworks_ (1749).
+  _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_, op. 4 (1738).
+  _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_ (1740).
+  _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_, op. 7 (1760).
+
+Many of these are arrangements of other works.
+
+  _Sonatas for Flute, Oboe or Violin and Bass_ (19).
+  _Six Sonatas for two Oboes and Bass_.
+  _Six Sonatas for two Violins (Oboes or Flutes) and Bass_, op. 2 (1733).
+  _Seven Sonatas for two Violins (Flutes) and Bass_, op. 5 (1739).
+  _Sonata for Viola de Gamba_.
+  _Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin_ (8) (1720).
+  _Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin_ (8) (1733).
+  _Miscellaneous Harpsichord Music_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Edward J. Dent
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Handel, by Edward J. Dent
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Edward J. Dent
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Handel
+
+Author: Edward J. Dent
+
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9089]
+This file was first posted on September 4, 2003
+Last Updated: May 8, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANDEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Text file produced by Stan Goodman, and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+HTML file produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3">
+<tr>
+<td>
+THERE IS AN IMPROVED EDITION OF THIS TITLE WHICH MAY VIEWED AT EBOOK <big><b><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39671">
+[# 39671 ]</a></b></big>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      HANDEL
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Edward J. Dent
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="middle">
+      <p>
+        {Illustration: G. F. HANDEL <i>from a woodcut by Eric King</i> (not
+        available)}
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <b>CONTENTS</b>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_TOC"> DETAILED CONTENTS </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> CHRONOLOGY </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_BIBL"> BIBLIOGRAPHY </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> HANDEL'S WORKS </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_TOC" id="link2H_TOC"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      DETAILED CONTENTS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Chapter</i> I <br /> Birth and parentage&mdash;studies under Zachow at
+      Halle&mdash;Hamburg&mdash;friendship and <br /> duel with Mattheson&mdash;<i>Almira</i>&mdash;departure
+      for Italy. <br /> <i>Chapter</i> II <br /> Arrival in Italy&mdash;<i>Rodrigo</i>&mdash;Rome:
+      Cardinal Ottoboni and the <br /> Scarlattis&mdash;Naples: Venice: <i>Agrippina</i>&mdash;appointment
+      at Hanover&mdash;London: <br /> <i>Rinaldo</i>. <br /> <i>Chapter</i> III
+      <br /> Second visit to London&mdash;Italian opera&mdash;George I and the <i>Water
+      <br /> Music</i>&mdash;visit to Germany&mdash;Canons and the Duke of
+      Chandos&mdash;establishment of <br /> the Royal Academy of Music. <br /> <i>Chapter</i>
+      IV <br /> Buononcini&mdash;Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino&mdash;death of
+      George I&mdash;<i>The <br /> Beggar's Opera</i>&mdash;collapse of the
+      Academy. <br /> <i>Chapter</i> V <br /> Handel naturalized&mdash;partnership
+      with Heidegger&mdash;<i>Esther</i>&mdash;the Opera of <br /> the Nobility&mdash;visit
+      to Oxford&mdash;opera season at Covent Garden&mdash;Charles <br /> Jennens&mdash;collapse
+      of both opera-houses. <br /> <i>Chapter</i> VI <br /> Bankruptcy and
+      paralysis&mdash;visit to Aix-la-Chapelle&mdash;the last <br /> operas&mdash;Vauxhall
+      Gardens&mdash;Handel's "borrowings"&mdash;visit to <br /> Ireland&mdash;<i>Messiah</i>
+      and other oratorios. <br /> <i>Chapter</i> VII <br /> <i>Judas Maccabaeus</i>&mdash;Gluck&mdash;Thomas
+      Morell&mdash;incipient blindness&mdash;Telemann and <br /> his garden&mdash;last
+      oratorios&mdash;death&mdash;character and personality. <br /> <i>Bibliography
+      and List of Works</i> <br /> <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHRONOLOGY
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  1685.... Birth at Halle.
+  1702.... Entered University; organist of the Cathedral.
+  1703.... Went to Hamburg.
+  1705.... First opera: <i>Almira</i> (Hamburg).
+  1707.... Arrival in Italy.
+  1710.... Appointment at Hanover; first visit to London.
+  1711.... First London opera: <i>Rinaldo</i>.
+  1712.... Second visit to London.
+  1717.... Appointment to the Duke of Chandos.
+  1720.... Opening of Royal Academy of Music (Opera).
+  1726.... Naturalized as a British subject.
+  1728.... <i>The Beggar's Opera</i>. Collapse of the Academy.
+  1732.... First public oratorio: <i>Esther</i>.
+  1733.... Festival at Oxford.
+  1737.... Collapse of Opera; Handel bankrupt and paralysed.
+  1741.... Last opera: <i>Deidamia</i>.
+  1742.... <i>Messiah</i> at Dublin.
+  1751.... First signs of blindness. Last oratorio <i>Jeptha</i>.
+  1759.... Death in London.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Birth and parentage&mdash;studies under Zachow at Halle&mdash;Hamburg&mdash;friendship
+      and duel with Mattheson&mdash;Almira&mdash;departure for Italy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The name of Handel suggests to most people the sound of music unsurpassed
+      in massiveness and dignity, and the familiar portraits of the composer
+      present us with a man whose external appearance was no less massive and
+      dignified than his music. Countless anecdotes point him out to us as a
+      well-known figure in the life of London during the reigns of Queen Anne
+      and the first two Georges. He lies buried in Westminster Abbey. One would
+      expect every detail of his life to be known and recorded, his every
+      private thought to be revealed with the pellucid clarity of his immortal
+      strains. It is not so; to assemble the bare facts of Handel's life is a
+      problem which has baffled the most laborious of his biographers, and his
+      inward personality is more mysterious than that of any other great
+      musician of the last two centuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>Memoirs of the Life of the late George Frederic Handel</i>, written
+      by the Rev. John Mainwaring in 1760, a year after his death, is the first
+      example of a whole book devoted to the biography of a musician. The author
+      had never known Handel himself; he obtained his material chiefly from
+      Handel's secretary, John Christopher Smith the younger. Mainwaring is our
+      only authority for the story of Handel's early life. Many of his
+      statements have been proved to be untrue, but there is undoubtedly a
+      foundation of truth beneath most of them, however misleading either
+      Smith's memory or Mainwaring's imagination may have been. The rest of our
+      knowledge has to be built up from scattered documents of various kinds,
+      helped out by the reminiscences of Dr. Burney and Sir John Hawkins. For
+      the inner life of Mozart and Beethoven we can turn to copious letters and
+      other personal writings; Handel's extant letters do not amount to more
+      than about twenty in all, and it is only rarely that they throw much light
+      on the workings of his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The family of Handel belonged originally to Breslau. The name is found in
+      various forms; it seems originally to have been <i>Händeler</i> signifying
+      trader, but by the time the composer was born the spelling <i>Händel</i>
+      had been adopted. This is the correct German form of his name; in Italy he
+      wrote his name <i>Hendel</i>, in order to ensure its proper pronunciation,
+      and in England he was known, for the same reason, as Handel. The Handels
+      of Breslau had for several generations been coppersmiths. Valentine
+      Handel, the composer's grandfather, born in 1582, migrated to Halle, where
+      two of his sons followed the same trade. His third son, George, born 1622,
+      became a barber-surgeon. At the age of twenty he married the widow of the
+      barber to whom he had been apprenticed; she was twelve years older than he
+      was. In 1682 she died, and George Handel, although sixty years of age,
+      married a second wife within half a year. Her name was Dorothea Taust; her
+      father, like most of his ancestors, was a clergyman. Her age was
+      thirty-two. Her first child, born in 1684, died at birth; her second, born
+      February 23, 1685, was baptised the following day with the name of George
+      Frederic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The town of Halle had originally belonged to the Dukes of Saxony, but
+      after the Thirty Years' War it was assigned to the Elector of Brandenburg.
+      George Frederic Handel was therefore born a Prussian. But Duke Augustus of
+      Saxony was allowed to keep his court at the Moritzburg in Halle, and it
+      was this prince who made George Handel his personal surgeon. After Duke
+      Augustus's death in 1680, Halle was definitely transferred to Brandenburg,
+      and the new Duke, Johann Adolf, took up his residence at Weissenfels,
+      twenty-five miles to the south-west of Halle. At the time of George
+      Frederic's birth, Halle had relapsed into being a quiet provincial town.
+      The musical life of Germany in those days was chiefly centred in the
+      numerous small courts, each of which did its best to imitate the
+      magnificence of Louis XIV at Paris and Versailles. But the seventeenth
+      century, although it produced very few musicians of outstanding greatness,
+      was a century of restless musical activity throughout Europe, especially
+      in the more private and domestic branches of the art. The Reformation had
+      made music the vehicle of personal devotion, and the enormous output of a
+      peculiarly intimate type of sacred music, both in Germany and in England,
+      shows that there must have been a keen demand for it in Protestant home
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      George Handel, the surgeon, seems to have hated music. There is no
+      evidence that either his wife or her sister, who shared their home after
+      her father's death in 1685, was musically gifted, but the mere fact of
+      their being the daughters of a Lutheran pastor makes it probable that they
+      had had some education in the art. We may safely guess that the composer
+      inherited his musical talents from the Taust family. He showed his
+      inclination for music at a very early age, with such insistence indeed
+      that his father forbade him to touch any musical instrument. There is a
+      well-known story of his contriving to smuggle a clavichord into a garret
+      without his father's knowledge in order to practise on it while the rest
+      of the family were asleep, but for this tale Mainwaring is our only
+      authority. It is very probable that old Handel was irritated by the sound
+      of his son's early efforts and regarded music as a waste of time; his wife
+      may perhaps have encouraged the child's obvious abilities, taking care
+      that he made music only in some part of the house where he would not
+      disturb his father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the age of seven he was sent to the Lutheran Grammar School, and he may
+      very likely have had some instruction in singing while there. In any case
+      there can be no doubt that he was taught more than the mere rudiments of
+      music in childhood, however severe his father's opposition may have been.
+      He was between seven and nine when his father took him to Weissenfels,
+      where he was required to attend on the Duke. It is quite probable that the
+      child may have been taken there several times, especially as a relative of
+      his was in regular service in the Duke's establishment. One day he was
+      allowed to play on the organ in the palace chapel; the Duke happened to
+      hear him, made enquiries as to who the player was, and at once urged on
+      the father the duty of having him properly trained for a musical career.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Handel remained obstinate; he was determined that his son should have
+      a liberal education and become a lawyer. By his own efforts he had raised
+      himself to a position of some distinction and affluence; it was only
+      natural that he should wish his son to enter on life with better
+      advantages than he himself had enjoyed. He at any rate followed the advice
+      of the Duke so far as to place the boy under the musical tuition of
+      Friedrich Zachow, the organist of the Lutheran church at Halle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next episode in George Frederic's career has considerably puzzled his
+      biographers. Mainwaring asserts that in 1698 he went to Berlin, where he
+      was presented to the Electress Sophia Charlotte and made the acquaintance
+      of Ariosti and Giovanni Battista Buononcini, two famous Italian opera
+      composers whom he was to encounter again, in London, many years later. But
+      it is known that Ariosti did not arrive in Berlin until the spring of
+      1697, and Buononcini not until 1702. And as old Handel died in February
+      1697, his son cannot have been in Berlin later than about the end of 1696,
+      if it is true (as Mainwaring says) that the Elector offered to send him to
+      Italy, an offer which the father firmly refused to accept for him. If, on
+      the other hand, Mainwaring is right in saying that young Handel went to
+      Berlin with a view to obtaining a musical post there, it is hardly likely
+      that he should have made the journey at ten years of age, and while his
+      father was still living. It seems much more probable that if he ever did
+      visit Berlin it was when he was of an age to form his own judgments as to
+      his future career.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three days before his seventeenth birthday he matriculated as a law
+      student of the University of Halle, but music must have been the chief
+      occupation of his time. The composer Telemann, four years his senior,
+      spoke of him as being already a musician of importance at Halle when he
+      first met him there, probably in 1700. In March 1702 he was appointed
+      organist at the Cathedral, although he belonged to the Lutheran Church,
+      whereas the Cathedral was Calvinist; considerable scandal had been caused
+      by the intemperance of the Cathedral organist, one Leporin, who was
+      finally dismissed. That Handel should have been given the post at so early
+      an age points to his ability and trustworthiness of character; it also
+      suggests that efficient organists were rare among the Calvinist musicians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mainwaring unjustly credited Zachow with Leporin's love of a cheerful
+      glass, and other biographers have perhaps for this reason greatly
+      underrated Zachow's musicianship. Zachow cannot indeed be classed as a
+      great composer, but he was considerably more than merely a sound average
+      teacher. For one thing, he possessed a large library of music. Handel was
+      not only made to master the arts of counterpoint and fugue, but he was
+      also set to study the works of other composers, and to train his sense of
+      style by writing music in direct imitation of them. In those days there
+      was no possibility of buying all sorts of music ready printed. Printing
+      was expensive, and generally clumsy in execution as well; most music was
+      copied by hand, and a musician who wished to acquire a library of music
+      generally did so by borrowing it and copying it. Zachow employed Handel to
+      copy music for him, and no doubt he copied a great deal for himself.
+      Although the opportunities for hearing music would not be very liberal in
+      a town like Halle, Handel, under Zachow, became a well-read musician as
+      well as an accomplished one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the seventeenth century the chief contribution of Germany to the
+      art of music was religious, just as the German hymns were her chief
+      contribution to poetry. In Italy, on the other hand, sacred music was of
+      minor importance as compared with the development of opera. But in all
+      music Italy led the way, and German sacred music was constantly influenced
+      by the Italians, with the result that Italian dramatic methods were often
+      used by German composers of sacred music, not with any loss of seriousness
+      and dignity to its character, but rather to the intenser expression of
+      that deep personal religious feeling which characterised both the poetry
+      and the music of the Protestant nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Zachow was well acquainted with the Italian masters, and his own Church
+      music shows a vivid dramatic sense; it is easy to see how much Handel
+      learned from him. But although Church cantatas and organ music may have
+      sufficed for the majority of the innumerable worthy German musicians of
+      those days, the form of music which excited the curiosity and interest of
+      the livelier spirits was certainly opera. By 1700, opera had established
+      itself all over Italy, supported mainly by the great princes, but at
+      Venice maintained on a commercial basis by the citizens themselves since
+      1637. The first attempt at a German opera was made by Heinrich Schütz, at
+      Torgau, ten years earlier. Vienna introduced Italian opera in 1631, and,
+      generally speaking, the Catholic princes of Germany, who one after another
+      followed the example of Vienna, preferred opera in Italian. Protestant
+      Germany inclined more to opera in its own language, though towards the end
+      of the century Italian gradually gained the upper hand at the more
+      important courts. Native German opera owed its origin partly to the visit
+      of the English comedians early in the century, and partly to the musical
+      plays acted by school-boys; from the English "jigs" came the use of short
+      popular songs, and from the school plays the tendency of the early German
+      operas to be of a more or less sacred or edifying character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's friend, the composer Telemann, tells us that it was not unusual
+      for students from the University of Leipzig to go to Berlin to hear the
+      Italian opera, which had been established by the Electress Sophia
+      Charlotte in 1700, and this suggests that Handel's visit to Berlin may
+      have taken place in 1703 rather than in his childhood. But he certainly
+      had opportunities for seeing operas nearer home. There had been many
+      German operas performed at Halle itself during the twenty years before
+      Handel's birth, and Duke Johann Adolf opened an opera-house at Weissenfels
+      in 1685, in which Philipp Krieger produced German operas regularly for the
+      next thirty years. There was thus every reason for young Handel's growing
+      ambitious to become a composer for the stage, although we have no evidence
+      of his having ever attempted dramatic composition until he left Halle in
+      1703.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most important of all the north German opera-houses was that of
+      Hamburg, where the opera did not depend on the patronage of a court, but
+      was organised, as at Venice, as a public entertainment. Hamburg had
+      attempted German opera as early as 1648, and it is interesting to note
+      that the English composer William Brade was one of those who provided the
+      music; but the real history of the Hamburg opera may be said to begin with
+      the performance of Theile's <i>Adam and Eve</i> in the newly built theatre
+      in the Goose-Market in 1678. When Handel arrived in Hamburg in the summer
+      of 1703 the biblical operas had long come to an end, and the theatre was
+      under the management of Reinhold Keiser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Keiser was a musician of remarkable genius. His father was a disreputable
+      organist, and his mother a young lady of noble family who had been hastily
+      married at the age of sixteen. Born near Weissenfels in 1674, he had begun
+      his operatic career at Brunswick at the age of eighteen; three years later
+      he took over the direction of the opera at Hamburg, where he produced a
+      large number of operas composed by himself. As a composer, Keiser had a
+      singular fluency of melody in a style that hovers between those of Germany
+      and Italy; had he been a man of more solid character he might have
+      accomplished greater things. But he had inherited from his parents a love
+      of pleasure and debauchery; extravagant in his private life, he was no
+      less extravagant in his theatrical management, and was ready to provide
+      his audiences with anything in the way of startling sensation. One of his
+      most famous operas was on the subject of Störtebeker, a notorious
+      highwayman (1704), in which murders were represented with the most
+      disgusting realism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hamburg was the Venice of the north and, like Venice, a city of pleasure;
+      but its pleasures were often of a coarse and licentious description. Life
+      in Hamburg was probably not much unlike that of Restoration London; but
+      though Keiser may well be set beside Purcell, Hamburg had no dramatists to
+      compare with Congreve, hardly even with Shadwell. Jeremy Collier, however,
+      was far outdone in vituperation by the puritan clergy who, not altogether
+      without reason, castigated the immorality of the Hamburg stage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel seems to have arrived in Hamburg in early summer of 1703, for we
+      first hear of him there on July 2, when he met Johann Mattheson in the
+      church of St. Mary Magdalen. It seems to have been a chance acquaintance,
+      to judge from Mattheson's account; it stuck in Mattheson's memory for many
+      years and he remembered especially the pastry-cook's boy who blew the
+      organ for Handel and himself. Mattheson was four years older than Handel;
+      he was one of those precociously gifted, versatile, attractive, and rather
+      vain young men who are endowed with so many talents that they never
+      achieve distinction in any branch of art. He is remembered now only by the
+      literary work of his later life, in which he shows himself as a voluminous
+      pedant and an embittered critic. He made friends with Handel on the spot,
+      and took him under his own protection, providing him with almost daily
+      free meals at his father's house. He evidently regarded him as a very
+      simple and provincial young musician, a notable organist indeed, and a
+      master of such learned devices as counterpoint and fugue, but a dull
+      composer, turning out endless arias and cantatas with no sense of the
+      fashionable Italian taste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Mattheson, by his own account, who introduced Handel to the musical
+      life of Hamburg. The opera was closed for the summer, and Keiser's
+      celebrated winter concerts, at which the wealthy society of Hamburg
+      listened to the most famous singers and regaled themselves with tokay, had
+      not yet begun; but there was no lack of social distractions, in which
+      music no doubt played its part. In August the two friends made a journey
+      to Lubeck, to compete for the post of organist at the Marienkirche in
+      succession to Dietrich Buxtehude, who was nearly seventy and ready to
+      retire. But both Buxtehude and the town council insisted that the new
+      organist should marry his predecessor's daughter, in order to save the
+      town the necessity of providing for her; she was considerably older than
+      the two youthful candidates, and they both withdrew in haste. Late in life
+      Mattheson married the daughter of an English clergyman; Handel remained a
+      bachelor to the end of his days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was no doubt through Mattheson that Handel, in the autumn, entered the
+      opera band as a humble second violinist. He seems to have been of a very
+      retiring and quiet disposition, although of a dry humour. Opera management
+      at Hamburg was no less precarious than it was in London; Keiser could not
+      afford the Italian singers patronised by the German princes, and his
+      performances had often to be helped out by amateurs of all classes. On one
+      occasion the harpsichord-player failed him; Handel took his place at short
+      notice, and his musicianship was at once recognised. Unfortunately
+      Mattheson, whose chronology is always rather uncertain, does not tell us
+      when this occurred. In addition to his duties in the orchestra, Handel
+      earned a living by teaching private pupils, and through Mattheson he was
+      engaged by Mr. John Wyche, the English Envoy, as music-master to his small
+      son Cyril.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in 1704 Mattheson went to Holland, where he had some success in
+      organising concerts at Amsterdam, and was offered the post of organist at
+      Haarlem. He seems to have had some idea of seeking his fortune in England;
+      he spoke English well, and may have had useful connexions in England
+      through Mr. John Wyche. But in March Handel wrote to him that the Hamburg
+      opera could not get on without him, and to Hamburg he returned. It soon
+      must have become clear to him that Handel was rapidly outgrowing any need
+      of his condescending patronage. A <i>Passion according to St. John</i>,
+      the words of which had been written by Postel, an opera-poet turned
+      pietist, had been set to music by Handel, and performed on Good Friday
+      with marked success. Mattheson arrived too late to hear it, but it is
+      significant that twenty years later he published a scathing criticism of
+      it, although it is a work of little importance in relation to Handel's
+      complete career, and can seldom have been performed. A Passion oratorio by
+      Keiser was produced at the same time, it may well have been that Handel's
+      work, youthful and conventional as it is, was enough to arouse the
+      jealousy of both Keiser and Mattheson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after Easter, Keiser began the composition of a new opera, <i>Almira</i>,
+      on a libretto by the local poet Feustking, but for some reason or other he
+      found it necessary to call in Handel's assistance, and eventually left the
+      whole work to Handel to compose. It was to be produced in the autumn.
+      Handel seems to have consulted Mattheson over every detail of the opera;
+      there exists a complete score in Mattheson's handwriting, with corrections
+      and additions by Handel. Mattheson spent the summer enjoying a country
+      holiday in Mecklenburg; Handel probably went on with his opera, at
+      Hamburg. In October, just as the opera season was reopening, Mattheson
+      contrived to get himself engaged by Sir Cyril Wych as tutor to his son; he
+      also took over the boy's musical education, hinting that Handel was
+      dismissed for neglect of his duties. In view of Handel's strictly
+      honourable character it is difficult to believe that he was guilty of
+      neglect, and we may naturally suppose him to have resented the loss of a
+      lucrative appointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first opera of the autumn was not Handel's <i>Almira</i>, but an opera
+      by Mattheson, called <i>Cleopatra</i>. Mattheson, always eager to exhibit
+      his versatility, sang the part of Antony himself, and, not content with
+      that, came into the orchestra as soon as Antony had died on the stage and
+      kept himself in view of the audience by conducting at the harpsichord. For
+      several performances Handel made no objection and gave up his seat to
+      Mattheson when the moment came, but on December 5, for some reason or
+      other, he refused, to the surprise and indignation of the composer. German
+      musicians in those days were a quarrelsome crew; at the court of Stuttgart
+      the musicians were so much given to knocking each other on the head with
+      their instruments, even in the august presence of His Serene Highness,
+      that there was hardly one left undamaged. It was only to be expected that
+      the friends of Handel and Mattheson should egg them on to fight a duel in
+      the street; luckily Mattheson's sword broke on a button of Handel's coat,
+      and the duel ended. On December 30 a town councillor effected a
+      reconciliation; the rivals dined together at Mattheson's house and went on
+      to the rehearsal of <i>Almira</i>, which was brought out on January 8,
+      1705, with Mattheson as the principal tenor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Almira</i>, the libretto of which was partly in German and partly in
+      Italian, ran continuously for about twenty performances until February 25,
+      when it was succeeded by <i>Nero</i>, another opera which Handel had
+      hastily composed for the occasion. <i>Nero</i>, in which Mattheson sang
+      the title part, was a failure. The music is lost, but the libretto
+      survives, and that is enough to account for the collapse. The opera had
+      three performances only. In the very same season Keiser re-set <i>Nero</i>
+      to music himself, and brought it out under the title of <i>Octavia</i>;
+      shortly afterwards he did the same with <i>Almira</i>, which was performed
+      in August of the same year. Although Keiser's operas were no more
+      successful than Handel's, and his extravagance and mismanagement forced
+      him to leave Hamburg for three years in order to avoid imprisonment, it is
+      evident that he had made Handel's position in the theatre impossible.
+      Handel withdrew into private life and devoted himself to earning a living
+      by teaching. Mattheson says that Handel remained in Hamburg until 1709,
+      and that he still worked in the theatre, but the first of these statements
+      is certainly untrue, and the second probably so. Mattheson himself left
+      the theatre after the failure of Handel's <i>Nero</i>, and his friendship
+      with Handel seems to have come to an end. About Handel's subsequent life
+      in Hamburg we know nothing, until the theatre was taken over by one
+      Saurbrey in the autumn of 1706. Saurbrey commissioned an opera from
+      Handel, but, owing to the confusion in which Keiser had left the affairs
+      of the theatre, it could not be brought out until January 1708, when it
+      was found to be so long that it had to be divided into two operas, <i>Florindo</i>
+      and <i>Daphne</i>, both of which were put on the stage successively. By
+      that time Handel had left Hamburg for Italy; he evidently took little
+      interest in the production of these works, neither of which has survived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was during the run of <i>Almira</i>, says Mainwaring, that Handel made
+      the acquaintance of Prince Gian Gastone de' Medici, son of the Grand Duke
+      Cosmo III of Tuscany. Mainwaring's date is wrong, for it is known that
+      Gian Gastone at that time was in Bohemia with his wife, a German princess,
+      to whom he had been married against his will. But it is also known that he
+      was in Hamburg for a few months during the winter of 1703-04, and, if he
+      met Handel at that time, the rest of Mainwaring's story becomes much more
+      credible than subsequent biographers have been willing to admit. According
+      to Mainwaring, Handel became almost an intimate friend of the Prince; they
+      often discussed music together, and the Prince lamented that Handel was
+      unacquainted with the music and musical life of Italy. "Handel confessed
+      that he could see nothing in Italian music which answered the high
+      character His Highness had given it. On the contrary, he thought it so
+      very indifferent, that the singers, he said, must be angels to recommend
+      it." Gian Gastone urged him to come to Italy and hear for himself,
+      intimating "that if he chose to return with him, no conveniences should be
+      wanting." Handel declined the invitation, but resolved to go to Italy as
+      soon as he could do so "on his own bottom."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gian Gastone was a spendthrift and a profligate; his moral reputation was
+      of the worst, and he was chronically in debt. That, however, would not
+      make it unthinkable that after a glass of wine he should invite Handel to
+      come to Italy with him, but Handel may well have known enough about the
+      Prince even then to reply to the proposal with tactful evasiveness. From
+      what Mattheson says of Handel on his first arrival in Hamburg, it is quite
+      likely that he was contemptuous of Italian opera music, and it is equally
+      likely that after the success of <i>Almira</i> his views on Italian opera
+      underwent a change. It is obvious that Hamburg had no further chances to
+      offer him, and the attraction of Italy was at that time so vivid to all
+      young German musicians that not one of them would have refused an
+      opportunity of making the journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The date of Handel's departure from Hamburg is unknown, nor have we the
+      slightest information as to his whereabouts until we hear of him at Rome
+      in January 1707. Chrysander's statement that he spent Christmas 1706 with
+      his mother at Halle is manifestly untrue. Mattheson says that he travelled
+      to Rome with a Herr von Binitz, but nothing is known of this gentleman.
+      His most natural route into Italy would be by the Brenner, the historic
+      road of all German pilgrims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel may well have been glad to leave Hamburg, but Hamburg did not
+      forget him. He is mentioned in a theatrical manifesto of 1708 as being
+      already "beloved and celebrated in Italy"; Barthold Feind, one of the
+      Hamburg librettists, who in 1715 translated Handel's <i>Rinaldo</i>,
+      called him "the incomparable Handel, the Orpheus of our time"; and from
+      1715 to 1734 almost all of Handel's London operas were represented on the
+      Hamburg stage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Arrival in Italy&mdash;<i>Rodrigo</i>&mdash;Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and
+      the Scarlattis&mdash;Naples: Venice: <i>Agrippina</i>&mdash;appointment at
+      Hanover&mdash;London: <i>Rinaldo</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel spent three years in Italy. The known facts about his life there
+      are singularly few, and his biographers have often had to draw copiously
+      on their imagination. They may perhaps be forgiven for doing so, since
+      they rightly sought to emphasise the fact that these three years were the
+      most formative period of Handel's personality as a composer. Handel came
+      to Italy as a German; he left Italy an Italian, as far as his music was
+      concerned, and, despite all other influences, Italian was the foundation
+      of his musical language until the end of his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On January 14, 1707, a Roman chronicler noted the arrival of "a Saxon, an
+      excellent player on the harpsichord and a composer of music, who has
+      to-day displayed his ability in playing the organ in the church of St.
+      John [Lateran] to the amazement of everyone." This can hardly refer to
+      anyone else than Handel, who throughout his sojourn in Italy was always
+      known as "the Saxon" (<i>il Sassone</i>). We owe the discovery of this
+      important document to Mr. Newman Flower. The next date known to us is that
+      of April 11&mdash;on the manuscript of Handel's <i>Dixit Dominus</i>,
+      composed in Rome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Most biographers have, however, assumed that Handel's first halt in Italy
+      would have been made at Florence, in view of the fact that Gian Gastone
+      de' Medici is known to have been at Florence from June 1705 to November
+      1706. The eldest son of the Grand Duke, Prince Ferdinand, was an
+      enthusiastic patron of music, who employed the best musicians of the day
+      to perform operas in his magnificent country palace at Pratolino, some
+      twelve miles north of Florence. It has been suggested that Handel's first
+      Italian opera, <i>Rodrigo</i>, was composed for Ferdinand and performed
+      early in 1707, but, in view of Mr. Flower's discovery, this seems
+      unlikely. Mr. Flower suggests, indeed, that Ferdinand did not take much
+      interest in Handel, otherwise he would not have allowed him to go to Rome
+      so soon. This is not impossible, for we know that Ferdinand found the
+      operas of Alessandro Scarlatti too serious for his taste, and he may well
+      have thought even less of Handel's music, which (as we can see from the
+      score of <i>Rodrigo</i>) was still very German in style.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rome could offer Handel no opportunities either for composing operas or
+      even for hearing them. Pope Clement X had permitted the opening of a
+      public opera-house (the Teatro Tordinona) in 1671, but it was closed five
+      years later by Innocent XI, who made every effort he could to suppress
+      opera both in public and in private. Innocent XII, who became Pope in
+      1691, seems to have been, at first, less intolerant, for the theatre was
+      rebuilt, and a few performances were given; but in 1697 he ordered its
+      destruction on grounds of public morality. Except for a few performances
+      of opera in private in 1701 and 1702 no operas were produced in Rome until
+      1709.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deprived of opera, the Romans devoted themselves to oratorio&mdash;which
+      in musical style was much the same thing&mdash;and to chamber music. The
+      most generous patron of music in Rome was the young Cardinal Ottoboni, who
+      had been raised to the purple in his early twenties, in 1690. He had
+      indeed composed an opera himself, which was performed in 1692, but he was
+      more competent as a poet than as a musician; in 1690 Alessandro Scarlatti
+      had set a libretto of his, <i>La Statira</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel was no doubt recommended to him by Ferdinand de' Medici, and at the
+      Cardinal's weekly musical parties he soon came into contact with Domenico
+      Scarlatti, as well as with Corelli and Pasquini. Alessandro Scarlatti had
+      left Naples, probably for political reasons, in 1702, and at the end of
+      1703 Ottoboni had secured him a subordinate post at the church of Santa
+      Maria Maggiore, at the same time appointing him his private director of
+      music. Domenico was a young man of Handel's own age&mdash;"a young eagle"
+      as his father called him&mdash;brilliantly gifted, and (to judge from
+      Thomas Roseingrave's impression of him) possessed of a singular personal
+      fascination. "Handel," says Mainwaring, "used often to speak of this
+      person with great satisfaction; and indeed there was reason for it; for
+      besides his great talents as an artist, he had the sweetest temper, and
+      the genteelest behaviour." We may indeed regard his friendship with Handel
+      as safely authenticated. It is just possible that Handel may have met
+      Alessandro Scarlatti at Pratolino in the previous autumn, as his opera <i>Il
+      Gran Tamerlano</i> was produced there in September; he may well have met
+      him between January and April of 1707. From April to September Alessandro
+      Scarlatti was in Urbino.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's movements now become very difficult to follow. It seems probable
+      that his opera <i>Rodrigo</i> was performed at Florence in the autumn of
+      1707; Mainwaring says that it was composed for Ferdinand de' Medici, but
+      there is no record of any performance at Pratolino. As Handel is said to
+      have been presented to Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover at Venice, he
+      must have been there in October or November, as the Prince is known to
+      have spent only those two months in that city. Whether Handel remained at
+      Venice over Christmas, or whether he returned to Rome, is uncertain.
+      Domenico Scarlatti is said to have identified him at Venice at a
+      masquerade by his playing of the harpsichord. It would be most natural to
+      suppose then that Handel and the two Scarlattis were in Venice together
+      for the production of Alessandro's two operas, <i>Mitridate Eupatore</i>
+      and <i>Il Trionfo della Libertà</i>, both of which were brought out at
+      Venice in 1707, but, as it is not known whether this took place at the
+      beginning or at the end of the year, there is not sufficient evidence to
+      support such a conjecture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During March and April 1708, Handel was the guest of Prince Ruspoli in
+      Rome; this has been definitely ascertained by Mr. Flower. Prince Ruspoli
+      was another great Roman patron of music, and Scarlatti frequently composed
+      works for him; his <i>Annunciation Oratorio</i> was performed under his
+      auspices on March 25. On Easter Sunday, April 8, Handel made a triumphal
+      appearance with <i>La Resurrezione</i>, which was given on a sumptuous
+      scale, at Ruspoli's expense, in the Palazzo Bonelli, which he was
+      occupying at the time. Corelli led the orchestra.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After <i>La Resurrezione</i>, Handel seems to have returned to the
+      patronage of Cardinal Ottoboni, in whose palace he produced a <i>serenata</i>
+      (i.e. an allegorical cantata) called <i>Il Trionfa del Tempo e del
+      Disinganno</i>, which he remodelled fifty years afterwards as <i>The
+      Triumph of Time and Truth</i>. The libretto was by Cardinal Pamphilij. It
+      was the overture to this work which caused so much difficulty to Corelli.
+      Handel, irritated at his lack of understanding, snatched the violin from
+      his hand and played the passage himself, to show how it should be
+      executed; Corelli, gentlest of souls, took no offence, although thirty-two
+      years his senior and the greatest violinist living, but merely observed,
+      "My dear Saxon, this music is in the French style, of which I have no
+      knowledge."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been assumed by many biographers that Handel attended the meetings
+      of the Arcadian Academy, and since Prince Ruspoli was a great, benefactor
+      to the Academy, this is extremely probable, although there is no evidence
+      for it. Handel was not a member of the Academy, and various reasons for
+      this have been suggested, such as that he was a foreigner and also too
+      young to be admitted. It is more probable that his admission to that
+      exclusive society was never even contemplated; musicians were generally
+      engaged professionally for the concerts of the Italian academies, but very
+      seldom admitted to the honour of membership. Corelli, Pasquini and
+      Alessandro Scarlatti were all admitted together in 1705; they were the
+      three senior and most distinguished composers of the time, and as no other
+      musicians were then members, it may be assumed that these elections
+      constituted an exceptional honour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mainwaring relates that Cardinal Pamphili; on one occasion wrote a poem in
+      honour of Handel and desired him to set it to music himself; in this poem
+      "he was compared to Orpheus, and exalted above the rank of mortals." Later
+      biographers, being unable to trace any music of Handel to this poem,
+      assumed that Handel was too modest to sing his own praises; but he was
+      not, for the original manuscript of the cantata was found by the present
+      writer in the University Library at Münster in Westphalia. As Mainwaring
+      informs us, Handel is compared by the poet (whose name is not given) to
+      Orpheus and indeed exalted above him. "Orpheus," says the Cardinal, "could
+      move rocks and trees, but he could not make them sing; therefore thou art
+      greater than Orpheus, for thou compellest my aged Muse to song." The style
+      of both words and music suggests that the whole cantata was thrown off, as
+      Mainwaring suggests, on the spur of the moment, and this improvisation may
+      well have taken place at one of the Arcadians' garden parties, for there
+      is a well-known account of a similar improvisation by the poet Zappi and
+      the composer Alessandro Scarlatti.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel was by this time fully accepted as one of the leading musicians in
+      Italy, for in June he composed a pastoral, <i>Aci, Galatea e Polifemo</i>,
+      for the marriage of the Duke of Alvito at Naples on July 19. It was in
+      July 1708 that the Austrian Viceroy of Naples, Count Daun, was succeeded
+      by Cardinal Grimani, who, towards the end of the year, persuaded
+      Alessandro Scarlatti to return to the service of the royal chapel. As a
+      good friend to Scarlatti, the Cardinal was sure to interest himself in
+      Handel, and it was probably through him that Handel was commissioned to
+      write an opera for Venice, as the Grimani were a great Venetian family and
+      owned the principal opera-house there. How long Handel stayed at Naples we
+      do not know; all that Mainwaring tells us is that he was taken up by a
+      Spanish princess, but, as Naples had belonged to Spain for a hundred and
+      fifty years, Spanish princesses can have been no rarities there, and it is
+      impossible to identify this lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From July 1708 until December 1709 we lose sight of Handel entirely. On
+      December 26, the first night of the carnival season, his opera <i>Agrippina</i>
+      was produced at Venice. The libretto was by Cardinal Grimani, who had
+      already written other dramas for music, all produced, like Handel's, at
+      the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice. Venice was the first city
+      which had undertaken opera on a commercial basis, open to the public on
+      payment, whereas in other places it depended for many years on the
+      munificence of princes and nobles. At Venice there existed not one
+      theatre, but several, devoted to opera, each called after the name of the
+      parish in which it was situated, and, of these, the theatre of St. John
+      Chrysostom, built by the Grimani family and still standing (though much
+      remodelled) under the name of Teatro Malibran, was the largest and most
+      important. The Inquisition took a more tolerant view of opera than the
+      Pope; a Venetian preacher admonished actors and singers to remember that
+      they "were abominated of God, but tolerated by the Government by desire of
+      those who took delight in their iniquities."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Agrippina</i> aroused an extraordinary enthusiasm. "The theatre, at
+      almost every pause, resounded with shouts and acclamations of <i>viva il
+      taro Sassone!</i> and other expressions of approbation too extravagant to
+      be mentioned" (Mainwaring). The title part was sung by Margherita
+      Durastanti, and another singer who appeared in the opera was Boschi, the
+      famous bass; both of them were to sing for Handel in London later on. It
+      is fairly certain that Boschi must have sung the part of Polyphemus in
+      Handel's Italian <i>Aci e Galatea</i> at Naples, for it bears a striking
+      resemblance to other songs written for Boschi, whose voice was of
+      exceptional range. The opera ran for twenty-seven nights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this unprecedented triumph it seems surprising that Handel did not
+      remain in Italy, where he had so many friends who could ensure his
+      success. It is probable that by the time <i>Agrippina</i> was performed,
+      if not indeed long before, he had been promised the post of Kapellmeister
+      to the court of Hanover. The actual appointment is dated June 16, 1710.
+      But no sooner was Handel appointed than he at once obtained leave of
+      absence, and went on, first to Düsseldorf, and then to London. It was
+      probably the Elector's intention that he should spend some time in foreign
+      travel before taking up regular duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three years which Handel spent in Italy at the most impressionable
+      period of his life fixed the characteristics of his style as a composer,
+      and we may well suppose that they exercised a decisive influence on his
+      personality and character. His youth had been spent in the respectable
+      middle-class environment of his home at Halle; then came the three years
+      at Hamburg, fantastic and exciting, yet, despite all the artistic stimulus
+      of Keiser's opera-house, inevitably sordid and provincial. Italy
+      introduced him to an entirely different atmosphere&mdash;to a life of
+      dignity and serenity in which a classical culture, both literary and
+      artistic, was the matured fruit of wealth, leisure, and good breeding.
+      That exquisite life found its highest musical expression in Alessandro
+      Scarlatti, who at that period was incontestably the greatest of living
+      musicians. On his style Handel formed his own, and it is interesting to
+      note that of all Scarlatti's operas the one which most strikingly
+      foreshadows the genius of Handel is <i>Mitridate</i>, which Handel may
+      possibly have seen at Venice in the winter of 1707-08. The musical library
+      of Handel's English friend Charles Jennens contained a large collection of
+      Scarlatti's manuscripts, and there can be little doubt that it was Handel
+      who brought them with him from Italy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Venice, Handel had made the acquaintance of Prince Ernest of Hanover,
+      younger brother of the Elector Georg Ludwig who was eventually to become
+      King of England as George I. With Prince Ernest was Baron Kielmansegge,
+      who for many years afterwards remained a firm supporter of Handel, and
+      another Venetian acquaintance was the Duke of Manchester, English
+      Ambassador to the Republic of Venice. Through Prince Ernest, and
+      Kielmansegge, Handel was recommended to the court of Hanover; the Duke of
+      Manchester gave him a pressing invitation to England. Music in Hanover was
+      under the direction of an Italian, Agostino Steffani, who was not only a
+      musician but priest and diplomatist as well. Born at Castelfranco in 1654,
+      he was taken as a boy to Munich, where he studied music, and, in 1680
+      entered the priesthood; he produced several operas there, and about 1689
+      became Kapellmeister to the court of Hanover. Here he was employed on
+      important diplomatic business; Pope Innocent XI made him titular Bishop of
+      Spiga in the West Indies, and in 1698 he was Ambassador at Brussels. In
+      1709 he became the Pope's representative for North Germany, and it was
+      doubtless owing to his heavy ecclesiastical duties that he resigned his
+      musical post in favour of Handel, although Hanover remained his chief
+      place of residence until his death in 1728. He was in Rome in 1708 and
+      1709, and it has been suggested that he made Handel's acquaintance there,
+      but this hardly seems consistent with Handel's own statement, recorded by
+      Hawkins in his <i>History of Music</i>: "When I first arrived at Hanover I
+      was a young man under twenty; I was acquainted with the merits of Steffani
+      and he had heard of me. I understood somewhat of music, and could play
+      pretty well on the organ; he received me with great kindness, and took an
+      early opportunity to introduce me to the Princess Sophia and the Elector's
+      son, giving them to understand that I was what he was pleased to call a
+      virtuoso in music; he obliged me with instructions for my conduct and
+      behaviour during my residence at Hanover; and being called from the city
+      to attend to matters of a public concern, he left me in possession of that
+      favour and patronage which himself had enjoyed for a series of years."
+      These statements of Handel seem, in fact, to point to his having visited
+      Hanover before he went to Italy, possibly before he went to Hamburg, or,
+      more probably, during the course of his Hamburg period, in which case one
+      might conclude that the Electress Sophia had defrayed the cost of Handel's
+      Italian journey. Even if Handel made a mistake as to his age, he clearly
+      implies that his first meeting with Steffani took place in Hanover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Düsseldorf, Handel was sure of a warm welcome, for the Elector Johann
+      Wilhelm was a close friend of Steffani, and his wife was a sister of
+      Ferdinand and Gian Gastone de' Medici; he was a man of extravagant tastes,
+      and his opera-house was maintained on the most magnificent scale. But
+      Handel did not stay there long; England was a greater attraction, and he
+      arrived in London for the first time in the autumn of 1710.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing is known of Handel's early days in London, but it may be safely
+      assumed that he was provided with letters of introduction to persons of
+      influence. We meet him first in the company of Heidegger, a Swiss
+      adventurer who achieved notoriety through his incredible ugliness, and
+      from 1709 onwards was concerned in the management of the opera at the
+      Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket. Through Heidegger, Handel was introduced
+      to Mary Granville, then a little girl of ten, whom he delighted by his
+      performance on her own spinet. Her uncle, Sir John Stanley, asked her if
+      she thought she should ever play as well as Mr. Handel. "If I did not
+      think I should," she cried, "I would burn my instrument!" Mary Granville,
+      who, seven years later, married a Mr. Pendarves, and in 1743 became the
+      wife of Dr. Delany, was for many years one of Handel's most faithful
+      friends and supporters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the reign of Queen Anne the musical life of London was developing in a
+      new fashion as compared with what it was in the last twenty years of the
+      previous century. The type of English opera which Purcell and Dryden had
+      created came to an end with Purcell's death in 1695. Italian music,
+      especially when sung by Italian singers, was gradually becoming more and
+      more popular with London concert-audiences, and in 1705 Thomas Clayton
+      produced at Drury Lane an opera called <i>Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus</i>.
+      Clayton had visited Italy, and had brought back with him a collection of
+      Italian songs; he got Peter Motteux to translate for him an old Italian
+      opera libretto, and adapted these songs to it. How much of <i>Arsinoe</i>
+      was Clayton's own work is not known; Burney speaks of the opera with
+      nothing but contempt. Yet it seems to have had some fair success, and was
+      even revived the following year; but Clayton's <i>Rosamond</i>, to a
+      libretto by Addison, did not survive three performances. It was followed
+      by a series of Italian operas composed by Buononcini, Scarlatti, and
+      others; at first the operas were in English, and sung by English singers,
+      but gradually Italian was introduced, as at Hamburg, and in 1710 an opera
+      called <i>Almahide</i>, the music of which Burney ascribes conjecturally
+      to Buononcini, was given in Italian with an entirely Italian company. The
+      victory of the Italians was due mainly to the marvellous singing and
+      acting of Nicola Grimaldi, known as Nicolini, who first appeared in London
+      in Scarlatti's <i>Pyrrhus and Demetrius</i>. Nicolini was not the first <i>castrato</i>
+      who had been heard in England; the famous Siface had been brought over by
+      Queen Mary of Modena in 1687. But Nicolini was the first who appeared on
+      the English stage, and it was he who paved the way for Senesino,
+      Farinelli, and the rest, and established that annual season of Italian
+      opera which is not yet extinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time when Handel arrived in London the opera company had migrated
+      from Drury Lane to Vanbrugh's new theatre in the Haymarket, where it was
+      under the management of Aaron Hill, an enterprising young man of Handel's
+      own age who was ready to pursue any sort of career that chance might offer
+      him, whether in literature, music, or business adventure. We may safely
+      hazard a guess that it was Boschi who persuaded Hill to invite Handel to
+      compose an opera for the Queen's Theatre, as Boschi had already sung, in
+      November 1710, in <i>Hydaspes</i>, an opera by Francesco Mancini, in which
+      Nicolini delighted his audience in a fight with a lion. Hill sketched a
+      plot based on Tasso's <i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>, and an Italian libretto
+      was hastily provided by Giacomo Rossi, Handel composing the music at the
+      same time, and often overtaking the poet. The music, in fact, was
+      completed in a fortnight, and the opera of <i>Rinaldo</i> was first
+      produced on the stage on February 24, 1711. To judge from Burney's account
+      of the preceding weeks of the season, coupled with this astonishingly
+      rapid collaboration, it is probable that Hill was in a difficult
+      situation, from which only a new and strikingly successful opera could
+      save him. <i>Rinaldo</i> achieved the desired success; it did more, it
+      established Handel's reputation in England as a dramatic composer, and set
+      London a new standard in Italian opera. The previous Italian operas had
+      been works of little distinction, and some of them had even been <i>pasticcio</i>
+      operas, as they were called, put together from songs by various composers.
+      Even Scarlatti's <i>Pyrrhus and Demetrius</i> paled beside the new opera
+      of Handel, for it had been written as far back as 1694, and was in a style
+      which Scarlatti himself had long abandoned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Rinaldo</i> had fifteen performances in the course of the season. It
+      provoked bitter attacks from Addison in the <i>Spectator</i> and from
+      Steele in the <i>Tatler</i>, but everybody knew that Addison's vanity was
+      wounded by the grotesque failure of <i>Rosamond</i>, and that Steele had
+      interests in the playhouse. It was useless at that particular moment to
+      champion the cause of English opera, for England happened to possess not a
+      single composer who was equal to the task of writing one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The opera season came to an end in June, and Handel left London for
+      Germany. He did not go straight back to Hanover, but stayed at Düsseldorf
+      again, where the Elector was evidently desirous of keeping him as long as
+      possible, for the Elector himself wrote more than once to Hanover to make
+      excuses for Handel's prolonged absence from his official duties. Handel
+      may well have felt that Hanover was a dull place as compared with London.
+      There was no opera, and his chief function was to compose Italian chamber
+      duets for the Princess Caroline of Ansbach; afterwards Queen of England.
+      But he may well have taken pleasure in her service, for she was an
+      excellent musician and no mean singer. In November 1711 Handel paid a
+      visit to Halle, in order to stand godfather to his niece, Johanna
+      Friderica Michaelsen, the daughter of his surviving sister, who eventually
+      inherited the bulk of his fortune. Some biographers have stated that
+      Handel had already revisited his birthplace in 1710 before going to
+      London. Mainwaring is their authority for this, but Mainwaring habitually
+      confused dates and more probably referred to the visit of 1711, for which
+      we have the certain evidence of Friderica Michaelsen's baptismal register.
+      It is clear that the alleged visit of 1710 was suggested merely by a
+      desire to make the most of Handel's affection for his mother, which
+      Mainwaring had already emphasised. Mainwaring, however, went beyond the
+      truth in saying that she had become blind; she did eventually lose her
+      sight, but not until some twenty years later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel appears to have remained at Hanover until the autumn of 1712, when
+      he obtained permission to go to London again "on condition that he engaged
+      to return within a reasonable time" (Mainwaring). What period was to be
+      considered reasonable we do not know. Handel had certainly been planning
+      this London visit for some time, as he was corresponding with friends in
+      England, and was also taking some trouble to improve his knowledge of the
+      English language. It is not surprising that he hankered after London, for
+      London offered him a society which bore more resemblance to the world
+      which he had known at Rome. The tradition of Italian culture had for
+      generations been more firmly implanted in England than anywhere in
+      Germany, except perhaps in Vienna, and, since those three years in Italy,
+      Handel's musical outlook had become completely Italian, as his music
+      shows. The few attempts which he made at German Church music present a
+      curious contrast of style; one could hardly believe them to be the work of
+      that Handel whom we have adopted as our own. German music at that date was
+      provincial; Italian music was the music of the great world, because it was
+      the music of the theatre. It was to the theatre that Handel looked
+      forward, and London had what even Rome had not&mdash;an opera, and an
+      Italian opera. The success of <i>Rinaldo</i> had shown him that London was
+      the place where he might launch out into a triumphal career as a composer
+      for the stage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Second visit to London&mdash;Italian opera&mdash;George I and the <i>Water
+      Music</i>&mdash;visit to Germany&mdash;Canons and the Duke of Chandos&mdash;establishment
+      of the Royal Academy of Music.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the greater part of the nineteenth century the Handelian type of opera
+      was the laughingstock of musical critics; they wondered how any audiences
+      could have endured to sit through it, and why the fashionable society of
+      London should have neglected native music for what Dr. Johnson defined as
+      "an exotic and irrational entertainment." The modern reader's impression
+      of an Italian opera of Handel's days is a story about some ancient or
+      mediaeval hero whose very name is often to most people unknown; if he
+      happens to be someone as famous as Julius Caesar, the familiar episodes of
+      his life are sacrificed to some imaginary and complicated intrigue
+      presented in the form of long and elaborate songs, thinly accompanied, and
+      separated by stretches of dreary recitative. But in those days persons of
+      culture, in England as well as in Italy, were perhaps more interested in
+      ancient history and in the history of the later Roman Empire than they are
+      now; it is significant that Gibbon's <i>Decline and Fall</i> made its
+      appearance just when the fashion for operas on subjects which might have
+      been taken from its pages was coming to an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conventional treatment of those subjects, which makes all the operas
+      seem exactly alike, was the result of a certain literary reform which had
+      tended to standardise opera libretti under the influence of Racine, and it
+      was really a movement towards dignity and dramatic unity after the
+      monstrous confusion of the earlier Venetian operas. As to the
+      conventionality of the music, and its forms of air and recitative, it can
+      only be said that all serious Italian music was written in these forms; it
+      was simply the normal musical style of the period, and must have been as
+      natural to its own audiences as the style of Puccini or Richard Strauss at
+      the present day. Handelian opera has often been described as a concert in
+      costume, and Dr. Burney, writing as late as 1789, both admits this
+      description and defends it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "An opera, at the worst, is still better than a concert merely for the
+      ear, or a pantomime entertainment for the eye. Supposing the articulation
+      to be wholly unintelligible, we have an excellent union of melody and
+      harmony, vocal as well as instrumental, for the ear. And, according to Sir
+      Richard Steele's account of Nicolini's action, 'it was so significant,
+      that a deaf man might go along with him in the sense of the part he
+      acted.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No one will dispute but that understanding Italian would render our
+      entertainment at an opera more rational and more complete; but without
+      that advantage, let it be remembered by the lovers of Music, that an opera
+      is the <i>completest concert</i> to which they can go; with this advantage
+      over those in still life, that to the most perfect singing, and effects of
+      a powerful and well-disciplined band, are frequently added excellent
+      acting, splendid scenes and decorations, with such dancing as a playhouse,
+      from its inferior prices, is seldom able to furnish."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Orchestral concerts in those days did not exist; concerts of any kind were
+      rare, and the best were to be heard in that historic room over Thomas
+      Britton's small coal shop, in Clerkenwell, where Handel himself sometimes
+      played on a chamber-organ for the genuine musical enthusiasts of London
+      society. It was no wonder that Italian opera became fashionable. Italian
+      singers have always been unrivalled in popular favour, and in Handel's
+      days they were not only something new to England, but were the exponents
+      of a vocal art which admittedly has never been surpassed. The theatre was
+      new and sumptuous; society was wealthy and at the same time exclusive; at
+      the opera the great world met together as in a sort of club. People went
+      to talk and to be seen as well as to see and hear; they do so in certain
+      opera-houses still. And the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket possessed the
+      greatest opera-composer living, a greater even than Scarlatti himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a period when there was still a considerable tradition of
+      musicianship among the amateurs of English society. Old Countess
+      Granville, known to her younger relatives as "the Dragon," who had lived
+      all through the age of Locke and Purcell, wrote, at the age of eighty, to
+      her cousin Mrs. Pendarves&mdash;Handel's child friend Mary Granville&mdash;in
+      1734: "There is, I think, no accomplishment so great for a lady as music,
+      for it tunes the mind." There were plenty of people in the great houses
+      capable of appreciating the merits of Handel, or at any rate of
+      constituting themselves his enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel must have arrived in England at least as early as the beginning of
+      October 1712, for the manuscript of <i>Il Pastor Fido</i>, the first new
+      opera which he produced, is dated, at the end, "Londres, ce 24 Octobre."
+      The opera-house was now under the management of Owen MacSwiney, who seems
+      to have been both incompetent and unreliable. <i>Il Pastor Fido</i> did
+      not attract the public, and was withdrawn after six performances, but
+      Handel soon had another opera ready to take its place. <i>Teseo</i> was
+      finished on December 19, and brought out on January 10, 1713; it was a
+      romantic-heroic opera, closely modelled on <i>Rinaldo</i>, with an
+      abundance of scenic effects. After the second performance MacSwiney
+      disappeared, leaving the singers unpaid as well as the scene-painters and
+      costume-makers. The company carried on the season undeterred, and the
+      management was taken over by Heidegger. Handel's opera was performed
+      twelve times&mdash;on the last night for the composer's benefit; between
+      the acts he gave a performance himself on the harpsichord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the moment, however, the operatic situation was not encouraging, and
+      Handel turned his thoughts in other directions. He had stayed first at the
+      London house of a Mr. Andrews of Barn Elms in Surrey, but he soon
+      transferred himself to the house of Lord Burlington in Piccadilly. Lord
+      Burlington was only seventeen years of age, but he and his mother made
+      Burlington House an artistic and literary centre comparable with the
+      palaces of Cardinal Ottoboni and Prince Ruspoli at Rome. As the libretto
+      of <i>Teseo</i> is dedicated to him, he must have taken Handel under his
+      patronage soon after his arrival in England, but the precise date at which
+      Handel went to live with him is uncertain. According to Hawkins, he stayed
+      at Burlington House for three years, meeting Pope, Gay, and Dr. Arbuthnot,
+      as well as many other "men of the first eminence for genius." But Gay does
+      not seem to have met Lord Burlington until 1715, and Pope mentions him
+      first in 1718. It is thought that Handel's little opera, <i>Silla</i>, may
+      have been written for a private performance at Burlington House in 1714,
+      and the dedication of <i>Amadigi</i>, Handel's next opera (1715),
+      indicates that the music was composed within his patron's own walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of Handel's favourite haunts in London was St. Paul's Cathedral, where
+      Brind the organist often persuaded him to play the organ after evening
+      service, to the great delight of the congregation. He appears to have made
+      Brind's acquaintance first through young Maurice Greene, then aged
+      seventeen, who had been a chorister of St. Paul's, and, after his voice
+      broke in 1710, was articled to Brind as a pupil. After service was over,
+      Handel, Greene, and some of the members of the choir would repair to the
+      Queen's Arms Tavern close by for an evening of music and musical
+      conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This friendly association with St. Paul's was no doubt of great value to
+      Handel in his next musical undertakings&mdash;the <i>Birthday Ode</i> for
+      Queen Anne, and the <i>Te Deum</i> which celebrated the Peace of Utrecht
+      in 1713. The Queen's patronage may very likely have been obtained for him
+      by Lady Burlington, as she was one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber. These
+      two works are important landmarks in Handel's career, as they were his
+      first compositions to English words, and his first compositions for
+      English ceremonial occasions. They marked him out as the natural successor
+      to Purcell, and it is evident that in each case he took Purcell's similar
+      composition as his model. Up till now he had been a foreigner engaged to
+      provide Italian opera for the amusement of fashionable society; with the
+      <i>Birthday Ode</i> he became a court musician to the Queen of England,
+      and with the <i>Te Deum</i> his music entered St. Paul's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The practical result of the <i>Ode</i> was a pension of £200 a year
+      conferred on him by Queen Anne. It is clear that he now regarded England
+      as his permanent home, regardless of the fact that he was officially the
+      servant of the Elector of Hanover and had undertaken to return thither
+      "within a reasonable time." But on August 1, 1714, the Queen died, and the
+      Elector was proclaimed King of England. When George I came over to his new
+      country, Handel did not dare to show himself at court, and all efforts on
+      the part of his friends to effect a reconciliation with the King were in
+      vain. The King went to see his new opera, <i>Amadigi</i>, which came out
+      late in the season of 1715, but refused to pardon him, until Handel's old
+      Venetian acquaintance, Baron Kielmansegge, now Master of the Horse,
+      devised an ingenious expedient for surprising the King into clemency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the favourite amusements of London society was to make up a
+      water-party on the Thames, with a band of musicians in attendance. Mrs.
+      Pendarves describes a party of this kind in July 1722; they rowed up to
+      Richmond, where they had supper, and "were entertained all the time by
+      very good music [for wind instruments] in another barge." Baron
+      Kielmansegge arranged that the King should go for an excursion of this
+      kind, and that, without his knowledge, Handel should conduct appropriate
+      music of his own in a barge that followed the King's. As the Baron was
+      often in charge of the music for such occasions, this can have been a
+      matter of no great difficulty; in any case it achieved the desired result.
+      The King was enchanted with the music, and restored Handel to favour. As
+      Mainwaring tells this story just before speaking of <i>Amadigi</i>, it has
+      generally been assumed that this episode took place in the summer of 1715,
+      but more recently it has been ascribed to 1717, on the strength of a long
+      account of a royal water-party, with music by Handel, given in the <i>Daily
+      Courant</i>, a newspaper of the period. This account was copied by the
+      Envoy of Brandenburg at the court of St. James's and despatched by him to
+      Berlin; the discovery of this document has led certain writers to cast
+      doubt on Mainwaring's story. Streatfeild is probably right in suggesting
+      that Mainwaring's story refers to an earlier water-party, and that Handel
+      contributed music frequently for such occasions. He also points out that
+      the celebrated <i>Water Music</i> was not published until 1740, and that
+      it may quite well have been collected from various aquatic programmes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hawkins relates the story of the <i>Water Music</i>, evidently copying
+      from Mainwaring; but Hawkins had known Handel personally, and had been
+      supplied by him with certain reminiscences, one of which was unknown to
+      Mainwaring. According to this anecdote, recorded by Hawkins, the
+      reconciliation with George I was due to the violinist Geminiani, who had
+      composed a set of sonatas dedicated to Baron Kielmansegge; Geminiani was a
+      notoriously difficult player to accompany, and insisted on Handel, and no
+      other, taking the harpsichord when he went to play the sonatas to the
+      King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Flower, in his life of Handel, refuses all credit to Mainwaring's
+      well-known tale, and takes the view that the King never had any quarrel
+      with Handel at all. In any case it seems certain that he confirmed the
+      pension granted to him by Queen Anne, and added a further £200 a year of
+      his own. A few years later, Handel received yet another £200 a year&mdash;from
+      Caroline of Ansbach, now Princess of Wales, for teaching her daughters the
+      harpsichord, so that he enjoyed a settled income of £600 a year for the
+      rest of his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Amadigi</i>, produced May 25, 1715, did not have many performances, as
+      the season ended on July 9, but it attracted considerable attention,
+      partly because that old favourite, Nicolini, sang in it again, and also on
+      account of its elaborate staging. "There is more enchantment and machinery
+      in this opera," says Dr. Burney, "than I have ever found to be announced
+      in any other musical drama performed in England."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the following season, which did not begin until February 1716, both
+      <i>Rinaldo</i> and <i>Amadigi</i> were revived, but Handel produced no new
+      opera. The King seems to have wished to see Nicolini in his older parts;
+      <i>Pyrrhus and Demetrius</i> was revived, as well as other operas of the
+      days before Handel's first arrival in England. In July, at the end of the
+      season, George I returned to Hanover, where he remained until the end of
+      the year. Handel accompanied him, but seems to have had freedom to travel,
+      for he visited Hamburg, where he avoided meeting his old friend Mattheson,
+      though he corresponded with him from a safe distance. He also went to
+      Halle, where his mother was still living; Zachow, however, was dead, and
+      had left his widow in straitened circumstances, with an idle and
+      intemperate son. Handel helped the widow, and continued to send her money
+      in later years, but he eventually came to the conclusion that it was
+      useless to do anything for the son. From Halle he went on to Ansbach, no
+      doubt on some commission from the Princess of Wales. At Ansbach he found
+      an old friend from the University of Halle, Johann Christoph Schmidt, who
+      was established in a woollen business. Although Schmidt was married and
+      had a family, he was persuaded by Handel to leave these behind at Ansbach
+      and to travel with him to London, where he spent the rest of his life as
+      Handel's faithful secretary and copyist. His son came over later on, and,
+      after Handel had provided for his education, assisted his father in
+      looking after Handel during his old age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During these six months in Germany, Handel reverted for a moment to German
+      music; he set what is known as the <i>Brockes Passion</i>, a sacred
+      cantata in verse by the Hamburg poet Brockes, which had already been set
+      once by Keiser. Later on it was set to music again by two of Handel's
+      former friends, first by Telemann, and then by Mattheson. Little is known
+      about the composition of this work; Handel apparently had a copy made
+      after his return to England and sent this to Mattheson, and it was
+      performed at Hamburg in 1717. Handel does not seem to have had it
+      performed in England; he used up the music afterwards for other works.
+      Chrysander attributed to 1716 a set of nine German songs with violin <i>obbligato</i>
+      to semi-sacred words by Brockes; but there is some difficulty about
+      accepting this date, for, although eight of the poems had already been
+      printed by Brockes, there is one which is found only in the second edition
+      of the book, printed in 1724.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The King came back to London in January 1717, and it is supposed that
+      Handel came with him. The opera was on the verge of collapse. <i>Rinaldo</i>
+      and <i>Amadigi</i> were once more revived for Nicolini, but Handel
+      contributed no new work, and, after the season came to an end in July,
+      there was no more Italian opera in London until 1720. It was during this
+      period that Handel became musical director to the Duke of Chandos, for
+      whom he composed works of a character new both to England and to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos, had built himself an Italian palace
+      at Canons, near Edgware, in which he must have outdone even the
+      magnificent Lord Burlington in sumptuousness and ostentation. Like a
+      German princeling, he kept his choir and his band of musicians, though
+      there seems to be no evidence that he was himself genuinely musical. The
+      chapel of the house, a florid Italian baroque building with frescoes in
+      the appropriate style by Italian painters, was opened in 1720, and the
+      anthem for the occasion was no doubt one of Handel's. It is not known what
+      music of Handel's was performed at the Duke's private concerts, but for
+      the services of the chapel he composed the famous <i>Chandos Te Deum</i>
+      and the twelve <i>Chandos Anthems</i>. Here again Purcell was his model,
+      but the style was Handel's own, a style indeed so appropriate to the
+      formal stateliness of the Duke's establishment that these works have never
+      become part of the ordinary cathedral repertory. It was to Purcell, and to
+      some extent to Scarlatti too, that Handel owed the general plan of the
+      anthems with their orchestral accompaniments, but even Purcell's anthems
+      with orchestra had by that time been found too elaborate for general use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the Chandos period belongs also a work which is still one of Handel's
+      most popular compositions, the English <i>Acis and Galatea</i>, to words
+      by John Gay. It was not a revision of the <i>serenata</i> which he wrote
+      at Naples, but an entirely new work. More important as a landmark in
+      Handel's development is the masque of <i>Esther</i>, originally called <i>Haman
+      and Mordecai</i>. About the early history of these works little is known;
+      both were intended to be acted on the stage, and they were very probably
+      performed in this way at Canons. The words of <i>Esther</i> were adapted
+      from Racine's play of the same name, and it has been suggested that Pope
+      was the author.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's residence at Canons gave rise to two legends about him which are
+      still so often repeated that their absurdity must be mentioned here,
+      although they have been known for many years to be baseless. One is
+      perpetuated by an inscription on the organ in the church at Whitchurch, to
+      the effect that Handel composed the oratorio of <i>Esther</i> on this
+      instrument. Handel was never organist at Whitchurch; the church existed in
+      his day, but it was an entirely separate building from the private chapel
+      of the Duke of Chandos which was pulled down with the house. The organ of
+      that chapel is now at Gosport. It need hardly be said that in any case it
+      was not Handel's practice to compose his works on an organ. The other, and
+      even more popular, legend is that of "The Harmonious Blacksmith." It was
+      during the Canons period that Handel published his <i>Suites de Pièces
+      pour le Clavecin</i> (1720) which had probably been composed for the
+      daughters of the Princess of Wales, and one of these suites contains the
+      air and variations known by that familiar title. But the air was never
+      called by this name before 1820; about that time a young music-seller at
+      Bath, who had previously been a blacksmith's apprentice, earned the
+      nickname of "the harmonious blacksmith" because he was always singing that
+      particular tune. Somehow the name got transferred from the singer to the
+      song, and in 1835 the story of Handel's having been inspired to compose
+      the tune after hearing a blacksmith at Edgware produce musical notes from
+      his anvil was first put into print in a letter to <i>The Times</i>. Not
+      long afterwards an imaginary blacksmith of Edgware was invented, and his
+      alleged anvil sold by auction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether the air is Handel's own composition at all is a matter of
+      uncertainty; there would be nothing in the least unusual about any
+      composer taking another man's air as a theme for variations, and it has
+      been suggested, with some plausibility, that the tune is that of an old
+      French song.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On August 8, 1718, Handel's sister Dorothea Sophia died of consumption at
+      Halle. She was not more than thirty years of age; the other sister,
+      Johanna, had died in 1709. The sermon preached at Dorothea's funeral on
+      August 11, 1718, has been preserved, and tells us that one of her
+      favourite texts from the Bible, which she was often in the habit of
+      quoting, was, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Chrysander suggested, and
+      we may well believe, that the setting of these words in <i>Messiah</i>,
+      given to a female voice, owed its inspiration to the memory of Dorothea
+      Sophia. Handel was evidently much attached to her. To attend her funeral
+      was impossible, and it was some months before Handel could visit Halle
+      again; but on February 20, 1719, he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law,
+      thanking him for all the kindness which he had shown to his sister, and
+      promising to come to Halle as soon as his engagements permitted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's inability to leave London before February 1719 was due to the
+      fact that a new scheme for the promotion of opera in London was on foot.
+      The first idea was probably suggested in the circle of the Duke of Chandos
+      towards the end of 1718. It was the moment of the South Sea Bubble, and
+      speculation had become the universal fashion. To revive the Italian opera
+      a company was formed among members of the nobility; a capital of £50,000
+      was raised in shares of £100 each, and the King himself contributed
+      £1,000. The new venture was called the Royal Academy of Music, in
+      imitation of the <i>Académie Royale de Musique</i>, under which name the
+      Paris opera was officially known. The French designation was obviously
+      suggested by the Italian "academies," or literary and musical societies of
+      the period; the expression <i>accademia di musica</i> is still
+      occasionally used in Italy to signify a concert. The directors engaged
+      Nicolo Haym and Paolo Rolli as poets to provide libretti; for the music
+      they naturally secured Handel, but also invited Buononcini over from Rome,
+      and Attilio Ariosti from Berlin. Handel was sent at once to Dresden to
+      select singers; on February 21 he is stated to have left London for that
+      purpose, but it is possible that he may actually have started later, for
+      in his letter to his brother-in-law, dated February 20, he says, "I beg
+      you will not judge of my desire to see you by the delay of my departure,
+      for to my great regret I find myself detained here by important business
+      on which I may say my fortune depends, and it has dragged on longer than I
+      expected.... I hope I shall be at the end of it in a month from now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's exact itinerary is difficult to establish. We know that he went
+      to Düsseldorf, where he engaged the singer Baldassari, but whether this
+      was on the outward journey or later in the year is uncertain. From the
+      letter to Michaelsen we should imagine that he went to Halle as soon as
+      possible; the only authentic document which gives us any date is a letter
+      from Count Flemming, a court functionary at Dresden, to Melusine von
+      Schulenburg, daughter of George I's mistress the Duchess of Kendal, who in
+      1733 married Lord Chesterfield. Melusine was a pupil of Handel in London.
+      The letter is dated from Dresden, October 6, 1719; the Count seems to have
+      been much offended by Handel's behaviour, and suggests that he was "a
+      little mad" (<i>un peu fol</i>). Count Flemming was evidently vain of his
+      own musicianship, and this made him feel all the more hurt at Handel's
+      obstinate refusal to accept his invitations. The Electoral Prince of
+      Saxony was married about this time to an Austrian Archduchess, and the
+      Elector had invited several of the most famous Italian singers, headed by
+      the composer Lotti, to Dresden to grace the occasion, hoping to make
+      contracts with them for the winter season. Handel's object in Dresden was
+      to tempt these celebrities to London by the offer of English guineas, so
+      that he was naturally obliged to be extremely discreet in his relations
+      with the officials of the court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He certainly played the harpsichord at court, for in the following
+      February (1720) a sum of 100 ducats was paid to him; this however cannot
+      indicate that he was actually in Dresden at that date, and may easily have
+      been a delayed payment for earlier services. Handel's negotiations with
+      the singers were only moderately successful, for he was unable to secure
+      anyone except Signora Durastanti for the opening of the London opera, even
+      though that was delayed until April 1720. The others remained at Dresden,
+      but it is probable that Handel's offers had not been without their
+      attractions, for the Italian singers at Dresden gave so much trouble to
+      the management that the Elector suddenly dismissed the whole crew in
+      February 1720; none of them, however, appeared in London before the autumn
+      season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's visit to Halle this year is of peculiar interest because of the
+      attempt made by J. S. Bach to become acquainted with him. Forkel's
+      biography of Bach (1802) is the only authority for this story. Bach in
+      1719 was in the service of the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen; hearing that
+      Handel was in the neighbourhood, he went over to Halle, a distance of
+      about twenty miles, but found that Handel had already departed for London.
+      The exact date of Handel's return is not known, but as there was a meeting
+      of the shareholders of the opera on November 6, 1719, he may have been in
+      England by that time. He was not himself one of the actual directors of
+      the company; the only professional member of the board was Heidegger.
+      Burney suggests that the affairs of the company were none too prosperous
+      even before the season began; and it is strange that so long a delay took
+      place between the first initiation of the scheme in the winter of 1718 and
+      the first rise of the curtain on April 2, 1720. Handel, at any rate, must
+      have felt his own position to be secure, for it was about this time that
+      he took the house at what was then 57 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor
+      Square, where he resided for the rest of his life. His name appears first
+      in 1725 among the ratepayers of the parish of St. George's, Hanover
+      Square, but not long ago a lead cistern was found in the house, bearing
+      his initials and the date 1721. On what terms he took the house is not
+      known; it is not mentioned in his will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Buononcini&mdash;Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino&mdash;death of George I&mdash;<i>The
+      Beggar's Opera</i>&mdash;collapse of the Academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The opening performance of the Royal Academy of Music was undistinguished;
+      it is hard to understand why the noble directors should have begun their
+      season with <i>Numitor</i>, an opera by Porta, a Venetian composer, who is
+      described in the book of words as "Servant to His Grace the Duke of
+      Wharton." The Duke of Wharton was not one of the directors. The company,
+      moreover, was more English than Italian; it included Baldassari,
+      Durastanti, and a second woman called Galerati, together with Anastasia
+      Robinson, who afterwards became Countess of Peterborough, Mrs. Turner
+      Robinson, wife of the organist of Westminster Abbey, Mrs. Dennis, and Mr.
+      Gordon. <i>Numitor</i> ran for five performances; on April 27 it was
+      succeeded by Handel's new opera <i>Radamisto</i>, in which the same
+      singers took part, except that Mrs. Dennis did not appear, and Mr. La
+      Garde sang the part of Farasmane. It is interesting to note that two of
+      the male parts were taken by women&mdash;Radamisto (Durastanti) and
+      Tigrane (Galerati). This looks as if the management had found it
+      impossible to secure a sufficient number of Italian <i>castrati</i>, who
+      probably demanded exorbitant fees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Radamisto</i> fared little better than <i>Numitor</i>; an enormous
+      crowd came to the first night, and many were turned away, but the opera
+      was not performed more than ten times in the season. It was probably above
+      the heads of the audience, for it is one of Handel's finest works for the
+      stage and a great advance on any of his previous operas. The only other
+      opera performed was <i>Narciso</i>, by Domenico Scarlatti, which was even
+      less successful than the others. Chrysander seems to suggest that
+      Scarlatti came to London with the idea of being a rival to Handel, but it
+      is much more likely that Handel himself persuaded the Academy to invite
+      the friend of his youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The season ended on June 25. <i>Radamisto</i> was printed, and was
+      published by Handel himself at his own house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A really serious rival to Handel appeared in the autumn. Lord Burlington
+      had made the acquaintance in Rome of Giovanni Buononcini, and had heard
+      his opera <i>Astarto</i>. Perhaps he had had enough of Handel after three
+      years of his close company in Burlington House; in any case he probably
+      thought himself a better judge of music than Handel. He secured Buononcini
+      for the Academy, and the season opened on November 19 with <i>Astarto</i>.
+      The dedication to the Earl of Burlington is signed by Paolo Rolli, and no
+      other author's name is mentioned; but the libretto was really by Apostolo
+      Zeno (1708). <i>Astarto</i> had ten performances before Christmas, and
+      twenty afterwards; <i>Radamisto</i> was revived again, but Buononcini
+      established himself firmly in the favour of a large party. Although Burney
+      speaks very disparagingly of the music, it is not in the least surprising
+      that the opera attracted the public. In the first place, it had the
+      advantage of a magnificent cast of singers&mdash;Senesino, Boschi,
+      Berenstadt, Berselli, Durastanti, Salvai, and Galerati, and this sudden
+      blaze of vocal splendour would in itself have made the success of any
+      opera, especially of one which opened the season. Besides, Buononcini's
+      music was pleasing and, after a far longer stage experience than Handel's,
+      he naturally wrote what singers enjoyed singing. It must further be added
+      that Buononcini himself was a striking personality; he had produced operas
+      at Berlin and Vienna, as well as in various Italian cities, and was a man
+      of the world, accustomed to the society of courts. Besides, Buononcini was
+      a stranger and a novelty; Handel was becoming an established institution&mdash;indeed,
+      he was well on the way to becoming an English composer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same singers, with the addition of Anastasia Robinson, appeared in the
+      season of 1721-22. A curious experiment was tried in <i>Muzio Scevola</i>,
+      of which the first act was composed by Filippo Mattei, the second by
+      Buononcini and the third by Handel, each act having an overture and
+      concluding chorus. Some biographers have supposed that this was intended
+      to be a trial of strength, and that the contest resulted in the
+      acknowledged triumph of Handel; but Burney is probably right in saying
+      that the collaboration was merely a device to save time in getting the
+      opera ready, and Burney further points out that Buononcini's position
+      remained as strong as ever. It was in fact due to Buononcinci's next two
+      operas, and not to Handel's, that the Academy was able to declare a
+      dividend of seven per cent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's <i>Floridante</i> (December 9, 1721) had a moderate success only,
+      and against Handel's one opera (except for a few performances of <i>Radamisto</i>
+      at the very beginning of the season) Buononcini had three works to his
+      credit. The following season brought Handel better fortune, and a decline
+      in the popularity of Buononcini. In November and December, <i>Muzio
+      Sceaola</i> and <i>Floridante</i> were revived; on January 12, Handel
+      produced a new opera, <i>Ottone</i>, with a new singer, Francesca Cuzzoni,
+      who eclipsed all the other women singers completely, until after some
+      years she herself was driven into eclipse by her historic rival Faustina
+      Bordoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Ottone</i> contains one number at least which is familiar to everyone
+      who knows the name of Handel&mdash;the gavotte at the end of the overture.
+      This spirited piece of music won popularity at the outset, and even to-day
+      it is probably the best known melody of Handel, after the "Harmonious
+      Blacksmith." But the real success of <i>Ottone</i> was made by Cuzzoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How Cuzzoni came to be engaged at the opera is not clear. Handel cannot
+      possibly have ever heard her sing; it has been suggested that she was
+      engaged by Heidegger. She was about twenty-two, and had made her first
+      appearance at Venice in 1719, after which she sang in various Italian
+      theatres. She had a voice of extraordinary range, beauty, and agility; she
+      was equally accomplished both in florid music and in airs of a sustained
+      and pathetic character, and she was never known to sing out of tune. In
+      appearance she was anything but attractive: she was short, squat, and
+      excessively plain-featured. She was uneducated and ill-mannered, impulsive
+      and quarrelsome. Her arrival in London was delayed for some reason, so the
+      management sent Sandoni, the second harpsichord-player, to meet her,
+      probably at Dover. On the way to London they were married; Sandoni
+      doubtless had an eye to the money which she was to earn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her first air in <i>Ottone</i>, "Falsa imagine," fixed her reputation as
+      an expressive and pathetic singer (Burney); she had at first refused to
+      sing it, on which Handel remarked to her, "Madame, je sais que vous êtes
+      une véritable diablesse, mais je vous ferai savoir, moi, que je suis
+      Béelzebub, le chef des diables," seized her round and waist, and
+      threatened to throw her out of the window. Handel had similar trouble with
+      Gordon, the English singer who came in for a small part in <i>Flavio</i>,
+      which was given on May 14. Gordon found fault with Handel's method of
+      accompanying, and threatened to jump on the harpsichord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Oh," replied Handel, "let me know when you will do that, and I will
+      advertise it; for I am sure more people will come to see you jump than to
+      hear you sing."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two more operas by Buononcini were given, but his relations with the
+      Academy were not very cordial. He had been taken up by the Marlborough
+      family, and was commissioned to compose the funeral anthem for the burial
+      of the great Duke in June 1722. On May 16, 1723, Mrs. Pendarves informed
+      her sister that the young Duchess had settled £500 a year for life on
+      Buononcini, "provided he will <i>not</i> compose any more for the
+      ungrateful Academy, who do not deserve he should entertain them, since
+      they don't know how to value his works as they ought." The contract,
+      however, seems not to have been carried out by the composer. Mrs.
+      Pendarves evidently took the news from the day's issue of a weekly
+      journal, adding only the name of the Duchess, which the paper had
+      suppressed. What the paper tells us is that the Academy had not engaged
+      Buononcini for the coming season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Senesino and Cuzzoni had made life impossible for the other singers.
+      Durastanti retired to the Continent; Anastasia Robinson left the stage,
+      and married her old admirer Lord Peterborough. Senesino and Cuzzoni,
+      however, were indispensable to the success of the opera, and probably the
+      ridiculous affectations of the one and the abominable manners of the other
+      were not without their attraction to a public which could enjoy all the
+      pleasure of gossiping about them without having to put up with them at
+      close quarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The season of 1723 began in November with Buononcini's <i>Farnace</i> and
+      Handel's <i>Ottone</i>; in January 1724 a new opera, <i>Vespasiano</i>, by
+      Attilio Ariosti, was given, and ran for nine successive nights. Ariosti
+      was never a very troublesome rival to Handel; he was a man of amiable
+      character, and apparently quite content to remain aloof from the party
+      politics of the opera-house. On February 14, Handel produced his <i>Giulio
+      Cesare</i>, one of his finest dramatic works; it has been revived with
+      considerable success in recent years, partly owing to the fact that modern
+      audiences are more familiar with the episode of Caesar and Cleopatra than
+      with the subjects of Handel's other operas. <i>Giulio Cesare</i> had the
+      advantage of a strong cast; Senesino sang the title part, with Berenstadt
+      and Boschi to support him, and the women included Cuzzoni, as well as
+      Durastanti and Mrs. Robinson, who had not yet quitted the opera company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another masterpiece of Handel's, <i>Tamerlano</i>, inaugurated the autumn
+      season of 1724 in October; in December appeared Ariosti's <i>Artaserse</i>,
+      in January <i>Giulio Cesare</i> held the stage till the production of
+      another Handel opera, <i>Rodelinda</i>, which came out on February 13, and
+      ran for thirteen nights. Two more operas, by Ariosti and Leonardo Vinci of
+      Naples, completed the season, but it was evidently Handel who scored the
+      greatest triumphs, unless the honours should more properly go to Cuzzoni,
+      as Rodelinda, and her brown silk gown trimmed with silver. All the old
+      ladies, says Burney, were scandalised with its vulgarity and indecorum,
+      "but the young adopted it as a fashion so universally, that it seemed a
+      national uniform for youth and beauty."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cuzzoni created a further sensation in the summer by giving birth to a
+      daughter. Mrs. Pendarves made much fun of the event. "It is a mighty
+      mortification it was not a son. Sons and heirs ought to be out of fashion
+      when such scrubs shall pretend to be dissatisfied at having a daughter;
+      'tis pity, indeed, that the noble name and family of the Sandonis should
+      be extinct! The minute she was brought to bed she sang' La speranza,' a
+      song in <i>Otho</i>."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Revivals of <i>Rodelinda</i> and <i>Ottone</i> took place in the following
+      season, and, in March 1726, Handel produced <i>Scipio</i>, in which the
+      famous march was heard for the first time on the rise of the curtain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Cuzzoni's throne was soon to be sharply contested. Ever since 1723 the
+      directors of the opera had been trying to secure Faustina Bordoni, and at
+      last, with a promise of £2,500 for the season (Cuzzoni received £2,000),
+      they succeeded. Faustina was born of a patrician family at Venice in 1700;
+      she had been brought up under the protection of Alessandro Marcello,
+      brother of the well-known composer, and had made her debut at Venice at
+      the age of sixteen. She sang mostly at Venice for several years, and in
+      1718 she appeared there in Pollaroli's <i>Ariodante</i>, along with
+      Cuzzoni herself. She sang at Munich in 1723, and in the summer of 1725 she
+      went to Vienna, where she stayed six months, enjoying an extraordinary
+      success. Nearly forty years afterwards the Empress Maria Theresa recalled
+      with pride how she herself, at the age of seven, had sung in an opera with
+      Faustina. At the end of March 1726 she left Vienna for London, where she
+      made her first appearance, on May 5, in Handel's new opera <i>Alessandro</i>,
+      which had been designed especially to show off both Faustina and Cuzzoni
+      in parts of exactly equal importance and difficulty. The immediate result
+      was to divide London society into two parties: young Lady Burlington and
+      her friends supported Faustina; Cuzzoni's admirers were led by Lady
+      Pembroke. Lady Walpole succeeded in getting both to sing at her house;
+      neither would sing in the presence of the other, but the hostess tactfully
+      managed to draw first one and then the other out of the music-room while
+      her rival enchanted the guests. Mrs. Pendarves also contrived to be on
+      good terms with both. She heard Cuzzoni in November privately, or perhaps
+      at a rehearsal, and writes, "my senses were ravished with harmony." The
+      opera was expected to begin about the middle of December, "but I think
+      Faustina and Madame Sandoni [i.e. Cuzzoni] are not perfectly agreed about
+      their parts." The opening, however, was delayed by the absence of
+      Senesino, who had gone to Italy and did not return until fairly late in
+      December.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was probably owing to this fact that opera in English was offered at
+      the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Marcantonio Buononcini's <i>Camilla</i>,
+      first given in London in 1706, was revived by a mainly English cast of
+      singers. Mrs. Pendarves went to see it, and her criticisms are significant
+      for the taste of the time. "I can't say I was much pleased with it, I
+      liked it for old acquaintance sake, but there is not many of the songs
+      better than ballads."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Faustina&mdash;"the most agreeable creature in the world in company"&mdash;dined
+      with Mrs. Pendarves for a small musical party on January 26. On the
+      previous day there was the first rehearsal of Handel's <i>Admeto</i>. It
+      was the moment, says Burney, of Handel's greatest prosperity and English
+      patronage. <i>Admeto</i> exhibited conspicuously what Dr. Burney called
+      Handel's "science "; it was evidently considered to be complicated in
+      style, though at the same time both pathetic and passionate. "Music," says
+      Burney, "was no longer regarded as a mere soother of affliction, or
+      incitement to hilarity; it could now paint the passions in all their
+      various attitudes; and those tones which said nothing intelligible to the
+      heart began to be thought as; insipid as those of 'sounding brass or
+      tinkling cymbals.'" These words of Burney make one realise that Handel's
+      London operas must have affected their audiences almost in the way in
+      which the operas of Wagner startled the audiences of the nineteenth
+      century. Handel himself, like Wagner, was steadily developing his own
+      dramatic powers, and it is important to bear in mind that it was only
+      those marvellous singers of Handel's day, such as Senesino, Cuzzoni,
+      Faustina, and Boschi, who could inspire him to the creation of such music
+      as they only were competent to interpret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Admeto</i> was received with respect, and although the partisans of the
+      "rival queens" were noisy in their applause, no actual disturbance took
+      place until Admeto was followed by Buononcini's <i>Astyanax</i> on May 6.
+      On the first night of the new opera each side did its best to drown the
+      opposite party's favourite with a chorus of catcalls. The behaviour of the
+      audience became more and more disgraceful as the opera was repeated, until
+      on the last night (June 6), when the Princess of Wales was present,
+      Cuzzoni and Faustina delighted the sporting instincts of the nobility and
+      gentry of England by indulging in a free fight on the stage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five days later George I died suddenly at Osnabruck. George II was crowned
+      on October 11, to the music of Handel's Coronation Anthems. The opera
+      season reopened a month later. Apparently the quarrel between Cuzzoni and
+      Faustina had been patched up; probably neither of them wanted to lose
+      their English contracts. They appeared together in Handel's <i>Riccardo
+      Primo</i>, and again in <i>Siroe</i> (February 5, 1728), as well as in <i>Tolomeo</i>
+      (April 30), but the battle seems to have been won by Cuzzoni, who obtained
+      the more important parts. We hear of no more disturbances; the fact was
+      that the audiences were too thin to be noisy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Pendarves, always a devoted supporter of Handel, was pessimistic from
+      the beginning of the season. "I doubt operas will not survive longer than
+      this winter," she wrote on November 25; "they are now at their last gasp;
+      the subscription is expired and nobody will renew it. The directors are
+      always squabbling, and they have so many divisions among themselves that I
+      wonder they have not broke up before; Senesino goes away next winter, and
+      I believe Faustina, so you see harmony is almost out of fashion."<i>Admeto</i>
+      was revived on June 1, 1728; this was Faustina's last appearance, and the
+      last night of the Royal Academy of Music. The opera was announced for June
+      11, but Faustina declared herself indisposed. The opera was shut up and
+      the company disbanded. Faustina went with Senesino to Paris, and thence to
+      Venice, where Cuzzoni also made her appearance, and continued in the local
+      dialect the campaign of slander against Faustina's alleged immoralities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were many reasons for the collapse of the opera. It had been carried
+      on with reckless extravagance, and the noble directors were in all
+      probability not very expert men of business. The scandalous behaviour of
+      all concerned in <i>Astyanax</i> may well have caused a falling-off in the
+      subscriptions. Mrs. Pendarves, who was a lady of unimpeachable conduct,
+      continued to go to the opera, but she was a serious lover of music and a
+      personal friend of Handel. The failure of the Academy is generally
+      attributed to the success of <i>The Beggar's Opera</i>, which had been
+      brought out at Lincoln's Inn Fields on January 29, 1728, and at once took
+      London by storm. A letter of Mrs. Pendarves, dated January 19, but
+      evidently continued later, tells us that she went to a rehearsal of <i>Siroe</i>:
+      "I like it extremely, but the taste of the town is so depraved, that
+      nothing will be approved of but the burlesque. The <i>Beggar's Opera</i>
+      entirely triumphs over the Italian one." Even Mrs. Pendarves could not
+      help enjoying it, once she had seen it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that Handel himself had contributed to the downfall of the
+      Academy. Out of the 487 performances given between 1720 and 1728, Handel's
+      works obtained 245, Buononcini's 108, and Ariosti's 55. The great singers
+      had drawn the public to listen to Handel's operas, but it is clear from
+      many contemporary allusions that Handel's music was too severe to be an
+      attraction in itself, except to cultivated musicians like Mrs. Pendarves.
+      The same accusations were made against Handel that were made in later
+      years against Mozart and Wagner&mdash;that his operas were noisy and
+      overloaded with learned accompaniments. The Italian opera was killed, not
+      so much by the fact that <i>The Beggar's Opera</i> made its conventions
+      ridiculous (for its conventions could at that time have been ridiculous
+      only to quite unmusical people), as by the incontestable attraction of the
+      new work itself. It was witty and outspoken, with abundance of topical
+      satire; its music consisted of the tunes that everybody knew, and it
+      presented the public with the irresistible fascinations of Lavinia Fenton,
+      who was soon to become the Duchess of Bolton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel may well have resented the success of <i>The Beggar's Opera</i>,
+      but the collapse of the Academy was in reality no great disaster for his
+      own interests. In the first place, he had done very well out of it from a
+      financial point of view; the noble directors might have lost their money,
+      but he had been only their paid servant, in which capacity he had
+      accumulated enough to invest no less than £10,000 of his own in the next
+      operatic venture. He obviously realised the strength of the position which
+      he had built up for himself both as a composer and as a man of business.
+      The most important result of the Academy's career had been to provide
+      Handel with the opportunity of consolidating his own style as a composer
+      of musical drama. Like all the court composers of his age he had provided
+      whatever his patrons required&mdash;chamber music, water music, minuets
+      for court balls, Church music for royal ceremonial; but the music on which
+      his own heart was set was that of the theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Handel naturalized&mdash;partnership with Heidegger&mdash;<i>Esther</i>&mdash;the
+      Opera of the Nobility&mdash;visit to Oxford&mdash;opera season at Covent
+      Garden&mdash;Charles Jennens&mdash;collapse of both opera-houses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel had by this time definitely decided to make England his home; on
+      February 13, 1726, he had been naturalised as an English subject. He had
+      every reason to regard England as the best place in which to live. He
+      enjoyed the protection of the German court; George II and Queen Caroline
+      gave him indeed a good deal more encouragement than George I. The
+      appointments of composer to the Chapel Royal and composer to the court
+      were purely honorary, but they strengthened his position. As to the
+      opera-house, he must by now have felt that he was its unquestioned
+      autocrat, and he could not help being aware that he was without a rival in
+      Europe as far as the stage was concerned, for old Scarlatti had gone to
+      his grave, and the younger generation had produced no composer of such
+      outstanding eminence. And in England music was generously rewarded from a
+      material point of view; high fees were paid, not only to singers, but to
+      teachers as well, and England was also one of the few countries where
+      music-printing was a flourishing business. A good proportion of Handel's
+      savings must have come from the sale of his published compositions; among
+      Handel's contemporaries no other composer in Europe had so many of his
+      works printed during his lifetime. English society seemed always ready to
+      subscribe for a new musical work, and neither in Paris nor in Amsterdam
+      was music so admirably engraved as in London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Encouraged by the Princess Royal, Handel went into partnership with
+      Heidegger, who had also made his own profits out of the opera, as well as
+      out of his notorious masquerades; they leased the King's Theatre for a
+      period of five years. The first thing to do was to secure new singers, and
+      for this purpose Handel went to Italy, probably in the autumn of 1728.
+      Heidegger had already tried to bring back Senesino and the two "costly
+      canary-birds," as Colley Cibber called them, but they had had enough of
+      London, and probably of Handel too. Little is known of the details of this
+      Italian journey; it has been said that Handel travelled with Steffani, but
+      this is impossible, as Steffani died at Frankfurt early in the year.
+      Mainwaring tells us that, at Rome, Cardinal Colonna invited him to his
+      palace, but that Handel, hearing that the Pretender was staying there,
+      prudently declined the invitation. In engaging singers he seems to have
+      been perhaps more prudent than was desirable, for his new company did not
+      contain any very distinguished names. In place of Senesino he obtained the
+      <i>castrato</i> Bernacchi; his new first woman was Signora Strada del Po',
+      who was a fine singer, but so unattractive in appearance that London
+      nicknamed her "The Pig." It is interesting to note that he also engaged a
+      tenor, Annibale Fabri, although in those; days tenors were considered only
+      fit for old men's parts of minor importance, and at Naples were generally
+      given the parts of comic old women. Fabri's wife and another woman were
+      announced as good actresses of male parts. "Fabri has a tenor voice,"
+      wrote Mrs. Pendarves, "sweet, clear and firm, but not strong enough, I
+      doubt, for the stage. He sings like a gentleman, without making faces, and
+      his manner is particularly agreeable." Perhaps Handel's friendship with
+      Mrs. Pendarves had given him a sure insight into the taste of English
+      gentlewomen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the summer of 1729 Handel paid a visit to his mother at Halle; she was
+      then blind and half paralysed. Bach sent his son Friedemann over from
+      Leipzig to beg Handel to come and see him, as he was himself too ill to
+      make the journey, but Handel not unnaturally declined. Towards the end of
+      June he passed through Hanover, and also went to Hamburg, where he engaged
+      a German bass Riemschneider.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The opera season began on December 2, with Handel's <i>Lothario</i>, but
+      it had only a moderate success. After a few revivals of <i>Giulio Cesare</i>,
+      he brought out a second new opera, <i>Partenope</i>, on February 24.
+      Despite its many beauties, it was even less successful than <i>Lothario</i>.
+      Handel's audience did not go to the theatre to listen to his music; they
+      went to hear the singers, and Bernacchi, who was no longer a young man,
+      was a poor substitute for Senesino. Strada was the only member of the
+      company who interested the audience. For the next season something better
+      had to be found, and through Francis Colman, the English Envoy at
+      Florence, Senesino was persuaded to accept 1,400 guineas instead of the
+      2,000 that he had received before. He opened the season of 1730 on
+      November 3, with his former rôle of Scipio. For the moment Handel remained
+      in the background; the next opera was a <i>pasticcio</i>, that is, an
+      opera made up of favourite songs from various operas stuck into any
+      convenient libretto. On February 2 there came out the new opera of Handel,
+      <i>Poro</i>, which turned the tide once more in the composer's favour.
+      Later on, <i>Rinaldo</i> and <i>Rodelinda</i> were revived, but the season
+      came to an early end on May 29. For the following winter some changes were
+      made in the cast. Senesino and Strada were of course indispensable, and
+      the most important new acquisition was Montagnana, the bass, for whom
+      Handel was to write some of his most celebrated songs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After revivals of <i>Tamerlano</i> and <i>Admeto</i>, Handel brought out
+      <i>Ezio</i> on January 15, 1732; it had only five performances. <i>Sosarme</i>
+      (February 19) had ten; it is remembered now by the exquisite song, "Rendi
+      'l sereno al ciglio," which was sung by Strada. The remainder of the
+      season presented nothing of any special interest until on the last night
+      Handel offered his subscribers a new type of entertainment in the shape of
+      <i>Acis and Galatea</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Handel's birthday, February 23, Bernard Gates, the master of the
+      children of the Chapel Royal, arranged a private performance of <i>Esther</i>,
+      which had been neglected since its first performance at Canons some twelve
+      years before. Among the boys who sang and acted in the "masque" were
+      Beard, who afterwards became Handel's favourite tenor, and Randall,
+      eventually Professor of Music in Cambridge, who took the part of Esther.
+      The performance was repeated twice before a paying public at the Crown and
+      Anchor Tavern, where concerts were often held, and on April 20 a rival
+      organisation advertised a further performance of Esther at the
+      concert-room in Villiers Street. On this occasion it was described as "an
+      oratorio or sacred drama," and was evidently sung without action. Princess
+      Anne wished to see it on the stage of the opera-house but the Bishop of
+      London forbade a dramatic performance. As the bishop's ban was ultimately
+      the cause of Handel's turning his attention to oratorio in preference to
+      opera, it has sometimes been suggested that Handel might have created a
+      new type of national English opera on biblical subjects if only his
+      lordship had not interfered. In justice to the bishop it has to be pointed
+      out that his objection seems to have been raised, not against the dramatic
+      presentation of Bible stories (for he did not discountenance Gates'
+      performances by the choristers at the Crown and Anchor), but against their
+      presentation in a regular theatre by professional opera singers. Such
+      prejudice may be difficult to understand at the present day, but even well
+      into the middle of the nineteenth century persons of severe morality
+      regarded the theatre and all who belonged thereto with stern disapproval,
+      and the notorious scandals associated with Cuzzoni and Faustina, to say
+      nothing of Heidegger, were not likely to have washed out the memory of
+      Jeremy Collier's denunciations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The sacred story of <i>Esther</i>, an oratorio in English," was
+      accordingly announced for May 2, with the information that "there will be
+      no acting on the stage, but the house will be fitted up in a decent manner
+      for the audience; the Musick [i.e. the orchestra] to be disposed after the
+      manner of the coronation service." Within a fortnight, Thomas Arne, father
+      of the composer, advertised a performance of <i>Acis and Galatea</i> at
+      the Little Theatre in the Haymarket "with all the choruses, scenes,
+      machines, and other decorations, being the first time it was performed in
+      a theatrical way." The laws of the time gave no protection to musical and
+      dramatic copyright. Handel could only reply by giving a performance of the
+      work himself; his one advantage was that as composer he could remodel the
+      score and make several new additions to it. But he did not have the work
+      acted; it was sung in costume with a background of appropriate scenery.
+      Even in this form it obtained four performances; Senesino and Strada took
+      part in it, singing in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a setting may appear strange to modern readers, but, even if it was a
+      new idea for England at the time, it was a fairly well established
+      tradition on the Continent, and Handel may very likely have seen a similar
+      entertainment in Italy. The subscribers to the opera would see little in
+      it that was incongruous. They were accustomed to see singers in all operas
+      wearing dresses that differed very little from their own, and scenery
+      which recalled their own Italianate gardens and palaces; Handelian opera,
+      in any case, left little scope for what most people now call acting. At
+      the same time we may be pretty sure that concert singers, especially
+      Italians, allowed themselves far more liberty of spontaneous expressive
+      movement than Victorian oratorio singers holding their music-books in
+      front of them by traditional convention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Four more performances of <i>Acis and Galatea</i> were given at the
+      opera-house in December 1732; Handel evidently saw that it would be a sure
+      attraction. <i>Alessandro</i> and <i>Tolomeo</i> were revived, and on
+      January 23 he produced a new opera, <i>Orlando</i>, which had ten
+      performances, with six more later in the season. <i>Orlando</i> is one of
+      Handel's most original operas; he seems always to have derived a peculiar
+      inspiration from the poems of Tasso and Ariosto, as in the case of <i>Rinaldo</i>.
+      <i>Orlando</i> is a thoroughly romantic opera&mdash;Chrysander even
+      compares it with those of Weber&mdash;full of episodes of madness and
+      magic; it is so far removed from the ordinary conventions of its time that
+      we can well imagine it to have startled both its audiences and its
+      singers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The affairs of the opera-house were going badly, and it is probable that
+      there were considerable dissension within its walls. It is certain that
+      relations between Handel and Senesino were becoming more and more
+      strained; <i>Orlando</i> was the last opera of Handel's in which he sang.
+      It seems fairly certain also that Heidegger was none too loyal as a
+      partner. Heidegger was in a strong position, for he was the actual owner
+      of the stock of scenery and other appurtenances taken over from the
+      original Academy. He seems to have lent the theatre to Buononcini for some
+      performances of <i>Griselda</i>, and, when the lease came to an end, it
+      was Heidegger who left Handel in the lurch and allowed a rival
+      organisation to secure it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was, too, a further reason for the general hostility against Handel.
+      Encouraged by the success of <i>Acis and Galatea</i>, he had composed a
+      new oratorio, <i>Deborah</i>, which was performed at the opera-house on
+      March 17, by the King's command. For this work prices were doubled;
+      tickets were a guinea each, and admission to the gallery half a guinea,
+      instead of five shillings. At the second performance the normal prices
+      were charged. The raising of prices for an extraordinary performance might
+      well seem nothing unreasonable; but the event came exactly at the moment
+      of the popular outcry against Walpole's Excise Bill, and the satirists of
+      the day seized the opportunity of comparing Handel with Walpole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel was now nearly fifty years of age. In the days of <i>Rinaldo</i> he
+      had been a young man of twenty-five, making friends with those of his own
+      age or younger, a new attraction with all the fascination of genius and
+      youth. In the course of a generation he had become an established
+      institution. He had made a success; he had amassed a fortune; he had
+      secured to himself the unshaken confidence of the court; but he had
+      inevitably made enemies. The native musicians were very naturally jealous
+      of the foreigner, and the numerous foreign musicians in London jealous of
+      one who made more money out of the extravagant English than they did
+      themselves. The Italian singers found him tyrannical, and society very
+      probably resented his rough manners. Society had engaged him to provide
+      music for their entertainment, and he took up the unheard-of attitude of
+      expecting society to pay its guineas for whatever music he chose to write.
+      England, one might almost say, had spoiled him, for it was only in England
+      that "The Great Bear," as he was sometimes called, could go his own way&mdash;a
+      musician behaving with the complete disregard of public opinion which was
+      considered the exclusive privilege of the English nobility. In any other
+      country he would have been forced either to pander to the taste of a court
+      or to relapse into obscurity. It was not until after the French Revolution
+      that a Beethoven could display the independence of Handel in the
+      aristocratic environment of Vienna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English nobility, having set Handel this example, claimed their own
+      rights, and organised a rival opera-house at Lincoln's Inn Fields. They
+      had no difficulty in seducing, first Senesino, then Montagnana, and
+      finally Heidegger. Only Strada remained faithful to Handel. Buononcini
+      having lost their favour, they engaged as composer the Neapolitan Nicolo
+      Porpora, famous then as a great trainer of singers, and still more famous
+      in later years as the teacher of Haydn. If Handel had the King and Queen
+      on his side, the nobility could count on the support of Frederick Prince
+      of Wales, who was immensely popular throughout the country and was on the
+      worst possible terms with his royal parents. The Opera of the Nobility, as
+      the new syndicate was called, was making its plans in good time, directly
+      after the end of Handel's season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In July 1733, Handel was invited to Oxford for a series of performances of
+      his works, and it was proposed to confer on him the honorary degree of
+      Doctor of Music. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Holmes, was a loyal Hanoverian,
+      and hoped by honouring Handel to do something to counteract the Jacobite
+      reputation of the University. <i>Esther</i> and <i>Deborah</i> were
+      performed, as well as the Utrecht <i>Te Deum</i> and <i>Jubilate</i>, and
+      the Coronation Anthems; Handel further provided a new oratorio, <i>Athaliah</i>.
+      The degree he refused to accept, for what reason has never been explained.
+      Various suggestions have been offered. The Abbé Prevost, who was in
+      England at the time, says that he refused the degree out of modesty; later
+      biographers have differed in their views as to whether modesty was one of
+      Handel's characteristics. Others have supposed that he refused to pay the
+      fee of £100 that was demanded, but it is inconceivable that a fee should
+      have been demanded for an honorary degree, although it would naturally
+      have been paid by candidates who took the degree in the normal way. The
+      concerts were attended by large audiences, many music lovers coming over
+      from Eton and Cambridge, although there was considerable resentment at the
+      price of admission&mdash;five shillings, a small amount compared with
+      Handel's London charges. This "Handel Festival" at Oxford is significant,
+      for it shows that in the space of no more than a year oratorio had begun
+      to make a wide appeal, even outside London, although it was a form of
+      composition that was new to English audiences. <i>Esther</i>, considered
+      as a masque to be acted, might be said to continue the English traditions
+      of the previous century, but there was no precedent in England for
+      anything like <i>Esther</i> in concert form. The only English works which
+      offered anything remotely like oratorio were the odes of Purcell and Blow
+      for the musicians' festivals on St. Cecilia's Day, apart from the greater
+      services and anthems of Purcell, which were composed, not for
+      entertainment, but for liturgical use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the Oxford concerts, Handel and Schmidt went to Italy to look for
+      singers. They heard Farinelli, the most famous <i>castrato</i> of the
+      century, but did not engage him; perhaps his demands were too high. The <i>castrato</i>
+      whom they did engage was Carestini, who, though less celebrated, was at
+      any rate a singularly artistic singer. Durastanti came back, and, in place
+      of Montagnana, Handel contented himself with Waltz, a German, who is often
+      described as having been Handel's cook. Burney, at any rate, recorded that
+      he was said to have filled this office, but Burney remembered him chiefly
+      as a popular comic singer. He had sung Polyphemus in Arne's pirated
+      performance of <i>Acis and Galatea</i>, and owing to the defection of
+      Montagnana, took his place in <i>Athaliah</i> at Oxford. He had "a coarse
+      figure and a still coarser voice" (Burney).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel opened his season on October 30, 1733. He had already finished the
+      composition of a new opera, <i>Ariadne</i>, but it was not brought out
+      until January 26, 1734. The reason, no doubt, was that an opera on the
+      same subject by Porpora was produced by the Opera of the Nobility on
+      December 29. Handel would no doubt have heard that it was in rehearsal,
+      and have postponed his own production until he could see how Porpora's was
+      succeeding. The two operas obtained the same number of performances, but
+      Handel's theatre was seldom full, and many opera-goers were dissatisfied
+      at his giving them oratorios, such as <i>Deborah</i> and <i>Acis</i>, on
+      opera nights; these, however, seem to have been commanded by the King, and
+      that in itself would make them all the more unpopular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In March the Princess Royal was married to the Prince of Orange, and
+      Handel was commissioned to write a wedding anthem. He also provided a
+      secular entertainment in the shape of <i>Parnaso in festa</i>, described
+      as a <i>serenata</i>. It was not unlike a masque; Apollo and the Muses
+      appeared in costume on Mount Parnassus, but apparently there was no
+      acting. The music was adapted from <i>Athaliah</i>, which, so far, had
+      only been heard at Oxford. Oratorio was also attempted by Handel's rival;
+      Mrs. Pendarves heard a work of his at Lincoln's Inn Fields in March. "It
+      is a fine solemn piece of music," she wrote, "but I confess I think the
+      subject too solemn for a theatre. To have words of piety made use of only
+      to introduce good music, is reversing what it ought to be, and most of the
+      people that hear the oratorio make no reflection on the meaning of the
+      words, though God is addressed in the most solemn manner." Needless to
+      say, it was "not equal to Mr. Handel's oratorio of Esther or Deborah."
+      Mrs. Pendarves was at this time a near neighbour of Handel's in Lower
+      Brook Street; one of her letters describes a small musical party (her
+      musical parties were always small) a month later. Apparently there were
+      not more than ten guests, including Lord Shaftesbury, who begged another
+      guest to bring him, and was admitted as being "a profess'd friend of Mr.
+      Handel"; the only professional musicians present were Handel and Strada.
+      "I never was so well entertained at an opera! Mr. Handel was in the best
+      humour in the world, and played lessons and accompanied Strada and all the
+      ladies that sung from seven o' the clock till eleven." In such company
+      Handel could evidently be more agreeable than on the stage at rehearsals,
+      and it is interesting to note that the amateurs had no timidity about
+      singing before Strada, and that Handel was willing to accompany all of
+      them alike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In July 1734, Handel's lease of the King's Theatre came to an end, and he
+      found the theatre let at once by some means to his rivals, the Opera of
+      the Nobility. He therefore entered into an arrangement with Rich for the
+      use of his new theatre in Covent Garden, but his autumn season actually
+      opened at Lincoln's Inn Fields on October 5. The probable reason for this
+      was that the Princess Anne was spending the summer in England and wished
+      to hear some of Handel's operas. She was a remarkably gifted musician, and
+      Handel considered her to be the best of his pupils; she not only sang and
+      played the harpsichord well, but was thoroughly grounded in the
+      theoretical side of music and quite capable of composing a fugue,
+      according to a Dutch musician who became acquainted with her after her
+      marriage. She came to England on July 2 for a long stay, and at once
+      persuaded Handel to give three additional performances of <i>Il Pastor
+      Fido</i>, which he had revived that season. <i>Pastor Fido</i> and <i>Ariadne</i>
+      were given again for her in October; probably Covent Garden was not quite
+      ready for performances. Princess Anne left England on October 21, and her
+      last words at parting were to beg Lord Hervey to do all he could to help
+      Handel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief attraction to the public at Covent Garden was probably not
+      Handel but Mlle Sallé, a French dancer who had been engaged by Rich. The
+      first performance at the new theatre was a ballet, <i>Terpsichore</i>, in
+      order that she might inaugurate the season. <i>Terpsichore</i>, which
+      includes songs and a chorus, served as prologue to <i>Il Pastor Fido</i>.
+      The next opera was <i>Oreste, a pasticcio</i> made up by Handel himself
+      from his own works; on January 8, 1735, he produced his Ariodante, an
+      opera over which he had spent the unusually long time of ten weeks. The
+      score was begun on August 12 and finished on October 24. The story is
+      taken from Ariosto, and, as with Orlando, Handel found that it afforded
+      opportunities for his peculiar vein of romanticism. On April 16 he
+      followed it up with Alcina, again on a subject from Ariosto, and one of
+      even more romantic character. Ariosto's enchantress Alcina was the model
+      for Tasso's better-known Armida, who provided both Lulli and Gluck with
+      one of their most dramatic heroines, and Burney says, with some justice,
+      that Handel's Alcina gave birth to all the Armidas and Rinaldos of modern
+      times. Both Ariodante and Alcina contained a large amount of ballet music,
+      and the dances in Alcina, intermingled with choruses in the French manner,
+      are among Handel's most attractive compositions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Pendarves, after the rehearsal of Alcina, described Handel as himself
+      "a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments," but he could not
+      prevail against the enchantments of Farinelli, who had been engaged by the
+      rival opera company. There could be no competing against a combination
+      that included along with him Senesino, Cuzzoni, and Montagnana. The one
+      powerful counter-attraction that Handel could offer was oratorio on
+      Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, when operas were not allowed to be given.
+      Porpora's David, which the rival management put on, had no chance against
+      Esther, Deborah, and Athaliah. Alcina carried the Opera on to the end of
+      the season, the well-known air "Verdi prati," which Carestini had at first
+      refused to sing, being encored at every performance. Handel's alleged
+      angry retort to Carestini in comical broken English has been often quoted
+      from Burney; but Schoelcher very sensibly observed that Handel was pretty
+      certain to have conversed with Carestini in Italian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The newspapers informed the world in May that Handel was going to spend
+      the summer in Germany. His health had been seriously undermined, and it
+      may well have been possible that he had talked of taking a cure at
+      Aix-la-Chapelle; but on this occasion he went no farther than Tunbridge
+      Wells. It was probably in the earlier part of 1735 that he made the
+      acquaintance of Charles Jennens, a young man who was eventually to play a
+      great part in his life, for on July 28 he wrote to Jennens to say that he
+      was just starting for Tunbridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The letter is so short that it may be quoted here in full, for it gives us
+      a great deal of interesting information.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  London,
+  <i>July 28, 1735</i>.
+  Sir,
+
+  I received your very agreeable letter with
+  the enclosed Oratorio. I am just going to Tunbridge;
+  yet what I could read of it in haste,
+  gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I shall
+  have more leisure time there to read it with all
+  the attention it deserves.
+
+  There is no certainty of any Scheme for
+  next Season, but it is probable that something
+  or other may be done, of which I shall take
+  the liberty to give you notice, being extremely
+  obliged to you for the generous concern you
+  show upon this account.
+
+  The Opera of Alcina is a writing out, and
+  shall be sent according to your direction. It is
+  always a great pleasure to me if I have an
+  opportunity to show the sincere respect with
+  which I have the honour to be,
+
+  Sir,
+  &amp;c., &amp;c.,
+
+  GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Jennens was a conspicuous figure in the London society of his day. At the
+      time of this correspondence he was thirty-five, and unmarried; he had
+      inherited vast wealth in his youth and spent it freely. He was
+      ostentatious, even for an age when extravagance was fashionable; but
+      although he was conceited and on occasions foolish, he was certainly
+      possessed of considerable intellectual gifts, and the things which
+      interested him most in life were literature, music, and the fine arts. The
+      letter shows us that he must have admired <i>Alcina</i> sufficiently to
+      ask the composer for a copy of the score. He also seized the opportunity
+      of offering him a libretto for a new oratorio. He had a very good opinion
+      of himself as a poet, and it is possible that he foresaw the importance of
+      the new type of semi-dramatic entertainment which Handel was creating.
+      There were plenty of Italian poetasters, even in London itself, who could
+      put together a conventional opera-book, but English oratorio was still in
+      the making, and it was not so easy to find a literary framework for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In any case, it was evident that Italian opera was a precarious
+      enterprise. In October the papers again gave out that Handel was going to
+      give oratorios and concerts at Covent Garden; no operas were announced,
+      and for the time being Handel appeared to have abandoned opera altogether.
+      He made no move until Lent 1736, and then brought out <i>Alexander's Feast</i>
+      (February 19), which he had set to music in the previous two months. Those
+      ever popular favourites <i>Esther</i> and <i>Acis and Galatea</i> followed
+      it, and, as in the foregoing season, Handel played organ concertos between
+      the acts of these works. It is evident that as Handel could not secure the
+      great Italian singers for his oratorios he felt obliged to offer his
+      public some other display of virtuosity, and his own performance on the
+      organ seems to have been considered a very powerful attraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marriage of the Prince of Wales to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
+      (April 27, 1736) provided him with unexpected opportunities for coming
+      before the public. It seems to have been at the desire of the Princess
+      herself that he undertook a short Italian opera season of eight
+      performances, which eventually was extended to ten. <i>Atalanta</i>,
+      Handel's new opera for this season, in which the chief singer was
+      Gizziello, then making his first appearance in England, was composed
+      especially to celebrate the royal nuptials, and seems to have finally
+      converted the Prince of Wales to the music of Handel. He now became a
+      regular supporter of Handel's theatre, with the result that the King
+      promptly withdrew his patronage, as he refused to be seen in the same
+      house as the Prince. Encouraged by this sign of princely favour, Handel
+      reopened Covent Garden in November with a revival of <i>Alcina</i>,
+      followed by <i>Atalanta</i>. Three more new operas were ready, or nearly
+      so; Handel seems to have prepared himself for the winter in better time
+      than usual. But neither <i>Arminio</i> (January 12, 1737), nor <i>Giustino</i>
+      (February 16), nor even <i>Berenice</i>, with its famous minuet (May 18),
+      could save Handel from ruin. The rival opera-house was in no better case.
+      Handel was obliged to close Covent Garden on June 1, and the Haymarket
+      followed suit ten days later. Opera at both houses had been killed, mainly
+      by the folly of party strife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Bankruptcy and paralysis&mdash;visit to Aix-la-Chapelle&mdash;the last
+      operas&mdash;Vauxhall Gardens&mdash;Handel's "borrowings"&mdash;visit to
+      Ireland&mdash;<i>Messiah</i> and other oratorios.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The collapse of the Opera left Handel not only bankrupt, but with
+      seriously endangered health. In April 1737 it had been announced that he
+      was "indisposed with the rheumatism," from which he made a slight
+      temporary recovery; but before the season was over it became clear that he
+      was suffering from paralysis. "His right arm was become useless to him,"
+      says Mainwaring, "and how greatly his senses were disordered at intervals,
+      for a long time, appeared from an hundred instances, which are better
+      forgotten than recorded." With some difficulty his medical advisers
+      persuaded him to go to the sulphur bath of Aix-la-Chapelle, where,
+      according to Mainwaring, he submitted to prolonged and drastic treatment.
+      His cure was considered remarkably rapid, and the nuns (presumably nursing
+      sisters) who heard him play the organ within a few hours of leaving his
+      bath ascribed it to a miracle. "Such a conclusion," observes our clerical
+      biographer, "in such persons was natural enough."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been asserted that during his stay at Aix, Handel composed a
+      cantata for the five-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Elbing, a
+      town in East Prussia between Danzig and Königsberg. A German researcher
+      about 1869 appears to have discovered documents at Elbing mentioning the
+      cantata, with the name of the poet and that of a local singer, Jean du
+      Grain, who composed the recitatives; Handel "of London" was said to have
+      composed the choruses. No trace of the music has survived, and there seems
+      to be no evidence whatever to connect this work with Handel's visit to
+      Aix. Nor is it possible to suggest any reason why the authorities of this
+      remote place should have applied to Handel for a composition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to Mainwaring, Handel stayed six weeks at Aix; the London papers
+      announced his return on November 7, 1737. The management of the Opera had
+      now been taken over by Heidegger, but the death of Queen Caroline on
+      November 20 caused all theatres to be closed from that date until the end
+      of December. It was announced in the papers that the Opera would reopen on
+      January 10 with a new oratorio by Handel, called <i>Saul</i>, but this
+      performance did not take place, and the theatre actually reopened on
+      January 7 with his new opera <i>Faramondo</i>. This opera was the first
+      work that Handel had undertaken after his return to London, but its
+      composition was interrupted by that of the Funeral Anthem for the Queen.
+      Although she died on November 20, Handel did not receive the King's
+      command to write the anthem until December 7, as George II was strangely
+      undecided in making arrangements for the funeral. It was finally fixed for
+      December 17, and a special organ was hurriedly built for it in Henry VII's
+      chapel at Westminster Abbey. Handel's anthem was performed by 80 singers
+      and 100 instrumentalists. Queen Caroline had been one of his most faithful
+      friends, and his gratitude and affection for her found utterance in music
+      which Burney placed "at the head of all his works for expression, harmony
+      and pleasing effects."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at ten at night on Christmas Eve that Handel finished the score of
+      <i>Faramondo</i>; on Boxing Day he began the composition of <i>Serse</i>.
+      <i>Faramondo</i> had only six performances, and <i>Serse</i> did not
+      appear on the stage until April 15, when it ran for five nights only. It
+      is remembered now, if at all, by the fact that the first song in it is the
+      so-called "celebrated Largo," but the opera as a whole is of curious
+      interest. "He was neither in health, prosperity, or spirits," says Burney,
+      "when it was composed; appearances remain in his foul score [i.e. rough
+      copy] of a mind disturbed, if not diseased. There are more passages, and
+      even whole pages, cancelled in this score, than in any one of all his
+      former operas." <i>Serse</i>, it must be explained, is a comic opera, and
+      the only comic opera that Handel ever wrote. What induced him to attempt
+      this style it is difficult to conceive. It is of course true that the
+      failure of Handel's earlier operas was largely due to the success of <i>The
+      Beggar's Opera</i> (1728), and of other comic entertainments which
+      succeeded it&mdash;<i>Hurlothrumbo</i> (1729), <i>Pasquin</i> (1736) and
+      <i>The Dragon of Wantley</i> (1737). A new type of comic opera had arisen
+      in Italy too, and comic <i>intermezzi</i> were first seen in Italian grand
+      opera in London in January 1737, although it was not until 1748 that a
+      real company of Italian comic-opera singers came over to England. But what
+      is more important to notice is that the whole style of Italian opera was
+      changing during the second quarter of the century. Handel had continued to
+      develop his own style, based on the grand manner of old Scarlatti, but
+      Handel's operas were practically unknown outside London and Hamburg; in
+      Italy, Scarlatti's style had already become old-fashioned before his death
+      in 1725, and opera was moving on towards the lighter and flimsier manner
+      of Galuppi, who first came to London in this year of <i>Serse</i>, 1738.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In choosing the libretto of <i>Serse</i>, Handel seems to have been making
+      a desperate attempt to keep up with the taste of the day. Humour he had in
+      plenty; one has only to recall <i>Acis and Galatea</i>. But the humour of
+      <i>Serse</i>, diverting as it is to the modern historical student, is
+      neither the musical nor the dramatic humour of 1737; the plot bears no
+      resemblance whatever to the Neapolitan comic operas of Vinci and
+      Pergolesi, but rather recalls the very early operas, based on Spanish
+      comedies, composed by Alessandro Scarlatti in the 1680's. <i>Serse</i> was
+      revived a few years ago in Germany, considerably cut about and reduced to
+      one act, in which arrangement it had some success; but we can well
+      understand its complete failure on its first London production.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only satisfaction which Handel received in that unfortunate season of
+      1738 was the proceeds of his benefit concert at the Haymarket on March 28,
+      organised for him by his friends, apparently rather against his own wish.
+      According to Burney the net receipts were £800; Mainwaring puts the figure
+      at £1,500. Even if we accept Burney's estimate, the sum is remarkable, and
+      particularly so in view of the known hostility of a large section of
+      society towards the composer. It can only be supposed that Handel's
+      physical and mental collapse had been grave enough to awaken a wide-spread
+      sense of pity for his misfortunes. Another mark of popular appreciation
+      was the erection of a statue of Handel, executed by Roubiliac, at Vauxhall
+      Gardens, in recognition of the pleasure which his music had afforded to
+      the frequenters of that famous resort. This piece of "laudable idolatry,"
+      as Burney calls it, was thus described by a contemporary journalist: "Mr.
+      Handel is represented in a loose robe, sweeping the lyre, and listening to
+      its sounds; which a little boy sculptured at his feet seems to be writing
+      down on the back of a violon-cello. The whole composition is in an elegant
+      taste." Commissioned by an impresario who had made a fortune out of the
+      use of Handel's music, it now appropriately adorns the vestibule of
+      Messrs. Novello's music-shop in Wardour Street.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Charles Jennens, writing to his cousin Lord Guernsey on September 19,
+      1738, remarks that "Mr. Handel's head is more full of maggots than ever."
+      Towards the end of July he had begun the composition of <i>Saul</i>, for
+      which Jennens had provided the libretto three years before. It is evident
+      that Handel intended to startle his audiences with his new oratorio
+      scheme. He had ordered a new organ for the theatre at a cost of £500,
+      constructed so that he might have a better command of his performers, and
+      he had also acquired another instrument, which Jennens calls a "Tubalcain"&mdash;in
+      other words a set of bells played from a keyboard&mdash;which he intended
+      to use in the scene in which the Israelites welcome David after his
+      victory over the Philistines. It is curious that Handel should have
+      dramatised the insanity of Saul just after he had himself recovered from
+      mental derangement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner was <i>Saul</i> finished (September 27) than Handel, four days
+      later, began the composition of <i>Israel in Egypt</i>. <i>Saul</i> was
+      first performed on January 16, 1739, and enjoyed a moderate success, but
+      <i>Israel</i> (April 4) was a failure, even after it had been shortened
+      and made more attractive by the insertion of Italian opera songs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Israel in Egypt</i> is the most conspicuous example of a strange and
+      almost unaccountable habit which from about this period began to show
+      itself in Handel's methods of composition&mdash;the incorporation of large
+      quantities of music by other composers. Samuel Wesley was the first person
+      to draw attention to this practice of Handel's, though only in a private
+      letter of 1808. In 1831 Dr. Crotch, in his professorial lectures at
+      Oxford, named no less than twenty-nine composers whom Handel had "quoted
+      or copied." The researches of Chrysander, Dr. Max Seiffert, Ebenezer
+      Prout, and Sedley Taylor eventually proved beyond dispute that not only <i>Israel</i>,
+      but several other works of Handel were largely made up from the music of
+      other men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chrysander maintained that Handel began appropriating other men's ideas as
+      early as 1707, for not only <i>Rodrigo</i> and <i>Agrippina</i>, but also
+      <i>La Resurrezione</i> and the <i>Laudate pueri</i> show obvious
+      reminiscences of Keiser's opera <i>Octavia</i> (Hamburg, 1705). These were
+      probably subconscious, like Handel's reminiscences of Scarlatti and others
+      at this period; they need not be taken any more seriously than Schubert's
+      frequent reminiscences of Beethoven. But in <i>Atalanta</i> (1736) and <i>Giustino</i>
+      (1737), Prout discovered quotations and adaptations several bars long from
+      a <i>Passion</i> by Graun, which is known to have been composed not many
+      years before. Further fragments of this <i>Passion</i> were identified by
+      Prout in <i>Alexander's Feast</i> and the <i>Wedding Anthem</i> (1736); <i>Saul</i>,
+      like <i>Israel</i>, incorporates several movements from a <i>Te Deum</i>
+      by Urio (<i>fl</i>. 1660). From this date onwards until the end of his
+      career Handel systematically drew upon the works of other musicians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There has been much controversy over this question, and many attempts have
+      been made to explain away Handel's "borrowings" so as to leave no moral
+      stain on his character, which indeed, by all contemporary accounts, was
+      scrupulously upright. Sedley Taylor (1906) was certainly anxious to clear
+      Handel's character, but still more concerned to arrive at the exact truth,
+      and his method of presenting the evidence throws a new light on Handel's
+      procedure. He showed that in most cases Handel made frequent alterations
+      in the music which he utilised, almost as if Stradella (to cite one name
+      out of many) had been a young pupil to whom he was giving a lesson in
+      composition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A careful study of these alterations suggests a reason for Handel's action
+      which seems not to have occurred to any previous writer on the subject. No
+      one seems to have noticed hitherto that Handel's "borrowings" begin in
+      1736 on a small scale, and become more frequent in 1737, after which they
+      develop into a regular habit. It seems only natural therefore to connect
+      them with Handel's mental collapse; it became acute in the spring of 1737,
+      but it may well have been approaching in the previous year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no need to go so far as to suggest that Handel suffered from
+      moral insanity and was incapable of distinguishing between right and
+      wrong; but it is quite conceivable that his paralytic stroke affected his
+      brain in such a way that he may sometimes have had a difficulty in
+      starting a composition. Biographers of Handel have more than once drawn
+      attention to phases in which he seems to have suffered from the inability
+      to make a definite decision. Indecision is a common symptom of
+      overstrained nerves, and anyone who has attempted musical composition or
+      taught it to students will understand the hesitation and uncertainty which
+      often attends the first writing down of a musical theme, although, once
+      the initial idea has been settled, the continuation and development of it
+      may proceed without difficulty. Any musician who studies the examples
+      printed by Sedley Taylor will at once exclaim that for a man of Handel's
+      experience, to say nothing of his fertility or indeed of his genius, it
+      would have been far less trouble to compose an original setting of given
+      words than to adapt them so laboriously to music written by someone else
+      for a totally different purpose. But after his attack of paralysis there
+      may well have been occasional moments when Handel could not make up his
+      mind to write down an idea of his own, but may very likely have found that
+      when once he had an idea ready on paper before him, whether that of
+      another composer or an old one of his own, he could then continue to
+      compose, and often make alterations in the music under his eyes which
+      transformed it from a commonplace into a masterpiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the autumn of 1739 Handel transferred his concerts to the smaller
+      theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where at first there seemed some hope of
+      success. On November 17 he produced his setting of Dryden's <i>Ode for St.
+      Cecilia's Day</i>; it was repeated several times, <i>Alexander's Feast</i>
+      and <i>Acis and Galatea</i> being added to the programmes. But a month
+      later an exceptionally severe frost set in; the Thames was frozen over,
+      and for two months it was useless to open the theatre, owing to the
+      impossibility of warming it adequately. In February he produced <i>L'Allegro</i>,
+      adapted by Charles Jennens from Milton's <i>L'Allegro</i> and <i>Il
+      Penseroso</i>, to which Jennens had added a third part of his own, <i>Il
+      Moderato</i>; but the public, whether from indifference to the work or
+      from fear of the cold, refused to come to it. Handel was once more on the
+      verge of ruin, but that did not prevent him from giving a performance of
+      his two most popular works, <i>Acis</i> and <i>Alexander's Feast</i>, for
+      the benefit of a new musical charity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The charity in which Handel was so keenly interested had been founded in
+      1738 to assist impoverished musicians and their families; it still carries
+      on its honourable work under the title of the Royal Society of Musicians
+      of Great Britain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same year saw the inauguration of another charitable institution which
+      owed much to the continued generosity of Handel, the Foundling Hospital.
+      Like Hogarth, who was also a benefactor, Handel did not confine his
+      support to an occasional gift, but took the warmest personal interest in
+      the place, and eventually both he and Hogarth were made governors of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The managers of the Opera had found themselves quite unable to continue
+      productions on the grand scale of former years. In the winter of 1739-40
+      there had been an insignificant season at Covent Garden; it seems to have
+      been directed by the Italian composer Pescetti, who, in the following
+      winter, started concerts at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket. Mrs.
+      Pendarves, who during the last few years had not lived much in London, and
+      had thus dropped out of Handel's life, wrote in November: "The concerts
+      begin next Saturday at the Haymarket. Carestini sings, Pescetti composes;
+      the house is made up into little boxes, like the playhouses abroad." Dr.
+      Burney gives a comic account of the undertaking. "The opera, a tawdry,
+      expensive and meretricious lady, who had been accustomed to high keeping,
+      was now reduced to a very humble state. Her establishment was not only
+      diminished, but her servants reduced to half-pay. Pescetti seems to have
+      been her prime minister, Carestini her head man, the Muscovita her
+      favourite woman, and Andreoni a servant for all work." Concerts and <i>pasticcios</i>
+      formed the main repertory, and Burney ascribes such success as they
+      enjoyed to the fact that the Little Theatre was a "snug retreat" in which
+      those who had the courage to quit their firesides during the great frost
+      might keep reasonably warm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel had nothing to do with this theatre, but in 1740 again rented the
+      theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where on November 8 he revived <i>Parnaso
+      in Festa</i> "in its original oratorio manner, with the addition of
+      scenes, dresses and concertos on the organ and several other instruments."
+      It had but one performance; on the 22nd, Handel produced a new opera, or,
+      as Burney calls it, an <i>operetta</i>, which had no more than two
+      performances. This was <i>Imeneo</i>. On January 10, 1741, he brought out
+      another new opera, <i>Deidamia</i>, which ran for three nights. <i>Imeneo</i>
+      is a work of little importance; <i>Deidamia</i>, on the other hand,
+      contains several very beautiful songs. But Dr. Burney, notwithstanding his
+      admiration of it, has to admit that much of it was old-fashioned, in the
+      style of Handel's youth, and sometimes "languid and antique." To Handel's
+      admirers to-day such criticism may seem ridiculous, but to his audiences
+      of 1741 these reversions to an earlier style would certainly have been
+      most unwelcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Deidamia</i> was Handel's last work for the stage; the glorious
+      achievements of his youth and maturity had come to a hopeless end. His own
+      public had unjustly neglected him, posterity consigned his operas to
+      oblivion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At some period during the summer of 1741 Handel received an invitation
+      from the fourth Duke of Devonshire, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to go
+      over to Dublin and give concerts there for the benefit of the local
+      hospitals. It is very probable that Mrs. Pendarves may have helped to
+      secure this engagement for Handel. She had spent a year and a half in
+      Ireland in 1731-32, and her letters give a lively account of society in
+      Dublin. Matthew Dubourg, an excellent violinist, was at the head of the
+      Viceroy's band, and musical entertainments were frequent, for to judge
+      from Mrs. Pendarves' descriptions the Irish bishops and deans lived almost
+      as magnificently as the cardinals in Rome. Mrs. Pendarves was naturally a
+      very popular guest in Dublin society; she was a remarkably fine
+      harpsichord player for an amateur, and was constantly in demand as a
+      performer at private parties. There was no one in London or Dublin who had
+      a more intelligent understanding of Handel's music, and her enthusiasm for
+      his works was unbounded. She kept constantly in touch with Dublin life
+      when in England, for she corresponded with Dean Swift, and, what was more
+      important still, she had in 1730 made the acquaintance of Dr. Delany, an
+      Irish clergyman, whom she was to marry in 1743.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel did not leave London until the first week of November. During the
+      summer he had been occupied with the composition of a new oratorio, <i>Messiah</i>,
+      the words for which had been chosen and arranged by Jennens, apparently
+      with a good deal of assistance from his chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Pooley.
+      Whether <i>Messiah</i> was composed with a view to production in Dublin is
+      not known; it was begun on August 22 and finished on September 14. A
+      fortnight later he had completed the first act of <i>Samson</i>. On the
+      way to Holyhead he stopped at Chester, where he was obliged to stay
+      several days on account of contrary winds which prevented his embarking.
+      He seized the opportunity to try over some of the choruses of <i>Messiah</i>
+      with local church-singers, and Burney, who was at school at Chester, gives
+      an amusing account of the little rehearsal, at which Handel was roused to
+      grotesque fury by the inability of the bass, a printer by trade, to read
+      "And with His stripes" at sight. On November 18 he arrived in Dublin, and
+      opened his season at Neal's new music-hall in Fishamble Street on December
+      23 with a performance of <i>L'Allegro</i>, interspersed with concertos. A
+      few days later he wrote a long letter to Jennens describing the
+      unprecedented success which he had enjoyed. Dublin received him with open
+      arms, and he thoroughly enjoyed his triumph, the more so as he felt
+      himself to be in unusually good health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A series of concerts followed, at which various oratorios and other works
+      were performed. On April 8, 1742, there was a rehearsal of <i>Messiah</i>,
+      open to those who had taken tickets for the first performance, which took
+      place on Tuesday, April 13. The choir was provided by the singers from the
+      two cathedrals, some of whom took the male solo parts as well; the female
+      soloists were Mrs. Cibber and Signora Avolio. Over seven hundred persons
+      were present, and about £400 was divided between the three charities, the
+      Relief of Prisoners, Mercer's Hospital, and the Charitable Infirmary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Saul</i> was performed on May 25, and a second performance of <i>Messiah</i>
+      took place on June 3. Handel left Ireland on August 13. In another letter
+      to Jennens he says that his plans for the winter are undecided; for "this
+      time twelve-month" (i.e. September 1743) he intended to continue his
+      oratorios in Ireland. For some reason or other this second visit to
+      Ireland never took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not until February 17, 1743, that Handel came before the London
+      public again with <i>Samson</i>, which, unlike most of his oratorios, had
+      an immediate success. He had by this time dropped the Italian singers
+      altogether, and depended mainly on Mrs. Cibber and John Beard, a tenor who
+      had more sense of artistic style than power of voice. Mr. Flower says that
+      his voice was more powerful than sweet; Horace Walpole, who heard him,
+      said that he had only one note in it, and Mrs. Pendarves, whose judgment
+      was probably more trustworthy, said that he had no voice at all. The first
+      London performance of <i>Messiah</i> was given on March 23, but it had no
+      more than two subsequent repetitions this season. There were many reasons
+      why it should have fallen flat. Jennens himself was extremely dissatisfied
+      with it. <i>Israel</i> had been a failure too, and it is extremely
+      probable that musical people, accustomed to the Italian opera, were
+      estranged by a setting of Bible words in prose instead of a libretto in
+      verse laid out on more or less dramatic lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      William Law's <i>Serious Call</i> had been published in 1729; the book
+      makes frequent allusions to the frivolity of Italian opera, and
+      opera-going is picked out as one of the chief characteristics of
+      irreligious persons. In 1739 John Wesley first began to preach in the open
+      air; in 1742 Edward Young's <i>Night Thoughts</i> achieved its
+      extraordinary popularity. These three events were all significant of the
+      religious movement that was taking place among the more cultured classes
+      in England, and this movement undoubtedly affected Handel's oratorio
+      concerts. The ultra-religious were shocked at the association of sacred
+      subjects with the theatre; those who could combine religion with culture,
+      like Mrs. Delany, who was now approaching the age of piety, were Handel's
+      most earnest supporters. It is quite probable that the section of society
+      which preferred its culture unmixed with religion resented the attitude of
+      the second party even more than that of the first, because the second
+      party belonged to their own social class, and this resentment may well
+      have contributed to the ever-increasing hostility shown by many social
+      leaders toward Handel. And Handel's personal oddities were becoming
+      rapidly more acute, partly owing to increasing age, and still more owing
+      to recurrences of paralysis and associated mental derangement. He had
+      another attack in this very year&mdash;1743.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Messiah</i> and <i>Samson</i> were composed at a more favourable
+      moment, and show little use of borrowed material, except that <i>Messiah</i>
+      incorporates some of Handel's own chamber duets, the melodies of which
+      were more suitably illustrative of their original Italian words than of
+      the sentences from Scripture to which he adapted them. But his next
+      important work, the <i>Te Deum</i> in celebration of the victory at
+      Dettingen (June 27), begun in July and performed on November 27,
+      incorporates no less than nine movements from the Latin <i>Te Deum</i> by
+      Urio already drawn upon for <i>Israel in Egypt</i>. Mrs. Delany "was all
+      raptures," and thought it "excessively fine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is curious that, whereas the Dettingen <i>Te Deum</i> was largely based
+      on borrowed material, Semele, composed in the previous month of June,
+      should be, as far as is at present known, entirely original. The libretto
+      had been written by Congreve in 1707 for an opera, and it was only natural
+      that its theatrical sense and its literary grace and distinction should
+      have inspired Handel to one of his loveliest works. Handel was never quite
+      at home in the English language, but in his later years he seems to have
+      developed a feeling for English poetry, more especially for that of
+      approximately his own time. But <i>Semele</i> did not attract the opera
+      audience; it became increasingly clear that the opera party would have
+      nothing to do with Handel, and were in fact deliberately doing all they
+      could to bring him to ruin. Mrs. Delany and a few other great ladies
+      remained faithful, but they were in a small minority. It was evidently the
+      younger generation who were in opposition; Mrs. Delany alludes to them as
+      "the Goths&mdash;the fine ladies, the <i>petits maîtres</i> and the
+      ignoramuses," and seemed surprised that they allowed the oratorio to be
+      performed without making a disturbance. Mrs. Delany was settling down to
+      being the wife of a dean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Joseph</i> (March 2, 1744) fared no better, and Handel himself "was
+      mightily out of humour about it" at the rehearsals. The summer was devoted
+      to the composition of <i>Belshazzar</i>, for which Jennens had supplied
+      the libretto. The collaboration was not altogether happy, for although
+      Jennens had considerable sense of the picturesque, and offered Handel
+      opportunities for what may be called spectacular music on the grand scale,
+      his literary style was pompous, rhetorical, and long-winded. Handel
+      protested perpetually against the length of the work, for the Handelian
+      style of composition naturally extended the prolixity of the words;
+      Jennens greatly resented the musician's criticism, and insisted on
+      printing the poem in full.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the winter came, Handel produced nothing of importance until January
+      5, when he brought out <i>Hercules</i>, a secular oratorio which he had
+      composed in the summer during intervals when <i>Belshazzar</i> had to be
+      laid aside owing to Jennens' delays. <i>Belshazzar</i> was given on March
+      27. <i>Semele, Joseph</i>, and <i>Saul</i> were revived, but, whatever
+      oratorio was given, the theatre was almost empty, and the season came to a
+      premature end on April 23. Handel was again suffering from some form of
+      illness, and was unable to take any part in the performances, although he
+      was present at them. Lady Shaftesbury describes "the great, though
+      unhappy, Handel, dejected, wan and dark, sitting by, not playing on, the
+      harpsichord," and adds that "his light had been spent in being overplied
+      in music's cause." Hawkins states definitely that Handel became blind in
+      1751, and this date has been generally accepted; Lady Shaftesbury's letter
+      suggests that he was already blind, or partially so, as early as March
+      1745, unless the word "light" is to be taken as meaning the light of his
+      reason. This interpretation, in fact, is confirmed by a later letter of
+      Lord Shaftesbury in October, in which he says: "Poor Handel looks
+      something better. I hope he will entirely recover in due time, though he
+      has been a good deal disordered in the head." Another friend of Handel's,
+      William Harris, met him in London, in August, when he seems at first not
+      to have recognised Harris and to have behaved with some oddity; "he talked
+      much of his precarious state of health, yet he looks well enough."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has generally been stated that in 1745 Handel again became bankrupt,
+      but Barclay Squire pointed out that his name does not occur in the
+      official lists of bankrupts. It must be remembered that, however
+      disastrous his opera or oratorio seasons were, he had always his permanent
+      pension of £600 a year to fall back on, and Hawkins states that this
+      pension, originally granted by Queen Anne and George I, was punctually
+      paid throughout his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the end of August, London was in a panic over the Jacobite rebellion
+      under the Young Pretender, Charles Edward. The Opera remained closed on
+      account of the prejudice against the Papist Italian singers; at the other
+      theatres patriotism expressed itself in appropriate music. Purcell's
+      "Genius of England" was sung at one, Arne's recently composed "Rule,
+      Britannia" at another, and on November 14 a "Chorus Song, set by Mr.
+      Handel for the <i>Gentlemen Volunteers</i> of the City of London," was
+      sung by Mr. Lowe at Drury Lane. The words suggest that the anonymous
+      author was familiar with the Epilogue to Purcell's <i>King Arthur</i>;
+      Handel's music is neither in his own style nor in Purcell's, but resembles
+      the poorest sort of English patriotic song of the early eighteenth
+      century. Patriotic poetry was well illustrated by an additional verse for
+      "God Save the King" which was printed in this same month:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>From France and Pretender
+  Great Britain defend her,
+  Foes let them fall;
+  From foreign slavery,
+  Priests and their knavery,
+  And Popish Reverie,
+  God save us all.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On December 6 the Pretender began his retreat from Derby, and panic was
+      allayed. Handel seized the opportunity to compose and bring out his <i>Occasional
+      Oratorio</i>, about half of which was taken from <i>Israel in Egypt</i>;
+      it contains a well-known quotation of "Rule, Britannia," and the point of
+      the quotation is made clearer when we know that it was one of the
+      patriotic songs sung at the theatres during the period of panic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Duke of Cumberland's defeat of the Pretender at Culloden on April 16,
+      1746, finally disposed of the Jacobites, and Handel made a further
+      contribution to the national rejoicings in "A Song on the Victory over the
+      Rebels," which was printed in the <i>London Magazine</i> for July. The
+      words were by John Lockman; the first and last verses are as follows:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>From scourging rebellion and baffling proud France,
+  Crown'd with laurels behold British William advance:
+  His triumph to grace and distinguish the day,
+  The sun brighter shines and all nature's gay.
+
+  Ye warriors on whom we due honours bestow,
+  O think on the source whence our late evils flow;
+  Commanded by William, strike next at the Gaul,
+  And fix those in chains would Britain enthral.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the same month Handel began the composition of a new oratorio in honour
+      of the Duke; this was <i>Judas Maccabaeus</i>, for which he had discovered
+      a new librettist, the Rev. Thomas Morell, formerly Fellow of King's
+      College, Cambridge. Morell has given a lively account of his collaboration
+      with the great man, whom he did not fear to criticise. Handel's retorts to
+      him have been reproduced as if they were outbursts of righteous
+      indignation against a snarling poetaster, but, in view of many other
+      records of Handel's rough tongue and genial humour (in which he seems
+      often to have resembled Brahms), we need not take them too seriously. It
+      is quite clear that Morell was more amused than offended, and the fact
+      that they continued to collaborate up to the end of Handel's career as a
+      composer shows that they must have remained on completely friendly terms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morell, to judge from the contemporary portrait of him, must have been a
+      rather comic little figure with a strong sense of humour. He was a
+      scholar, and something of a musician too. The academic primness of his
+      verses has endeared him to all lovers of Handel, and to no one more than
+      Samuel Butler; they are always admirably suited to their purpose, neat and
+      scholarly, concise and direct, with never a word too many. They run easily
+      for a singer, and it is not improbable that Morell was acquainted with the
+      works of that great model of all opera-poets, Metastasio, for his words,
+      like Metastasio's, acquire an unexpected beauty when they are sung.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel must have felt himself fully restored to health in the summer of
+      1746, for <i>Judas</i>, which was written in five weeks, contains no
+      "borrowings," apart from a few numbers added some ten years later and
+      adapted from some of his early Italian opera songs. It was not performed
+      until April 1, 1747.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Judas Maccabaeus&mdash;Gluck&mdash;Thomas Morell&mdash;incipient blindness&mdash;Telemann
+      and his garden&mdash;last oratorios&mdash;death&mdash;character and
+      personality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The new oratorio met with surprising success. In the first place, Handel
+      had given up the subscription system, and opened the theatre to all
+      comers. The relief produced by the victory of Culloden had no doubt
+      encouraged the general public to spend more money on entertainments; the
+      Duke of Cumberland was a popular hero, and, through the <i>Occasional
+      Oratorio</i>, Handel's name had come to be associated with him. <i>Judas</i>
+      was naturally patronised by the court and by the Duke himself, who had
+      made a handsome present to Morell in recognition of his literary laurels.
+      And a new class of enthusiasts appeared in the shape of the Jews, we are
+      told, who were attracted by the glorification of a national hero of their
+      own. We do not hear much of the Jewish community in London in the days of
+      Handel, and it cannot have been a very large one, but they appear to have
+      been worth Handel's consideration. It may be mentioned that Handel's early
+      librettist in London, Nicolo Haym, must have been a Jew, to judge from his
+      name. Handel, at any rate, was sufficiently impressed to ask Morell to
+      find another Jewish subject for his next oratorio; this was <i>Alexander
+      Balus</i>, produced the following year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Italian opera party had this year engaged Gluck as a composer, and he
+      too celebrated the Duke of Cumberland's achievements with an opera, <i>La
+      Caduta dei Giganti</i> (January 5), which was a complete failure. It must
+      have been put together in a hurry, for all of the "favourite songs" in it,
+      published by Walsh (and no other record of the music remains), were taken
+      from earlier operas of Gluck's; in any case they are poor stuff, and from
+      Burney's description of the singers it is no wonder that the opera had no
+      success. Gluck called on Handel, who told someone that he knew no more of
+      counterpoint than his cook. Gluck was just under thirty, Handel just over
+      sixty, and one can understand Handel's attitude; in any case he gave him
+      some plain and practical advice as to how to please an English audience,
+      which was not much use to Gluck, as he never visited this country again.
+      Handel was quite right in his criticism, for Gluck was always very clumsy
+      in his technique; and, at any rate, Gluck found him friendly enough and
+      spoke of him forty years later with the profoundest respect. It is
+      probable that Gluck heard <i>Judas</i>, as he was still in London in
+      April.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A significant indication of the new popularity which Handel had acquired
+      was the production of a <i>pasticcio</i>, at the Italian Opera in November
+      1747, made up chiefly from the operas of Handel; but the experiment was
+      not repeated. In the autumn of 1748 a company of Italian comic-opera
+      singers came over to London; they brought an entirely new type of
+      entertainment, and after their success Handelian opera was buried for
+      ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Alexander Balus</i> was not one of Handel's popular works; <i>Joshua</i>
+      (March 23, 1748) is now pretty well forgotten, but was a great attraction
+      when new, mainly because it contained "See the Conquering Hero," which was
+      afterwards transferred to <i>Judas Maccabaeus</i>. "What the English like
+      is something that they can beat time to," said Handel to Gluck. He agreed
+      with Hawkins in not caring very much for it himself, but added, "you will
+      live to see it a greater favourite with the people than my other fine
+      things." <i>Joshua</i> contains two "borrowings," one from Handel's own
+      opera <i>Riccardo</i>, and another from Gottlieb Muffat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The productions of the next year (1749) were <i>Susanna</i> (February 10)
+      and <i>Solomon</i> (March 17); it is not known who wrote their libretti,
+      though <i>Solomon</i> has been tentatively ascribed to Morell. <i>Susanna</i>
+      was remarkably successful, perhaps on account of its story, which has
+      always been a favourite with the painters of the later Renaissance. One
+      can understand Lady Shaftesbury's saying, "I believe it will not insinuate
+      itself so much into my approbation as most of Handel's performances do, as
+      it is in the light operatic style." <i>Solomon</i> was a complete
+      contrast, with its magnificent scenes of oriental pageantry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 1748) had no doubt contributed, as
+      the victory of Culloden did, to make people more inclined to enjoy the
+      pleasures of life, with beneficial results to the organisers of music and
+      drama. The King ordered a grand celebration of the event to take place on
+      April 27, 1749, and preparations for it were begun as early as the
+      preceding November. The famous theatrical architect Servandoni was
+      commissioned to design an elaborate entertainment of fireworks on a
+      colossal scale to be let off in the Green Park, accompanied by the music
+      of Handel. The Fireworks Music was scored for fifty-six wind instruments.
+      A rehearsal of it (without fireworks) was held at Vauxhall Gardens a week
+      before, at half a crown admission, and it is said to have been attended by
+      a crowd of twelve thousand persons. At the actual performance the
+      fireworks were a disastrous failure, owing to various accidents, but
+      Handel's music, accompanied by the firing of ordnance, was the real event
+      of the evening. A month later Handel repeated the music at the Foundling
+      Hospital, along with selections from Solomon, and a new work, composed for
+      the occasion, known as the Foundling Anthem. His next act of generosity
+      was to present the hospital with an organ, which he inaugurated on May 1,
+      1750, with a performance of Messiah. Henceforth the performance of Messiah
+      at the Foundling Hospital for the benefit of the institution became an
+      annual event, and it was this charitable association which really secured
+      the work its subsequent popularity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's next oratorio, Theodora (March 16, 1750), came out at a bad
+      moment, for a series of earthquakes were being felt in London, with the
+      result that many people took refuge in the country, and those who stayed
+      behind were reluctant to go to the theatre. The blame for the neglect
+      which has always overtaken Theodora has been very unjustly laid on Morell.
+      Handel himself, remembering the successes of Judas and Susanna, observed
+      to the poet, "The Jews will not come to it, because it is a Christian
+      story; and the ladies will not come, because it is a virtuous one."
+      Theodora was always Handel's favourite among his oratorios, and he
+      considered the chorus, "He saw the Lovely Youth," to be far beyond
+      anything in Messiah. None the less, the theatre was half empty when
+      Theodora was given. "Never mind," said Handel, with grim humour, "the
+      music will sound all the better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An old acquaintance reappeared this year in London in the shape of
+      Cuzzoni, who had continued her quarrelsome career at Venice, Vienna, and
+      Stuttgart. An unsuccessful benefit concert was given for her, at which
+      Giardini the violinist made his first appearance in London. Handel engaged
+      her to sing in Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, but her voice was gone.
+      She was arrested for debt and bailed out by the Prince of Wales; after a
+      few years in Holland, where she was again in prison, she died in
+      destitution at Bologna.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the summer Handel went to Germany for the last time. Nothing is known
+      of his movements there beyond the fact that on the journey out he met with
+      a carriage accident between the Hague and Haarlem. He was seriously
+      injured, but was stated in a London paper of August 21 to be out of
+      danger. Nor is it known when he returned; we have no further news of him
+      until in January he began work on Jephtha. Morell says that he himself
+      wrote Jephtha in 1751, but, as Handel had completed the first act on
+      February 2, it is probable that Morell, like Jennens, supplied him with
+      the words in instalments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The composition of the music suffered various interruptions owing to the
+      failure of Handel's eyesight, and possibly to a return of mental disorder
+      (Streatfeild). He was able to play the organ at the Foundling Hospital in
+      May, and directly afterwards went for a short visit to Cheltenham,
+      returning to London on June 13. He resumed work on Jephtha, and finished
+      it on August 30. It was some time this year (the precise date is unknown)
+      that he consulted Samuel Sharp, a surgeon of Guy's Hospital, who told him
+      that he was suffering from gutta serena, and that freedom from pain in the
+      visual organs was all that he had to hope for during the remainder of his
+      days. It was a severe shock, especially to a man whose general physical
+      and mental health was already undermined, and it is no wonder that Handel
+      began to give way to periods of profound depression. The condition of
+      Handel's eyes, and of his hand as well, may be clearly observed in the
+      autograph of Jephtha, and it may be noted that here he again reverted to
+      the process of "borrowing"&mdash;this time from five Masses by Habermann,
+      a composer twenty years his junior, published in 1747.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may well be asked how Handel acquired the original copies of all the
+      works which he utilised in his later years, since it is obvious that they
+      could not have been well known or easily available to musicians in
+      England. A guess may be hazarded that he obtained them through his old
+      friend Telemann at Hamburg. Telemann, it will be remembered, had been a
+      close friend of Handel's during their student days at Halle; whether they
+      met again in Germany after Handel had taken up his residence in London is
+      not known, but it is quite probable. The fact remains that Handel was
+      undoubtedly in friendly correspondence with Telemann in 1750, for in
+      December of that year he wrote a long letter to him (in French) thanking
+      him for a theoretical work. Telemann appears to have been a keen gardener,
+      and had evidently asked Handel to send him some rare plants. Handel's
+      reply suggests that he was not much interested in gardening himself, but
+      was most anxious to do all he could to give Telemann pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another letter (again in French) to Telemann, dated September 20, 1754,
+      explains that Handel had set about procuring the plants when Captain
+      Carsten of Hamburg, by whose ship he intended to send them, told him that
+      Telemann was dead; but, after another voyage to Hamburg and back, Carsten
+      brought the news that Telemann was alive and in good health. He also
+      brought a list of the rare plants desired, and Handel writes to say that
+      he has obtained almost all of them, and will send them by Captain Carsten
+      when he sails for Hamburg again in December.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is true that there is no mention of any parcel of music in these
+      letters, beyond Telemann's "System of Intervals," but they suggest that
+      they were part of a longer correspondence. Telemann was keenly interested
+      in contemporary music, as his correspondence with Graun shows; he also
+      seems to have asked Graun to send him plants from Berlin. He is the most
+      likely person to have sent musical works of interest to Handel; possibly
+      they were sent on loan, and returned after Handel had made the extracts
+      which are to be seen in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jephtha was produced on February 26, 1752. Handel's oratorios had by now
+      become a lucrative undertaking, and it was characteristic of English
+      audiences that they came in crowds to see Handel playing the organ in his
+      blindness, and enjoy the luxury of tears when Beard sang "Total Eclipse!"
+      Sharp, the oculist, recommended Handel to employ as his assistant John
+      Stanley, who had been blind from early childhood and was a singularly
+      accomplished organist. Handel burst out laughing. "Mr. Sharp, have you
+      never read' the Scriptures? Do you not remember? If the blind lead the
+      blind, they both fall into the ditch."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He underwent various operations, but derived only partial benefit from
+      them. During these last years he led a very retired life, but he continued
+      to play the organ at his oratorios, at first from memory, and later
+      extemporising the solos in his concertos, which were always an integral
+      feature of his concerts. The profits of these were enormous, and when he
+      died in 1759 he left investments to the extent of 20,000. Composition
+      naturally became a more difficult matter after blindness set in, but new
+      songs were added to many of the oratorios, and in 1758 he made a complete
+      revision of his old Italian cantata, Il Trionfo del Tempo. Morell
+      translated it into English, and seventeen new numbers were added. Some of
+      these were new, but many were adapted from other works of Handel's,
+      chiefly from Parnasso in Festa, and there are also borrowings from Lotti
+      and Graun. Two choruses by Graun had already been utilised in the revision
+      of the Italian version which Handel brought out in 1737.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time John Christopher Schmidt, now known as Smith, had been his
+      indispensable factotum. Smith made fair copies of his music, and managed
+      his affairs for him, though Handel, almost up to the end, seems to have
+      discussed his investments in person with his financial adviser, Mr. Gael
+      Morris, in the City. Smith's son, who had come with his father to London
+      as a child, had been educated under Handel's direction, and in 1754 became
+      the first organist of the Foundling Hospital. In Handel's later years it
+      was the son who assisted him at the performances of the oratorios and
+      acted as his musical amanuensis. There is a curious story of a quarrel
+      which took place at Tunbridge Wells, about four years before Handel's
+      death, between the two old men. The cause of it is not known, but it is
+      stated to have been quite trivial; old Smith left Handel abruptly, and
+      Handel vowed he would never see him again. The son attempted to heal the
+      breach and even went so far as to say that he would refuse to assist
+      Handel at his concerts any more unless Handel restored to his father the
+      legacy which after the quarrel he had intended to leave to the son; young
+      Smith foresaw that he himself would be accused of having deliberately
+      alienated the affections of Handel from his father in order to secure the
+      money for himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel apparently yielded to some extent, but it is clear that he was not
+      reconciled to old Smith for a long time. "About three weeks before his
+      death," we are told, in Coxe's Anecdotes of Handel and Smith, published
+      soon after young Smith's death, "Handel desired Smith junior to receive
+      the sacrament with him. Smith asked him how he could communicate, when he
+      was not at peace with the world and especially when he was at enmity with
+      his former friend, who, though he might have offended him once, had been
+      faithful and affectionate to him for thirty years." Handel was much
+      affected by Smith's words, and the reconciliation took place. Religion had
+      gained a strong hold upon Handel in his years of suffering; he spoke much
+      to Hawkins and others of his delight in setting the Scriptures to music,
+      and he was a regular worshipper at St. George's, Hanover Square.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His last appearance in public was at the performance of Messiah on April
+      6, 1759, but at the end of it he was seized with a fainting attack, took
+      to his bed, and died during the night between the 13th and 14th of April.
+      He was buried in Westminster Abbey on the evening of the 10th; the choirs
+      of the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's joined the Abbey choir in singing the
+      burial music of Dr. Croft, and it is said that three thousand people were
+      present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's will, executed June 1, 1750, left the bulk of his fortune to his
+      niece and goddaughter Johanna Friderica Floerken (nee Michaelsen) of
+      Gotha; other relatives were also left legacies. To Christopher Smith
+      (junior) he left 500, besides his large harpsichord, his chamber organ,
+      his portrait by Denner, and his manuscripts. He had at one time thought of
+      leaving the manuscripts to the University of Oxford, and, having already
+      promised them to Smith, offered him a legacy of £3,000 if he would resign
+      all claim to them. Smith refused, and also refused an offer of £2,000 made
+      for them, after Handel's death, by Frederick the Great. He kept them until
+      1772, when he presented them to George III in return for a pension of £200
+      a year. But he did not hand over the whole of the manuscripts to the King,
+      and a large collection of rough sketches and fragments was acquired by
+      Lord Fitzwilliam, who bequeathed them to the University of Cambridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The foregoing pages will have shown how singularly few are the definite
+      facts about Handel's life which can be ascertained with any degree of
+      certainty. There are a number of portraits which give some idea of his
+      outward appearance, but most of them represent him as a man of middle age,
+      and the anecdotes of his life and habits recorded by various
+      contemporaries belong mostly to the same period. It is almost impossible
+      to form any idea of his private character and his inward personality.
+      Biographers of musicians often attempt to deduce their characters from
+      their musical works, but it need hardly be said that such a procedure is
+      thoroughly unreliable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Portraits are notoriously unsafe as guides to the interpretation of
+      character, but if the miniature reproduced by Mr. Flower as having been
+      painted in Rome is an authentic likeness of Handel as a young man and it
+      certainly bears some resemblance to the portrait by Denner painted about
+      1736 or 1737&mdash;he must have been singularly attractive in those days.
+      It cannot have been his musical abilities alone that won him the immediate
+      friendship of Telemann at Halle and Mattheson at Hamburg; and, although he
+      seems from his earliest days to have been ambitious and determined to make
+      a career for himself, his contemporaries give the impression that he was
+      retiring rather than self-assertive. In later life he was often described
+      as bearish and rough-mannered, but this cannot have been the case in his
+      youth, or he would never have achieved the position which he held in the
+      most cultured and distinguished society of Rome and Naples. His visit to
+      Italy must inevitably have been a wonderful education in the humanities,
+      otherwise he could never have been received as he was on his first visit
+      to London by the society which most nearly resembled that of his Italian
+      friends and patrons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Professional musicians, and especially those connected with the theatre,
+      were regarded in England as being more or less disreputable, unless they
+      held university degrees and posts of distinction. Handel moved among them
+      in his professional life, as was only natural, but his more intimate
+      friendships seem, throughout his career, to have been confined mainly to
+      the innermost circle of the well-bred amateurs; we must not forget,
+      however, that it was only persons of that class whose letters and memoirs
+      have come down to us. Burney and Hawkins at any rate were well acquainted
+      with the professional world, and their testimony tends to confirm that
+      Handel stood more or less aloof from it. It was only in later life that he
+      associated on terms of friendship with such a person as Mrs. Cibber, the
+      singer. In an age when all opera-houses were, with some truth, regarded as
+      centres of sexual promiscuity, it is indeed remarkable that not the least
+      evidence exists, with one solitary exception, that Handel was ever even
+      alleged to have had an illicit love-affair. Mr. Flower discovered a copy
+      of Mainwaring's biography, with marginal notes said to be in the
+      handwriting of George III, and there we read: "G. F. Handel was ever
+      honest, nay excessively polite, but like all Men of Sense would talk all,
+      and hear none, and scorned the advice of any but the Woman he loved, but
+      his Amours were rather of short duration, always within the pale of his
+      own profession." The <i>Anecdotes of Handel and Smith</i> mention two
+      occasions on which he was said to have become engaged to be married, or
+      nearly so, but the writer is so reticent that little faith can be placed
+      in his statement, and in any case the <i>Anecdotes</i>, published in 1799,
+      are not very reliable as far as Handel is concerned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not difficult to understand that there were two Handels, one
+      "excessively polite" (which, in the language of the eighteenth century,
+      does not mean that he was servile and cringing, but simply that he behaved
+      like a man of good breeding), as he appeared to such people as Mrs. Delany
+      and the Harris family, and the other as he showed himself at rehearsals,
+      or in the society of men friends of more or less his own standing&mdash;bluntly
+      outspoken and perhaps at times inconsiderate. The hostility of a large
+      number of social leaders may well have been aroused in the first instance
+      by some careless harsh word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The figure of Handel was large," says Burney, "and he was somewhat
+      corpulent and unwieldy in his motions; but his countenance, which I
+      remember as perfectly as that of any man I saw but yesterday, was full of
+      fire and dignity; and such as impressed ideas of superiority and genius.
+      He was impetuous, rough, and peremptory in his manners and conversation,
+      but totally devoid of ill-nature or malevolence; indeed there was an
+      original humour and pleasantry in his most lively sallies of anger or
+      impatience, which, with his broken English, were extremely risible. His
+      natural propensity to wit and humour, and happy manner of relating common
+      occurrences in an uncommon way, enabled him to throw persons and things
+      into very ridiculous attitudes. Handel's general look was somewhat heavy
+      and sour, but when he did smile, it was his sire the sun, bursting out of
+      a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good
+      humour, beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both Burney and Hawkins record that outside his profession he was said to
+      be ignorant and dull, and the fact that they are at pains to defend him on
+      this charge shows that there was apparent ground for it. Pepusch said of
+      him that he was "a good practical musician," which is what one might well
+      expect of Pepusch, whose devotion to antiquarian learning aroused the
+      amusement rather than the admiration of his contemporaries. Handel was at
+      any rate keenly interested in painting, like Corelli, and the third
+      codicil to his will, dated August 4, 1757, mentions two landscapes by
+      Rembrandt, one a view of the Rhine, which he bequeathed to one of the
+      Granvilles from whom he had received both as a gift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another characteristic of Handel's for which his early biographers are
+      hard put to find an excuse was his enormous appetite for food and drink,
+      satirised by his once intimate friend the painter Goupy in a well-known
+      print called "The Charming Brute," in which Handel is represented with the
+      head of a pig, seated at an organ, with various comestibles disposed at
+      his feet. In this connexion it may be noted that for all his gluttony
+      Handel was never accused of drunkenness; if he exceeded in the pleasures
+      of the table, it was as a gourmet and a connoisseur. Yet it is recorded
+      that he never led an extravagant life, and apart from this particular
+      weakness he lived as simply in the days of his wealth as in those of his
+      poverty. Generosity to those in distress was at all times characteristic
+      of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Handel became a naturalised British subject, none of his
+      contemporaries would ever have dreamed of regarding him as an Englishman,
+      or as a composer of English music. Burney's account of the commemoration
+      festival of 1784 may be regarded as an official panegyric, but even in
+      that he goes no further than to say that Handel, "though not a native of
+      England, spent the greatest part of his life in the service of its
+      inhabitants, improving our taste, and introducing among us so many species
+      of musical excellence, that, during more than half a century, while
+      sentiment, not fashion, guided our applause, we neither wanted nor wished
+      for any other standard. Indeed, his works were so long the models of
+      perfection in this country, that they may be said to have formed our
+      national taste." In the pages which deal with the character of Handel as a
+      composer, he says that he united "the depth and elaborate contrivance of
+      his own country with Italian elegance and facility." Handel's music, he
+      holds, was from the first congenial to the English temperament, but he
+      never regards it as being at all English in style, though in other
+      writings he naturally recognises the occasional indebtedness of Handel to
+      the influence of Purcell. It was only in the nineteenth century that
+      Handel came to be regarded as a national institution. His own country for
+      the most part neglected his works; his operas were thought impossible to
+      revive, and the oratorios were considered by most Germans as being "too
+      English"&mdash;an opinion which the writer of this book frequently heard
+      expressed in Germany some fifty years ago. Since 1920 there has been an
+      astonishing revival of Handel in Germany, beginning with the restoration
+      to the stage of his operas&mdash;the last works of his which most people
+      would have thought suitable for presentation to modern audiences&mdash;and
+      much energy has been expended by German critics on an attempt to
+      demonstrate the essentially Germanic character both of Handel's music and
+      of his personality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The more closely we study Handel in relation to his own times, and in
+      relation to the general history of music, the clearer it becomes that
+      Goupy the caricaturist was only right when he put into Handel's mouth the
+      words, "I am myself alone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The foundation of Handel's musical style was Italian, and it was only
+      natural that this should be the case, for, in his days, Italy dominated
+      European music as she did European architecture. All music in the grand
+      manner, except in France, was Italian in its tradition, and if ever there
+      was a composer who illustrated the grand manner throughout his life, it
+      was Handel. France had produced a grand manner of her own, though not
+      without an initial impulse from Italy; in all other countries north of the
+      Alps native music was only for the humbler classes of society. When Handel
+      condescended to it, as he did in the political excitement of 1745, he
+      deliberately adopted the musical style of a tavern song.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Handel's serious music was never written for popular audiences; in his
+      later oratorios he sometimes admittedly wrote down to the taste of the
+      middle classes, but we have the records of his conversations with Gluck,
+      Hawkins, and others to prove how little respect he had for that taste. He
+      composed for the needs of the moment, and not with a view to immortality,
+      but he composed for a society which was cultured enough to desire, even in
+      its entertainments, grace, dignity, and serenity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Handel's works have for later generations become a source of joy and
+      delight to a very different social class, it is because they are the
+      musical equivalents of those palaces and gardens of Handel's day which are
+      now national monuments and open to all comers. We walk beneath their
+      colonnades, peopling them in imagination with the gracious and stately
+      figures of the past; and from the museum of memory there arise the unheard
+      strains of Handel's music:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Hark! the heavenly sphere turns round,
+  And silence now is drown'd,
+  In ecstasy of sound!
+  How on a sudden the still air is charm'd,
+  As if all harmony were just alarm'd
+  And every soul with transport fill'd!</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_BIBL" id="link2H_BIBL"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      BIBLIOGRAPHY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Mainwaring, J.: <i>Memoirs of the Life of the Late G. F. Handel</i>.
+      London. 1760.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burney, Charles: <i>A General History of Music</i>. London. 1776-89.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burney, Charles: <i>An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster
+      Abbey, etc.</i> London. 1785.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hawkins, Sir John: <i>A General History of the Science and Practice of
+      Music</i>. London. 1776.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Coxe, W.: <i>Anecdotes of G. F. Handel and Y. C. Smith</i>. London. 1799.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Schoelcher, Victor: <i>The Life of Handel</i>. London. 1857. The first
+      attempt at a complete and documented biography.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chrysander, Friedrich: <i>G. F. Händel</i>. Leipzig. 1858-67. This
+      biography does not go beyond 1740, but it is the most valuable source for
+      carefully documented facts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Delany, Mary: <i>Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs.
+      Delany</i>. Edited by Lady Llanover. London. 1861-62.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taylor, Sedley: <i>The Indebtedness of Handel to Works by Other Composers</i>.
+      Cambridge. 1906.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Robinson, Percy: <i>Handel and His Orbit</i>. London. 1908.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Streatfeild, R.A.: <i>Handel</i>. London. 1909. The best biography of
+      Handel and critical study of his works in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Squire, W. Barclay: <i>Handel in 1745</i> (Riemann-Festschrift). Leipzig.
+      1909.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rolland, Romain: <i>Haendel</i>. Paris. 1910.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flower, Newman: <i>George Friederic Handel: His Personality and His Times</i>.
+      London. 1923.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This book contains much new biographical matter. I have to thank Mr.
+      Flower for kind permission to make use of his valuable discoveries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leichtentritt, Hugo: <i>Händel.</i> Stuttgart. 1924. Biography based
+      mainly on Streatfeild; gives a detailed analysis of all Handel's works.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young, Percy M.: <i>Handel.</i> London. 1947.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      HANDEL'S WORKS
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      OPERAS
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Almira</i> (Hamburg, 1705).
+  <i>Nero</i> (Hamburg, 1705, music lost).
+  <i>Florindo</i> (Hamburg, 1707, music lost).
+  <i>Dafne</i> (Hamburg, 1707, music lost).
+  <i>Rodrigo</i> (Florence, 1707?).
+  <i>Agrippina</i> (Venice, 1709).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The following operas were all produced in London:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Rinaldo</i> (1711).
+  <i>Il Pastor Fido</i> (first version, 1712).
+  <i>Teseo</i> (1712).
+  <i>Silla</i> (1714).
+  <i>Amadigi</i> (1715).
+  <i>Radamisto</i> (1720).
+  <i>Muzio Scevola</i> (1721, only Act III by Handel).
+  <i>Floridante</i> (1721).
+  <i>Ottone</i> (1723).
+  <i>Flavio</i> (1723).
+  <i>Giulio Cesare</i> (1724).
+  <i>Tamerlano</i> (1724).
+  <i>Rodelinda</i> (1725).
+  <i>Scipione</i> (1726).
+  <i>Alessandro</i> (1726).
+  <i>Admeto</i> (1727).
+  <i>Riccardo I</i> (1727).
+  <i>Siroe</i> (1728).
+  <i>Tolomeo</i> (1728).
+  <i>Lotario</i> (1729).
+  <i>Partenope</i> (1730).
+  <i>Poro</i> (1731).
+  <i>Ezio</i> (1732).
+  <i>Sosarme</i> (1732).
+  <i>Orlando</i> (1733).
+  <i>Arianna</i> (1734).
+  <i>Parnasso in Festa</i> (1734).
+  <i>Il Pastor Fido</i> (second version, 1734).
+  <i>Terpsichore</i> (1734).
+  <i>Ariodante</i> (1735).
+  <i>Alcina</i> (1735).
+  <i>Atalanta</i> (1736).
+  <i>Arminio</i> (1737).
+  <i>Giustino</i> (1737).
+  <i>Berenice</i> (1737).
+  <i>Faramondo</i> (1738).
+  <i>Serse</i> (1738).
+  <i>Jupiter in Argos</i> (1739, announced but never performed).
+  <i>Imeneo</i> (1740).
+  <i>Deidamia</i> (1741).
+</pre>
+    <h3>
+      ORATORIOS:
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>St. John Passion</i> (German, Hamburg, 1704).
+  <i>La Risurrezione</i> (Italian, Rome, 1708).
+  <i>Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno</i> (Italian, Rome, 1708).
+  <i>Aci, Galatea e Polifemo</i> (Italian, Naples, 1709).
+  <i>Brockes Passion</i> (German, Hanover, 1716).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      All the following oratorios are in English:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Esther</i> (first version, London, 1720).
+  <i>Acis and Galatea</i> (London, 1720).
+  <i>Esther</i> (second version, London, 1732).
+  <i>Debora</i> (London, 1733).
+  <i>Athalia</i> (Oxford, 1733).
+  <i>Alexander's Feast</i> (London, 1736).
+  <i>Saul</i> (London, 1739).
+  <i>Israel in Egypt</i> (London, 1739).
+  <i>Ode for St. Cecilia's Day</i> (London, 1739).
+  <i>L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato</i> (London, 1740).
+  <i>Messiah</i> (Dublin, 1742).
+</pre>
+    <h3>
+      HANDEL 139
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The following oratorios were all produced in London:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Samson</i> (1743).
+  <i>Semele</i> (1743).
+  <i>Joseph</i> (1743).
+  <i>Belshazzar</i> (1744).
+  <i>Hercules</i> (1744).
+  <i>Occasional Oratorio</i> (1746).
+  <i>Judas Maccabaeus</i> (1747).
+  <i>Alexander Balus</i> (1747).
+  <i>Joshua</i> (1747).
+  <i>Solomon</i> (1748).
+  <i>Susanna</i> (1748).
+  <i>Theodora</i> (1749).
+  <i>The Choice of Hercules</i> (1749).
+  <i>Jephtha</i> (1752).
+  <i>The Triumph of Time and Truth</i> (1757).
+</pre>
+    <h3>
+      SACRED WORKS:
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Laudate Pueri</i> (Rome, 1707).
+  <i>Dixit Dominus</i> (Rome, 1707).
+  <i>Nisi Dominus</i> (Rome, 1707).
+  <i>Gloria Patri</i> (Rome, 1707).
+  <i>Salve Regina</i> (1707?).
+  <i>Silete Venti</i> (1707?).
+  <i>Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate</i> (London, 1713).
+  <i>Te Deum</i> in D (1714?).
+  <i>Te Deum</i> in B flat (Chandos) (1718-20).
+  <i>Te Deum</i> in A (1727?).
+  <i>Twelve Chandos Anthems</i> (1716-19).
+  <i>Four Coronation Anthems</i> (1727).
+  <i>Wedding Anthem for Princess Anne</i> (1734).
+  <i>Wedding Anthem for the Prince of Wales</i> (1736).
+  <i>Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline</i> (1737).
+  <i>Dettingen Te Deum</i> (1743).
+  <i>Dettingen Anthem</i> (1743).
+  <i>Foundling Hospital Anthem</i> (1749).
+</pre>
+    <h3>
+      SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC:
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Birthday Ode for Queen Anne</i> (1713).
+  <i>Italian Cantatas, Duets and Trios</i>.
+  <i>German Songs</i>.
+</pre>
+    <h3>
+      INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC:
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Six Concertos</i> (so-called "Oboe Concertos"), published 1734.
+  <i>Three Concertos</i> ("Select Harmony"), published 1741.
+  <i>Twelve Grand Concertos</i>, op. 6 (published 1740).
+  <i>Three Concertos a due cori</i>.
+  <i>Overtures, Marches, Dances, etc</i>.
+  <i>Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra</i>.
+  <i>Concerto for Violin and Orchestra</i>.
+  <i>Water Music</i> (1715-17).
+  <i>Forest Music</i> (1742, probably spurious).
+  <i>Music for the Royal Fireworks</i> (1749).
+  <i>Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ</i>, op. 4 (1738).
+  <i>Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ</i> (1740).
+  <i>Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ</i>, op. 7 (1760).
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Many of these are arrangements of other works.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  <i>Sonatas for Flute, Oboe or Violin and Bass</i> (19).
+  <i>Six Sonatas for two Oboes and Bass</i>.
+  <i>Six Sonatas for two Violins (Oboes or Flutes) and Bass</i>, op. 2 (1733).
+  <i>Seven Sonatas for two Violins (Flutes) and Bass</i>, op. 5 (1739).
+  <i>Sonata for Viola de Gamba</i>.
+  <i>Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin</i> (8) (1720).
+  <i>Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin</i> (8) (1733).
+  <i>Miscellaneous Harpsichord Music</i>.
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Edward J. Dent
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Edward J. Dent
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Handel
+
+Author: Edward J. Dent
+
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9089]
+This file was first posted on September 4, 2003
+Last Updated: May 8, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANDEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stan Goodman, and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HANDEL
+
+By Edward J. Dent
+
+
+
+{Illustration: G. F. HANDEL _from a woodcut by Eric King_}
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+_Chapter_ I
+
+Birth and parentage--studies under Zachow at Halle--Hamburg--friendship and
+duel with Mattheson--_Almira_--departure for Italy.
+
+_Chapter_ II
+
+Arrival in Italy--_Rodrigo_--Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and the
+Scarlattis--Naples: Venice: _Agrippina_--appointment at Hanover--London:
+_Rinaldo_.
+
+_Chapter_ III
+
+Second visit to London--Italian opera--George I and the _Water
+Music_--visit to Germany--Canons and the Duke of Chandos--establishment of
+the Royal Academy of Music.
+
+_Chapter_ IV
+
+Buononcini--Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino--death of George I--_The
+Beggar's Opera_--collapse of the Academy.
+
+_Chapter_ V
+
+Handel naturalized--partnership with Heidegger--_Esther_--the Opera of
+the Nobility--visit to Oxford--opera season at Covent Garden--Charles
+Jennens--collapse of both opera-houses.
+
+_Chapter_ VI
+
+Bankruptcy and paralysis--visit to Aix-la-Chapelle--the last
+operas--Vauxhall Gardens--Handel's "borrowings"--visit to
+Ireland--_Messiah_ and other oratorios.
+
+_Chapter_ VII
+
+_Judas Maccabaeus_--Gluck--Thomas Morell--incipient blindness--Telemann and
+his garden--last oratorios--death--character and personality.
+
+_Bibliography and List of Works_
+
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY
+
+  1685.... Birth at Halle.
+  1702.... Entered University; organist of the Cathedral.
+  1703.... Went to Hamburg.
+  1705.... First opera: _Almira_ (Hamburg).
+  1707.... Arrival in Italy.
+  1710.... Appointment at Hanover; first visit to London.
+  1711.... First London opera: _Rinaldo_.
+  1712.... Second visit to London.
+  1717.... Appointment to the Duke of Chandos.
+  1720.... Opening of Royal Academy of Music (Opera).
+  1726.... Naturalized as a British subject.
+  1728.... _The Beggar's Opera_. Collapse of the Academy.
+  1732.... First public oratorio: _Esther_.
+  1733.... Festival at Oxford.
+  1737.... Collapse of Opera; Handel bankrupt and paralysed.
+  1741.... Last opera: _Deidamia_.
+  1742.... _Messiah_ at Dublin.
+  1751.... First signs of blindness. Last oratorio _Jeptha_.
+  1759.... Death in London.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Birth and parentage--studies under Zachow at Halle--Hamburg--friendship and
+duel with Mattheson--Almira--departure for Italy.
+
+
+The name of Handel suggests to most people the sound of music unsurpassed
+in massiveness and dignity, and the familiar portraits of the composer
+present us with a man whose external appearance was no less massive and
+dignified than his music. Countless anecdotes point him out to us as a
+well-known figure in the life of London during the reigns of Queen Anne
+and the first two Georges. He lies buried in Westminster Abbey. One would
+expect every detail of his life to be known and recorded, his every private
+thought to be revealed with the pellucid clarity of his immortal strains.
+It is not so; to assemble the bare facts of Handel's life is a problem
+which has baffled the most laborious of his biographers, and his inward
+personality is more mysterious than that of any other great musician of the
+last two centuries.
+
+The _Memoirs of the Life of the late George Frederic Handel_, written by
+the Rev. John Mainwaring in 1760, a year after his death, is the first
+example of a whole book devoted to the biography of a musician. The author
+had never known Handel himself; he obtained his material chiefly from
+Handel's secretary, John Christopher Smith the younger. Mainwaring is our
+only authority for the story of Handel's early life. Many of his statements
+have been proved to be untrue, but there is undoubtedly a foundation of
+truth beneath most of them, however misleading either Smith's memory or
+Mainwaring's imagination may have been. The rest of our knowledge has to
+be built up from scattered documents of various kinds, helped out by the
+reminiscences of Dr. Burney and Sir John Hawkins. For the inner life of
+Mozart and Beethoven we can turn to copious letters and other personal
+writings; Handel's extant letters do not amount to more than about twenty
+in all, and it is only rarely that they throw much light on the workings of
+his mind.
+
+The family of Handel belonged originally to Breslau. The name is found
+in various forms; it seems originally to have been _Haendeler_ signifying
+trader, but by the time the composer was born the spelling _Haendel_ had
+been adopted. This is the correct German form of his name; in Italy he
+wrote his name _Hendel_, in order to ensure its proper pronunciation, and
+in England he was known, for the same reason, as Handel. The Handels of
+Breslau had for several generations been coppersmiths. Valentine Handel,
+the composer's grandfather, born in 1582, migrated to Halle, where two of
+his sons followed the same trade. His third son, George, born 1622, became
+a barber-surgeon. At the age of twenty he married the widow of the barber
+to whom he had been apprenticed; she was twelve years older than he was. In
+1682 she died, and George Handel, although sixty years of age, married a
+second wife within half a year. Her name was Dorothea Taust; her father,
+like most of his ancestors, was a clergyman. Her age was thirty-two. Her
+first child, born in 1684, died at birth; her second, born February 23,
+1685, was baptised the following day with the name of George Frederic.
+
+The town of Halle had originally belonged to the Dukes of Saxony, but after
+the Thirty Years' War it was assigned to the Elector of Brandenburg. George
+Frederic Handel was therefore born a Prussian. But Duke Augustus of Saxony
+was allowed to keep his court at the Moritzburg in Halle, and it was this
+prince who made George Handel his personal surgeon. After Duke Augustus's
+death in 1680, Halle was definitely transferred to Brandenburg, and the new
+Duke, Johann Adolf, took up his residence at Weissenfels, twenty-five miles
+to the south-west of Halle. At the time of George Frederic's birth, Halle
+had relapsed into being a quiet provincial town. The musical life of
+Germany in those days was chiefly centred in the numerous small courts,
+each of which did its best to imitate the magnificence of Louis XIV at
+Paris and Versailles. But the seventeenth century, although it produced
+very few musicians of outstanding greatness, was a century of restless
+musical activity throughout Europe, especially in the more private and
+domestic branches of the art. The Reformation had made music the vehicle of
+personal devotion, and the enormous output of a peculiarly intimate type of
+sacred music, both in Germany and in England, shows that there must have
+been a keen demand for it in Protestant home life.
+
+George Handel, the surgeon, seems to have hated music. There is no evidence
+that either his wife or her sister, who shared their home after her
+father's death in 1685, was musically gifted, but the mere fact of their
+being the daughters of a Lutheran pastor makes it probable that they had
+had some education in the art. We may safely guess that the composer
+inherited his musical talents from the Taust family. He showed his
+inclination for music at a very early age, with such insistence indeed
+that his father forbade him to touch any musical instrument. There is a
+well-known story of his contriving to smuggle a clavichord into a garret
+without his father's knowledge in order to practise on it while the rest of
+the family were asleep, but for this tale Mainwaring is our only authority.
+It is very probable that old Handel was irritated by the sound of his son's
+early efforts and regarded music as a waste of time; his wife may perhaps
+have encouraged the child's obvious abilities, taking care that he made
+music only in some part of the house where he would not disturb his father.
+
+At the age of seven he was sent to the Lutheran Grammar School, and he may
+very likely have had some instruction in singing while there. In any case
+there can be no doubt that he was taught more than the mere rudiments of
+music in childhood, however severe his father's opposition may have been.
+He was between seven and nine when his father took him to Weissenfels,
+where he was required to attend on the Duke. It is quite probable that the
+child may have been taken there several times, especially as a relative
+of his was in regular service in the Duke's establishment. One day he was
+allowed to play on the organ in the palace chapel; the Duke happened to
+hear him, made enquiries as to who the player was, and at once urged on the
+father the duty of having him properly trained for a musical career.
+
+Old Handel remained obstinate; he was determined that his son should have
+a liberal education and become a lawyer. By his own efforts he had raised
+himself to a position of some distinction and affluence; it was only
+natural that he should wish his son to enter on life with better advantages
+than he himself had enjoyed. He at any rate followed the advice of the Duke
+so far as to place the boy under the musical tuition of Friedrich Zachow,
+the organist of the Lutheran church at Halle.
+
+The next episode in George Frederic's career has considerably puzzled his
+biographers. Mainwaring asserts that in 1698 he went to Berlin, where he
+was presented to the Electress Sophia Charlotte and made the acquaintance
+of Ariosti and Giovanni Battista Buononcini, two famous Italian opera
+composers whom he was to encounter again, in London, many years later. But
+it is known that Ariosti did not arrive in Berlin until the spring of 1697,
+and Buononcini not until 1702. And as old Handel died in February 1697, his
+son cannot have been in Berlin later than about the end of 1696, if it is
+true (as Mainwaring says) that the Elector offered to send him to Italy, an
+offer which the father firmly refused to accept for him. If, on the other
+hand, Mainwaring is right in saying that young Handel went to Berlin with a
+view to obtaining a musical post there, it is hardly likely that he should
+have made the journey at ten years of age, and while his father was still
+living. It seems much more probable that if he ever did visit Berlin it was
+when he was of an age to form his own judgments as to his future career.
+
+Three days before his seventeenth birthday he matriculated as a law student
+of the University of Halle, but music must have been the chief occupation
+of his time. The composer Telemann, four years his senior, spoke of him
+as being already a musician of importance at Halle when he first met him
+there, probably in 1700. In March 1702 he was appointed organist at the
+Cathedral, although he belonged to the Lutheran Church, whereas the
+Cathedral was Calvinist; considerable scandal had been caused by the
+intemperance of the Cathedral organist, one Leporin, who was finally
+dismissed. That Handel should have been given the post at so early an age
+points to his ability and trustworthiness of character; it also suggests
+that efficient organists were rare among the Calvinist musicians.
+
+Mainwaring unjustly credited Zachow with Leporin's love of a cheerful
+glass, and other biographers have perhaps for this reason greatly
+underrated Zachow's musicianship. Zachow cannot indeed be classed as a
+great composer, but he was considerably more than merely a sound average
+teacher. For one thing, he possessed a large library of music. Handel was
+not only made to master the arts of counterpoint and fugue, but he was also
+set to study the works of other composers, and to train his sense of style
+by writing music in direct imitation of them. In those days there was
+no possibility of buying all sorts of music ready printed. Printing was
+expensive, and generally clumsy in execution as well; most music was copied
+by hand, and a musician who wished to acquire a library of music generally
+did so by borrowing it and copying it. Zachow employed Handel to copy music
+for him, and no doubt he copied a great deal for himself. Although the
+opportunities for hearing music would not be very liberal in a town like
+Halle, Handel, under Zachow, became a well-read musician as well as an
+accomplished one.
+
+During the seventeenth century the chief contribution of Germany to the
+art of music was religious, just as the German hymns were her chief
+contribution to poetry. In Italy, on the other hand, sacred music was of
+minor importance as compared with the development of opera. But in all
+music Italy led the way, and German sacred music was constantly influenced
+by the Italians, with the result that Italian dramatic methods were often
+used by German composers of sacred music, not with any loss of seriousness
+and dignity to its character, but rather to the intenser expression of that
+deep personal religious feeling which characterised both the poetry and the
+music of the Protestant nations.
+
+Zachow was well acquainted with the Italian masters, and his own Church
+music shows a vivid dramatic sense; it is easy to see how much Handel
+learned from him. But although Church cantatas and organ music may have
+sufficed for the majority of the innumerable worthy German musicians of
+those days, the form of music which excited the curiosity and interest of
+the livelier spirits was certainly opera. By 1700, opera had established
+itself all over Italy, supported mainly by the great princes, but at Venice
+maintained on a commercial basis by the citizens themselves since 1637. The
+first attempt at a German opera was made by Heinrich Schuetz, at Torgau,
+ten years earlier. Vienna introduced Italian opera in 1631, and, generally
+speaking, the Catholic princes of Germany, who one after another followed
+the example of Vienna, preferred opera in Italian. Protestant Germany
+inclined more to opera in its own language, though towards the end of the
+century Italian gradually gained the upper hand at the more important
+courts. Native German opera owed its origin partly to the visit of the
+English comedians early in the century, and partly to the musical plays
+acted by school-boys; from the English "jigs" came the use of short popular
+songs, and from the school plays the tendency of the early German operas to
+be of a more or less sacred or edifying character.
+
+Handel's friend, the composer Telemann, tells us that it was not unusual
+for students from the University of Leipzig to go to Berlin to hear the
+Italian opera, which had been established by the Electress Sophia Charlotte
+in 1700, and this suggests that Handel's visit to Berlin may have
+taken place in 1703 rather than in his childhood. But he certainly had
+opportunities for seeing operas nearer home. There had been many German
+operas performed at Halle itself during the twenty years before Handel's
+birth, and Duke Johann Adolf opened an opera-house at Weissenfels in 1685,
+in which Philipp Krieger produced German operas regularly for the next
+thirty years. There was thus every reason for young Handel's growing
+ambitious to become a composer for the stage, although we have no evidence
+of his having ever attempted dramatic composition until he left Halle in
+1703.
+
+The most important of all the north German opera-houses was that of
+Hamburg, where the opera did not depend on the patronage of a court,
+but was organised, as at Venice, as a public entertainment. Hamburg had
+attempted German opera as early as 1648, and it is interesting to note that
+the English composer William Brade was one of those who provided the music;
+but the real history of the Hamburg opera may be said to begin with the
+performance of Theile's _Adam and Eve_ in the newly built theatre in the
+Goose-Market in 1678. When Handel arrived in Hamburg in the summer of 1703
+the biblical operas had long come to an end, and the theatre was under the
+management of Reinhold Keiser.
+
+Keiser was a musician of remarkable genius. His father was a disreputable
+organist, and his mother a young lady of noble family who had been hastily
+married at the age of sixteen. Born near Weissenfels in 1674, he had begun
+his operatic career at Brunswick at the age of eighteen; three years later
+he took over the direction of the opera at Hamburg, where he produced a
+large number of operas composed by himself. As a composer, Keiser had a
+singular fluency of melody in a style that hovers between those of Germany
+and Italy; had he been a man of more solid character he might have
+accomplished greater things. But he had inherited from his parents a love
+of pleasure and debauchery; extravagant in his private life, he was no less
+extravagant in his theatrical management, and was ready to provide his
+audiences with anything in the way of startling sensation. One of his most
+famous operas was on the subject of Stoertebeker, a notorious highwayman
+(1704), in which murders were represented with the most disgusting realism.
+
+Hamburg was the Venice of the north and, like Venice, a city of pleasure;
+but its pleasures were often of a coarse and licentious description. Life
+in Hamburg was probably not much unlike that of Restoration London; but
+though Keiser may well be set beside Purcell, Hamburg had no dramatists to
+compare with Congreve, hardly even with Shadwell. Jeremy Collier, however,
+was far outdone in vituperation by the puritan clergy who, not altogether
+without reason, castigated the immorality of the Hamburg stage.
+
+Handel seems to have arrived in Hamburg in early summer of 1703, for we
+first hear of him there on July 2, when he met Johann Mattheson in the
+church of St. Mary Magdalen. It seems to have been a chance acquaintance,
+to judge from Mattheson's account; it stuck in Mattheson's memory for many
+years and he remembered especially the pastry-cook's boy who blew the organ
+for Handel and himself. Mattheson was four years older than Handel; he was
+one of those precociously gifted, versatile, attractive, and rather vain
+young men who are endowed with so many talents that they never achieve
+distinction in any branch of art. He is remembered now only by the literary
+work of his later life, in which he shows himself as a voluminous pedant
+and an embittered critic. He made friends with Handel on the spot, and took
+him under his own protection, providing him with almost daily free meals
+at his father's house. He evidently regarded him as a very simple and
+provincial young musician, a notable organist indeed, and a master of such
+learned devices as counterpoint and fugue, but a dull composer, turning out
+endless arias and cantatas with no sense of the fashionable Italian taste.
+
+It was Mattheson, by his own account, who introduced Handel to the musical
+life of Hamburg. The opera was closed for the summer, and Keiser's
+celebrated winter concerts, at which the wealthy society of Hamburg
+listened to the most famous singers and regaled themselves with tokay, had
+not yet begun; but there was no lack of social distractions, in which music
+no doubt played its part. In August the two friends made a journey to
+Lubeck, to compete for the post of organist at the Marienkirche in
+succession to Dietrich Buxtehude, who was nearly seventy and ready to
+retire. But both Buxtehude and the town council insisted that the new
+organist should marry his predecessor's daughter, in order to save the town
+the necessity of providing for her; she was considerably older than the
+two youthful candidates, and they both withdrew in haste. Late in life
+Mattheson married the daughter of an English clergyman; Handel remained a
+bachelor to the end of his days.
+
+It was no doubt through Mattheson that Handel, in the autumn, entered the
+opera band as a humble second violinist. He seems to have been of a very
+retiring and quiet disposition, although of a dry humour. Opera management
+at Hamburg was no less precarious than it was in London; Keiser could
+not afford the Italian singers patronised by the German princes, and his
+performances had often to be helped out by amateurs of all classes. On one
+occasion the harpsichord-player failed him; Handel took his place at
+short notice, and his musicianship was at once recognised. Unfortunately
+Mattheson, whose chronology is always rather uncertain, does not tell us
+when this occurred. In addition to his duties in the orchestra, Handel
+earned a living by teaching private pupils, and through Mattheson he was
+engaged by Mr. John Wyche, the English Envoy, as music-master to his small
+son Cyril.
+
+Early in 1704 Mattheson went to Holland, where he had some success in
+organising concerts at Amsterdam, and was offered the post of organist at
+Haarlem. He seems to have had some idea of seeking his fortune in England;
+he spoke English well, and may have had useful connexions in England
+through Mr. John Wyche. But in March Handel wrote to him that the Hamburg
+opera could not get on without him, and to Hamburg he returned. It soon
+must have become clear to him that Handel was rapidly outgrowing any need
+of his condescending patronage. A _Passion according to St. John_, the
+words of which had been written by Postel, an opera-poet turned pietist,
+had been set to music by Handel, and performed on Good Friday with marked
+success. Mattheson arrived too late to hear it, but it is significant that
+twenty years later he published a scathing criticism of it, although it is
+a work of little importance in relation to Handel's complete career, and
+can seldom have been performed. A Passion oratorio by Keiser was produced
+at the same time, it may well have been that Handel's work, youthful and
+conventional as it is, was enough to arouse the jealousy of both Keiser and
+Mattheson.
+
+Shortly after Easter, Keiser began the composition of a new opera,
+_Almira_, on a libretto by the local poet Feustking, but for some reason or
+other he found it necessary to call in Handel's assistance, and eventually
+left the whole work to Handel to compose. It was to be produced in the
+autumn. Handel seems to have consulted Mattheson over every detail of the
+opera; there exists a complete score in Mattheson's handwriting, with
+corrections and additions by Handel. Mattheson spent the summer enjoying a
+country holiday in Mecklenburg; Handel probably went on with his opera,
+at Hamburg. In October, just as the opera season was reopening, Mattheson
+contrived to get himself engaged by Sir Cyril Wych as tutor to his son;
+he also took over the boy's musical education, hinting that Handel
+was dismissed for neglect of his duties. In view of Handel's strictly
+honourable character it is difficult to believe that he was guilty of
+neglect, and we may naturally suppose him to have resented the loss of a
+lucrative appointment.
+
+The first opera of the autumn was not Handel's _Almira_, but an opera by
+Mattheson, called _Cleopatra_. Mattheson, always eager to exhibit his
+versatility, sang the part of Antony himself, and, not content with that,
+came into the orchestra as soon as Antony had died on the stage and kept
+himself in view of the audience by conducting at the harpsichord. For
+several performances Handel made no objection and gave up his seat to
+Mattheson when the moment came, but on December 5, for some reason or
+other, he refused, to the surprise and indignation of the composer. German
+musicians in those days were a quarrelsome crew; at the court of Stuttgart
+the musicians were so much given to knocking each other on the head with
+their instruments, even in the august presence of His Serene Highness, that
+there was hardly one left undamaged. It was only to be expected that the
+friends of Handel and Mattheson should egg them on to fight a duel in the
+street; luckily Mattheson's sword broke on a button of Handel's coat, and
+the duel ended. On December 30 a town councillor effected a reconciliation;
+the rivals dined together at Mattheson's house and went on to the rehearsal
+of _Almira_, which was brought out on January 8, 1705, with Mattheson as
+the principal tenor.
+
+_Almira_, the libretto of which was partly in German and partly in Italian,
+ran continuously for about twenty performances until February 25, when it
+was succeeded by _Nero_, another opera which Handel had hastily composed
+for the occasion. _Nero_, in which Mattheson sang the title part, was a
+failure. The music is lost, but the libretto survives, and that is enough
+to account for the collapse. The opera had three performances only. In the
+very same season Keiser re-set _Nero_ to music himself, and brought it
+out under the title of _Octavia_; shortly afterwards he did the same with
+_Almira_, which was performed in August of the same year. Although Keiser's
+operas were no more successful than Handel's, and his extravagance and
+mismanagement forced him to leave Hamburg for three years in order to avoid
+imprisonment, it is evident that he had made Handel's position in the
+theatre impossible. Handel withdrew into private life and devoted himself
+to earning a living by teaching. Mattheson says that Handel remained in
+Hamburg until 1709, and that he still worked in the theatre, but the first
+of these statements is certainly untrue, and the second probably so.
+Mattheson himself left the theatre after the failure of Handel's _Nero_,
+and his friendship with Handel seems to have come to an end. About Handel's
+subsequent life in Hamburg we know nothing, until the theatre was taken
+over by one Saurbrey in the autumn of 1706. Saurbrey commissioned an opera
+from Handel, but, owing to the confusion in which Keiser had left the
+affairs of the theatre, it could not be brought out until January 1708,
+when it was found to be so long that it had to be divided into two operas,
+_Florindo_ and _Daphne_, both of which were put on the stage successively.
+By that time Handel had left Hamburg for Italy; he evidently took little
+interest in the production of these works, neither of which has survived.
+
+It was during the run of _Almira_, says Mainwaring, that Handel made the
+acquaintance of Prince Gian Gastone de' Medici, son of the Grand Duke Cosmo
+III of Tuscany. Mainwaring's date is wrong, for it is known that Gian
+Gastone at that time was in Bohemia with his wife, a German princess, to
+whom he had been married against his will. But it is also known that he was
+in Hamburg for a few months during the winter of 1703-04, and, if he met
+Handel at that time, the rest of Mainwaring's story becomes much more
+credible than subsequent biographers have been willing to admit. According
+to Mainwaring, Handel became almost an intimate friend of the Prince; they
+often discussed music together, and the Prince lamented that Handel was
+unacquainted with the music and musical life of Italy. "Handel confessed
+that he could see nothing in Italian music which answered the high
+character His Highness had given it. On the contrary, he thought it so very
+indifferent, that the singers, he said, must be angels to recommend it."
+Gian Gastone urged him to come to Italy and hear for himself, intimating
+"that if he chose to return with him, no conveniences should be wanting."
+Handel declined the invitation, but resolved to go to Italy as soon as he
+could do so "on his own bottom."
+
+Gian Gastone was a spendthrift and a profligate; his moral reputation was
+of the worst, and he was chronically in debt. That, however, would not make
+it unthinkable that after a glass of wine he should invite Handel to come
+to Italy with him, but Handel may well have known enough about the Prince
+even then to reply to the proposal with tactful evasiveness. From what
+Mattheson says of Handel on his first arrival in Hamburg, it is quite
+likely that he was contemptuous of Italian opera music, and it is equally
+likely that after the success of _Almira_ his views on Italian opera
+underwent a change. It is obvious that Hamburg had no further chances to
+offer him, and the attraction of Italy was at that time so vivid to
+all young German musicians that not one of them would have refused an
+opportunity of making the journey.
+
+The date of Handel's departure from Hamburg is unknown, nor have we the
+slightest information as to his whereabouts until we hear of him at Rome in
+January 1707. Chrysander's statement that he spent Christmas 1706 with his
+mother at Halle is manifestly untrue. Mattheson says that he travelled to
+Rome with a Herr von Binitz, but nothing is known of this gentleman. His
+most natural route into Italy would be by the Brenner, the historic road of
+all German pilgrims.
+
+Handel may well have been glad to leave Hamburg, but Hamburg did not forget
+him. He is mentioned in a theatrical manifesto of 1708 as being already
+"beloved and celebrated in Italy"; Barthold Feind, one of the Hamburg
+librettists, who in 1715 translated Handel's _Rinaldo_, called him "the
+incomparable Handel, the Orpheus of our time"; and from 1715 to 1734 almost
+all of Handel's London operas were represented on the Hamburg stage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Arrival in Italy--_Rodrigo_--Rome: Cardinal Ottoboni and the
+Scarlattis--Naples: Venice: _Agrippina_--appointment at Hanover--London:
+_Rinaldo_.
+
+
+Handel spent three years in Italy. The known facts about his life there are
+singularly few, and his biographers have often had to draw copiously on
+their imagination. They may perhaps be forgiven for doing so, since they
+rightly sought to emphasise the fact that these three years were the most
+formative period of Handel's personality as a composer. Handel came to
+Italy as a German; he left Italy an Italian, as far as his music was
+concerned, and, despite all other influences, Italian was the foundation of
+his musical language until the end of his life.
+
+On January 14, 1707, a Roman chronicler noted the arrival of "a Saxon, an
+excellent player on the harpsichord and a composer of music, who has to-day
+displayed his ability in playing the organ in the church of St. John
+[Lateran] to the amazement of everyone." This can hardly refer to anyone
+else than Handel, who throughout his sojourn in Italy was always known as
+"the Saxon" (_il Sassone_). We owe the discovery of this important document
+to Mr. Newman Flower. The next date known to us is that of April 11--on the
+manuscript of Handel's _Dixit Dominus_, composed in Rome.
+
+Most biographers have, however, assumed that Handel's first halt in Italy
+would have been made at Florence, in view of the fact that Gian Gastone de'
+Medici is known to have been at Florence from June 1705 to November 1706.
+The eldest son of the Grand Duke, Prince Ferdinand, was an enthusiastic
+patron of music, who employed the best musicians of the day to perform
+operas in his magnificent country palace at Pratolino, some twelve miles
+north of Florence. It has been suggested that Handel's first Italian opera,
+_Rodrigo_, was composed for Ferdinand and performed early in 1707, but, in
+view of Mr. Flower's discovery, this seems unlikely. Mr. Flower suggests,
+indeed, that Ferdinand did not take much interest in Handel, otherwise he
+would not have allowed him to go to Rome so soon. This is not impossible,
+for we know that Ferdinand found the operas of Alessandro Scarlatti too
+serious for his taste, and he may well have thought even less of Handel's
+music, which (as we can see from the score of _Rodrigo_) was still very
+German in style.
+
+Rome could offer Handel no opportunities either for composing operas or
+even for hearing them. Pope Clement X had permitted the opening of a public
+opera-house (the Teatro Tordinona) in 1671, but it was closed five years
+later by Innocent XI, who made every effort he could to suppress opera both
+in public and in private. Innocent XII, who became Pope in 1691, seems to
+have been, at first, less intolerant, for the theatre was rebuilt, and a
+few performances were given; but in 1697 he ordered its destruction on
+grounds of public morality. Except for a few performances of opera in
+private in 1701 and 1702 no operas were produced in Rome until 1709.
+
+Deprived of opera, the Romans devoted themselves to oratorio--which in
+musical style was much the same thing--and to chamber music. The most
+generous patron of music in Rome was the young Cardinal Ottoboni, who had
+been raised to the purple in his early twenties, in 1690. He had indeed
+composed an opera himself, which was performed in 1692, but he was more
+competent as a poet than as a musician; in 1690 Alessandro Scarlatti had
+set a libretto of his, _La Statira_.
+
+Handel was no doubt recommended to him by Ferdinand de' Medici, and at the
+Cardinal's weekly musical parties he soon came into contact with Domenico
+Scarlatti, as well as with Corelli and Pasquini. Alessandro Scarlatti had
+left Naples, probably for political reasons, in 1702, and at the end of
+1703 Ottoboni had secured him a subordinate post at the church of Santa
+Maria Maggiore, at the same time appointing him his private director of
+music. Domenico was a young man of Handel's own age--"a young eagle" as
+his father called him--brilliantly gifted, and (to judge from Thomas
+Roseingrave's impression of him) possessed of a singular personal
+fascination. "Handel," says Mainwaring, "used often to speak of this person
+with great satisfaction; and indeed there was reason for it; for besides
+his great talents as an artist, he had the sweetest temper, and the
+genteelest behaviour." We may indeed regard his friendship with Handel
+as safely authenticated. It is just possible that Handel may have met
+Alessandro Scarlatti at Pratolino in the previous autumn, as his opera _Il
+Gran Tamerlano_ was produced there in September; he may well have met him
+between January and April of 1707. From April to September Alessandro
+Scarlatti was in Urbino.
+
+Handel's movements now become very difficult to follow. It seems probable
+that his opera _Rodrigo_ was performed at Florence in the autumn of 1707;
+Mainwaring says that it was composed for Ferdinand de' Medici, but there is
+no record of any performance at Pratolino. As Handel is said to have been
+presented to Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover at Venice, he must have been
+there in October or November, as the Prince is known to have spent only
+those two months in that city. Whether Handel remained at Venice over
+Christmas, or whether he returned to Rome, is uncertain. Domenico Scarlatti
+is said to have identified him at Venice at a masquerade by his playing of
+the harpsichord. It would be most natural to suppose then that Handel
+and the two Scarlattis were in Venice together for the production of
+Alessandro's two operas, _Mitridate Eupatore_ and _Il Trionfo della
+Liberta_, both of which were brought out at Venice in 1707, but, as it is
+not known whether this took place at the beginning or at the end of the
+year, there is not sufficient evidence to support such a conjecture.
+
+During March and April 1708, Handel was the guest of Prince Ruspoli in
+Rome; this has been definitely ascertained by Mr. Flower. Prince Ruspoli
+was another great Roman patron of music, and Scarlatti frequently composed
+works for him; his _Annunciation Oratorio_ was performed under his auspices
+on March 25. On Easter Sunday, April 8, Handel made a triumphal appearance
+with _La Resurrezione_, which was given on a sumptuous scale, at Ruspoli's
+expense, in the Palazzo Bonelli, which he was occupying at the time.
+Corelli led the orchestra.
+
+After _La Resurrezione_, Handel seems to have returned to the patronage
+of Cardinal Ottoboni, in whose palace he produced a _serenata_ (i.e. an
+allegorical cantata) called _Il Trionfa del Tempo e del Disinganno_, which
+he remodelled fifty years afterwards as _The Triumph of Time and Truth_.
+The libretto was by Cardinal Pamphilij. It was the overture to this work
+which caused so much difficulty to Corelli. Handel, irritated at his lack
+of understanding, snatched the violin from his hand and played the passage
+himself, to show how it should be executed; Corelli, gentlest of souls,
+took no offence, although thirty-two years his senior and the greatest
+violinist living, but merely observed, "My dear Saxon, this music is in the
+French style, of which I have no knowledge."
+
+It has been assumed by many biographers that Handel attended the meetings
+of the Arcadian Academy, and since Prince Ruspoli was a great, benefactor
+to the Academy, this is extremely probable, although there is no evidence
+for it. Handel was not a member of the Academy, and various reasons for
+this have been suggested, such as that he was a foreigner and also too
+young to be admitted. It is more probable that his admission to that
+exclusive society was never even contemplated; musicians were generally
+engaged professionally for the concerts of the Italian academies, but very
+seldom admitted to the honour of membership. Corelli, Pasquini and
+Alessandro Scarlatti were all admitted together in 1705; they were the
+three senior and most distinguished composers of the time, and as no other
+musicians were then members, it may be assumed that these elections
+constituted an exceptional honour.
+
+
+Mainwaring relates that Cardinal Pamphili; on one occasion wrote a poem in
+honour of Handel and desired him to set it to music himself; in this poem
+"he was compared to Orpheus, and exalted above the rank of mortals." Later
+biographers, being unable to trace any music of Handel to this poem,
+assumed that Handel was too modest to sing his own praises; but he was not,
+for the original manuscript of the cantata was found by the present writer
+in the University Library at Muenster in Westphalia. As Mainwaring informs
+us, Handel is compared by the poet (whose name is not given) to Orpheus and
+indeed exalted above him. "Orpheus," says the Cardinal, "could move rocks
+and trees, but he could not make them sing; therefore thou art greater than
+Orpheus, for thou compellest my aged Muse to song." The style of both words
+and music suggests that the whole cantata was thrown off, as Mainwaring
+suggests, on the spur of the moment, and this improvisation may well
+have taken place at one of the Arcadians' garden parties, for there is a
+well-known account of a similar improvisation by the poet Zappi and the
+composer Alessandro Scarlatti.
+
+Handel was by this time fully accepted as one of the leading musicians in
+Italy, for in June he composed a pastoral, _Aci, Galatea e Polifemo_, for
+the marriage of the Duke of Alvito at Naples on July 19. It was in July
+1708 that the Austrian Viceroy of Naples, Count Daun, was succeeded by
+Cardinal Grimani, who, towards the end of the year, persuaded Alessandro
+Scarlatti to return to the service of the royal chapel. As a good friend to
+Scarlatti, the Cardinal was sure to interest himself in Handel, and it was
+probably through him that Handel was commissioned to write an opera for
+Venice, as the Grimani were a great Venetian family and owned the principal
+opera-house there. How long Handel stayed at Naples we do not know; all
+that Mainwaring tells us is that he was taken up by a Spanish princess,
+but, as Naples had belonged to Spain for a hundred and fifty years, Spanish
+princesses can have been no rarities there, and it is impossible to
+identify this lady.
+
+From July 1708 until December 1709 we lose sight of Handel entirely. On
+December 26, the first night of the carnival season, his opera _Agrippina_
+was produced at Venice. The libretto was by Cardinal Grimani, who had
+already written other dramas for music, all produced, like Handel's, at the
+Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice. Venice was the first city which
+had undertaken opera on a commercial basis, open to the public on payment,
+whereas in other places it depended for many years on the munificence of
+princes and nobles. At Venice there existed not one theatre, but several,
+devoted to opera, each called after the name of the parish in which it was
+situated, and, of these, the theatre of St. John Chrysostom, built by the
+Grimani family and still standing (though much remodelled) under the name
+of Teatro Malibran, was the largest and most important. The Inquisition
+took a more tolerant view of opera than the Pope; a Venetian preacher
+admonished actors and singers to remember that they "were abominated of
+God, but tolerated by the Government by desire of those who took delight in
+their iniquities."
+
+_Agrippina_ aroused an extraordinary enthusiasm. "The theatre, at almost
+every pause, resounded with shouts and acclamations of _viva il taro
+Sassone!_ and other expressions of approbation too extravagant to be
+mentioned" (Mainwaring). The title part was sung by Margherita Durastanti,
+and another singer who appeared in the opera was Boschi, the famous bass;
+both of them were to sing for Handel in London later on. It is fairly
+certain that Boschi must have sung the part of Polyphemus in Handel's
+Italian _Aci e Galatea_ at Naples, for it bears a striking resemblance to
+other songs written for Boschi, whose voice was of exceptional range. The
+opera ran for twenty-seven nights.
+
+After this unprecedented triumph it seems surprising that Handel did not
+remain in Italy, where he had so many friends who could ensure his success.
+It is probable that by the time _Agrippina_ was performed, if not indeed
+long before, he had been promised the post of Kapellmeister to the court of
+Hanover. The actual appointment is dated June 16, 1710. But no sooner was
+Handel appointed than he at once obtained leave of absence, and went on,
+first to Duesseldorf, and then to London. It was probably the Elector's
+intention that he should spend some time in foreign travel before taking up
+regular duty.
+
+The three years which Handel spent in Italy at the most impressionable
+period of his life fixed the characteristics of his style as a composer,
+and we may well suppose that they exercised a decisive influence on his
+personality and character. His youth had been spent in the respectable
+middle-class environment of his home at Halle; then came the three years at
+Hamburg, fantastic and exciting, yet, despite all the artistic stimulus of
+Keiser's opera-house, inevitably sordid and provincial. Italy introduced
+him to an entirely different atmosphere--to a life of dignity and serenity
+in which a classical culture, both literary and artistic, was the matured
+fruit of wealth, leisure, and good breeding. That exquisite life found its
+highest musical expression in Alessandro Scarlatti, who at that period was
+incontestably the greatest of living musicians. On his style Handel formed
+his own, and it is interesting to note that of all Scarlatti's operas the
+one which most strikingly foreshadows the genius of Handel is _Mitridate_,
+which Handel may possibly have seen at Venice in the winter of 1707-08.
+The musical library of Handel's English friend Charles Jennens contained a
+large collection of Scarlatti's manuscripts, and there can be little doubt
+that it was Handel who brought them with him from Italy.
+
+In Venice, Handel had made the acquaintance of Prince Ernest of Hanover,
+younger brother of the Elector Georg Ludwig who was eventually to become
+King of England as George I. With Prince Ernest was Baron Kielmansegge, who
+for many years afterwards remained a firm supporter of Handel, and another
+Venetian acquaintance was the Duke of Manchester, English Ambassador to the
+Republic of Venice. Through Prince Ernest, and Kielmansegge, Handel was
+recommended to the court of Hanover; the Duke of Manchester gave him a
+pressing invitation to England. Music in Hanover was under the direction of
+an Italian, Agostino Steffani, who was not only a musician but priest and
+diplomatist as well. Born at Castelfranco in 1654, he was taken as a boy
+to Munich, where he studied music, and, in 1680 entered the priesthood; he
+produced several operas there, and about 1689 became Kapellmeister to the
+court of Hanover. Here he was employed on important diplomatic business;
+Pope Innocent XI made him titular Bishop of Spiga in the West Indies,
+and in 1698 he was Ambassador at Brussels. In 1709 he became the Pope's
+representative for North Germany, and it was doubtless owing to his heavy
+ecclesiastical duties that he resigned his musical post in favour of
+Handel, although Hanover remained his chief place of residence until his
+death in 1728. He was in Rome in 1708 and 1709, and it has been suggested
+that he made Handel's acquaintance there, but this hardly seems consistent
+with Handel's own statement, recorded by Hawkins in his _History of Music_:
+"When I first arrived at Hanover I was a young man under twenty; I was
+acquainted with the merits of Steffani and he had heard of me. I understood
+somewhat of music, and could play pretty well on the organ; he received me
+with great kindness, and took an early opportunity to introduce me to the
+Princess Sophia and the Elector's son, giving them to understand that I
+was what he was pleased to call a virtuoso in music; he obliged me with
+instructions for my conduct and behaviour during my residence at Hanover;
+and being called from the city to attend to matters of a public concern,
+he left me in possession of that favour and patronage which himself had
+enjoyed for a series of years." These statements of Handel seem, in fact,
+to point to his having visited Hanover before he went to Italy, possibly
+before he went to Hamburg, or, more probably, during the course of his
+Hamburg period, in which case one might conclude that the Electress Sophia
+had defrayed the cost of Handel's Italian journey. Even if Handel made
+a mistake as to his age, he clearly implies that his first meeting with
+Steffani took place in Hanover.
+
+At Duesseldorf, Handel was sure of a warm welcome, for the Elector Johann
+Wilhelm was a close friend of Steffani, and his wife was a sister of
+Ferdinand and Gian Gastone de' Medici; he was a man of extravagant tastes,
+and his opera-house was maintained on the most magnificent scale. But
+Handel did not stay there long; England was a greater attraction, and he
+arrived in London for the first time in the autumn of 1710.
+
+Nothing is known of Handel's early days in London, but it may be safely
+assumed that he was provided with letters of introduction to persons
+of influence. We meet him first in the company of Heidegger, a Swiss
+adventurer who achieved notoriety through his incredible ugliness, and from
+1709 onwards was concerned in the management of the opera at the Queen's
+Theatre in the Haymarket. Through Heidegger, Handel was introduced to Mary
+Granville, then a little girl of ten, whom he delighted by his performance
+on her own spinet. Her uncle, Sir John Stanley, asked her if she thought
+she should ever play as well as Mr. Handel. "If I did not think I should,"
+she cried, "I would burn my instrument!" Mary Granville, who, seven years
+later, married a Mr. Pendarves, and in 1743 became the wife of Dr. Delany,
+was for many years one of Handel's most faithful friends and supporters.
+
+In the reign of Queen Anne the musical life of London was developing in a
+new fashion as compared with what it was in the last twenty years of the
+previous century. The type of English opera which Purcell and Dryden
+had created came to an end with Purcell's death in 1695. Italian music,
+especially when sung by Italian singers, was gradually becoming more and
+more popular with London concert-audiences, and in 1705 Thomas Clayton
+produced at Drury Lane an opera called _Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus_. Clayton
+had visited Italy, and had brought back with him a collection of Italian
+songs; he got Peter Motteux to translate for him an old Italian opera
+libretto, and adapted these songs to it. How much of _Arsinoe_ was
+Clayton's own work is not known; Burney speaks of the opera with nothing
+but contempt. Yet it seems to have had some fair success, and was even
+revived the following year; but Clayton's _Rosamond_, to a libretto by
+Addison, did not survive three performances. It was followed by a series of
+Italian operas composed by Buononcini, Scarlatti, and others; at first the
+operas were in English, and sung by English singers, but gradually Italian
+was introduced, as at Hamburg, and in 1710 an opera called _Almahide_, the
+music of which Burney ascribes conjecturally to Buononcini, was given in
+Italian with an entirely Italian company. The victory of the Italians was
+due mainly to the marvellous singing and acting of Nicola Grimaldi, known
+as Nicolini, who first appeared in London in Scarlatti's _Pyrrhus and
+Demetrius_. Nicolini was not the first _castrato_ who had been heard in
+England; the famous Siface had been brought over by Queen Mary of Modena in
+1687. But Nicolini was the first who appeared on the English stage, and
+it was he who paved the way for Senesino, Farinelli, and the rest, and
+established that annual season of Italian opera which is not yet extinct.
+
+At the time when Handel arrived in London the opera company had migrated
+from Drury Lane to Vanbrugh's new theatre in the Haymarket, where it was
+under the management of Aaron Hill, an enterprising young man of Handel's
+own age who was ready to pursue any sort of career that chance might offer
+him, whether in literature, music, or business adventure. We may safely
+hazard a guess that it was Boschi who persuaded Hill to invite Handel to
+compose an opera for the Queen's Theatre, as Boschi had already sung, in
+November 1710, in _Hydaspes_, an opera by Francesco Mancini, in which
+Nicolini delighted his audience in a fight with a lion. Hill sketched a
+plot based on Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_, and an Italian libretto was
+hastily provided by Giacomo Rossi, Handel composing the music at the same
+time, and often overtaking the poet. The music, in fact, was completed in
+a fortnight, and the opera of _Rinaldo_ was first produced on the stage on
+February 24, 1711. To judge from Burney's account of the preceding weeks
+of the season, coupled with this astonishingly rapid collaboration, it is
+probable that Hill was in a difficult situation, from which only a new and
+strikingly successful opera could save him. _Rinaldo_ achieved the desired
+success; it did more, it established Handel's reputation in England as a
+dramatic composer, and set London a new standard in Italian opera. The
+previous Italian operas had been works of little distinction, and some of
+them had even been _pasticcio_ operas, as they were called, put together
+from songs by various composers. Even Scarlatti's _Pyrrhus and Demetrius_
+paled beside the new opera of Handel, for it had been written as far back
+as 1694, and was in a style which Scarlatti himself had long abandoned.
+
+_Rinaldo_ had fifteen performances in the course of the season. It provoked
+bitter attacks from Addison in the _Spectator_ and from Steele in the
+_Tatler_, but everybody knew that Addison's vanity was wounded by the
+grotesque failure of _Rosamond_, and that Steele had interests in the
+playhouse. It was useless at that particular moment to champion the cause
+of English opera, for England happened to possess not a single composer who
+was equal to the task of writing one.
+
+The opera season came to an end in June, and Handel left London for
+Germany. He did not go straight back to Hanover, but stayed at Duesseldorf
+again, where the Elector was evidently desirous of keeping him as long as
+possible, for the Elector himself wrote more than once to Hanover to make
+excuses for Handel's prolonged absence from his official duties. Handel may
+well have felt that Hanover was a dull place as compared with London. There
+was no opera, and his chief function was to compose Italian chamber duets
+for the Princess Caroline of Ansbach; afterwards Queen of England. But
+he may well have taken pleasure in her service, for she was an excellent
+musician and no mean singer. In November 1711 Handel paid a visit to Halle,
+in order to stand godfather to his niece, Johanna Friderica Michaelsen, the
+daughter of his surviving sister, who eventually inherited the bulk of his
+fortune. Some biographers have stated that Handel had already revisited his
+birthplace in 1710 before going to London. Mainwaring is their authority
+for this, but Mainwaring habitually confused dates and more probably
+referred to the visit of 1711, for which we have the certain evidence of
+Friderica Michaelsen's baptismal register. It is clear that the alleged
+visit of 1710 was suggested merely by a desire to make the most of Handel's
+affection for his mother, which Mainwaring had already emphasised.
+Mainwaring, however, went beyond the truth in saying that she had become
+blind; she did eventually lose her sight, but not until some twenty years
+later.
+
+Handel appears to have remained at Hanover until the autumn of 1712, when
+he obtained permission to go to London again "on condition that he engaged
+to return within a reasonable time" (Mainwaring). What period was to be
+considered reasonable we do not know. Handel had certainly been planning
+this London visit for some time, as he was corresponding with friends in
+England, and was also taking some trouble to improve his knowledge of the
+English language. It is not surprising that he hankered after London, for
+London offered him a society which bore more resemblance to the world which
+he had known at Rome. The tradition of Italian culture had for generations
+been more firmly implanted in England than anywhere in Germany, except
+perhaps in Vienna, and, since those three years in Italy, Handel's musical
+outlook had become completely Italian, as his music shows. The few attempts
+which he made at German Church music present a curious contrast of style;
+one could hardly believe them to be the work of that Handel whom we have
+adopted as our own. German music at that date was provincial; Italian music
+was the music of the great world, because it was the music of the theatre.
+It was to the theatre that Handel looked forward, and London had what even
+Rome had not--an opera, and an Italian opera. The success of _Rinaldo_
+had shown him that London was the place where he might launch out into a
+triumphal career as a composer for the stage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Second visit to London--Italian opera--George I and the _Water
+Music_--visit to Germany--Canons and the Duke of Chandos--establishment of
+the Royal Academy of Music.
+
+
+For the greater part of the nineteenth century the Handelian type of opera
+was the laughingstock of musical critics; they wondered how any audiences
+could have endured to sit through it, and why the fashionable society of
+London should have neglected native music for what Dr. Johnson defined as
+"an exotic and irrational entertainment." The modern reader's impression
+of an Italian opera of Handel's days is a story about some ancient or
+mediaeval hero whose very name is often to most people unknown; if he
+happens to be someone as famous as Julius Caesar, the familiar episodes
+of his life are sacrificed to some imaginary and complicated intrigue
+presented in the form of long and elaborate songs, thinly accompanied, and
+separated by stretches of dreary recitative. But in those days persons of
+culture, in England as well as in Italy, were perhaps more interested in
+ancient history and in the history of the later Roman Empire than they are
+now; it is significant that Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ made its appearance
+just when the fashion for operas on subjects which might have been taken
+from its pages was coming to an end.
+
+The conventional treatment of those subjects, which makes all the operas
+seem exactly alike, was the result of a certain literary reform which had
+tended to standardise opera libretti under the influence of Racine, and
+it was really a movement towards dignity and dramatic unity after
+the monstrous confusion of the earlier Venetian operas. As to the
+conventionality of the music, and its forms of air and recitative, it can
+only be said that all serious Italian music was written in these forms; it
+was simply the normal musical style of the period, and must have been as
+natural to its own audiences as the style of Puccini or Richard Strauss at
+the present day. Handelian opera has often been described as a concert
+in costume, and Dr. Burney, writing as late as 1789, both admits this
+description and defends it.
+
+"An opera, at the worst, is still better than a concert merely for the ear,
+or a pantomime entertainment for the eye. Supposing the articulation to be
+wholly unintelligible, we have an excellent union of melody and harmony,
+vocal as well as instrumental, for the ear. And, according to Sir Richard
+Steele's account of Nicolini's action, 'it was so significant, that a deaf
+man might go along with him in the sense of the part he acted.'
+
+"No one will dispute but that understanding Italian would render our
+entertainment at an opera more rational and more complete; but without that
+advantage, let it be remembered by the lovers of Music, that an opera is
+the _completest concert_ to which they can go; with this advantage over
+those in still life, that to the most perfect singing, and effects of a
+powerful and well-disciplined band, are frequently added excellent acting,
+splendid scenes and decorations, with such dancing as a playhouse, from its
+inferior prices, is seldom able to furnish."
+
+Orchestral concerts in those days did not exist; concerts of any kind were
+rare, and the best were to be heard in that historic room over Thomas
+Britton's small coal shop, in Clerkenwell, where Handel himself sometimes
+played on a chamber-organ for the genuine musical enthusiasts of London
+society. It was no wonder that Italian opera became fashionable. Italian
+singers have always been unrivalled in popular favour, and in Handel's days
+they were not only something new to England, but were the exponents of a
+vocal art which admittedly has never been surpassed. The theatre was new
+and sumptuous; society was wealthy and at the same time exclusive; at the
+opera the great world met together as in a sort of club. People went to
+talk and to be seen as well as to see and hear; they do so in certain
+opera-houses still. And the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket possessed the
+greatest opera-composer living, a greater even than Scarlatti himself.
+
+It was a period when there was still a considerable tradition of
+musicianship among the amateurs of English society. Old Countess Granville,
+known to her younger relatives as "the Dragon," who had lived all through
+the age of Locke and Purcell, wrote, at the age of eighty, to her cousin
+Mrs. Pendarves--Handel's child friend Mary Granville--in 1734: "There is,
+I think, no accomplishment so great for a lady as music, for it tunes
+the mind." There were plenty of people in the great houses capable
+of appreciating the merits of Handel, or at any rate of constituting
+themselves his enemies.
+
+Handel must have arrived in England at least as early as the beginning of
+October 1712, for the manuscript of _Il Pastor Fido_, the first new opera
+which he produced, is dated, at the end, "Londres, ce 24 Octobre." The
+opera-house was now under the management of Owen MacSwiney, who seems to
+have been both incompetent and unreliable. _Il Pastor Fido_ did not attract
+the public, and was withdrawn after six performances, but Handel soon had
+another opera ready to take its place. _Teseo_ was finished on December
+19, and brought out on January 10, 1713; it was a romantic-heroic opera,
+closely modelled on _Rinaldo_, with an abundance of scenic effects. After
+the second performance MacSwiney disappeared, leaving the singers unpaid as
+well as the scene-painters and costume-makers. The company carried on the
+season undeterred, and the management was taken over by Heidegger. Handel's
+opera was performed twelve times--on the last night for the composer's
+benefit; between the acts he gave a performance himself on the harpsichord.
+
+For the moment, however, the operatic situation was not encouraging, and
+Handel turned his thoughts in other directions. He had stayed first at
+the London house of a Mr. Andrews of Barn Elms in Surrey, but he soon
+transferred himself to the house of Lord Burlington in Piccadilly. Lord
+Burlington was only seventeen years of age, but he and his mother made
+Burlington House an artistic and literary centre comparable with the
+palaces of Cardinal Ottoboni and Prince Ruspoli at Rome. As the libretto of
+_Teseo_ is dedicated to him, he must have taken Handel under his patronage
+soon after his arrival in England, but the precise date at which Handel
+went to live with him is uncertain. According to Hawkins, he stayed at
+Burlington House for three years, meeting Pope, Gay, and Dr. Arbuthnot, as
+well as many other "men of the first eminence for genius." But Gay does not
+seem to have met Lord Burlington until 1715, and Pope mentions him first
+in 1718. It is thought that Handel's little opera, _Silla_, may have been
+written for a private performance at Burlington House in 1714, and the
+dedication of _Amadigi_, Handel's next opera (1715), indicates that the
+music was composed within his patron's own walls.
+
+One of Handel's favourite haunts in London was St. Paul's Cathedral, where
+Brind the organist often persuaded him to play the organ after evening
+service, to the great delight of the congregation. He appears to have
+made Brind's acquaintance first through young Maurice Greene, then aged
+seventeen, who had been a chorister of St. Paul's, and, after his voice
+broke in 1710, was articled to Brind as a pupil. After service was over,
+Handel, Greene, and some of the members of the choir would repair to
+the Queen's Arms Tavern close by for an evening of music and musical
+conversation.
+
+This friendly association with St. Paul's was no doubt of great value to
+Handel in his next musical undertakings--the _Birthday Ode_ for Queen
+Anne, and the _Te Deum_ which celebrated the Peace of Utrecht in 1713.
+The Queen's patronage may very likely have been obtained for him by Lady
+Burlington, as she was one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber. These two
+works are important landmarks in Handel's career, as they were his first
+compositions to English words, and his first compositions for English
+ceremonial occasions. They marked him out as the natural successor to
+Purcell, and it is evident that in each case he took Purcell's similar
+composition as his model. Up till now he had been a foreigner engaged to
+provide Italian opera for the amusement of fashionable society; with the
+_Birthday Ode_ he became a court musician to the Queen of England, and with
+the _Te Deum_ his music entered St. Paul's.
+
+The practical result of the _Ode_ was a pension of L200 a year conferred
+on him by Queen Anne. It is clear that he now regarded England as his
+permanent home, regardless of the fact that he was officially the servant
+of the Elector of Hanover and had undertaken to return thither "within a
+reasonable time." But on August 1, 1714, the Queen died, and the Elector
+was proclaimed King of England. When George I came over to his new country,
+Handel did not dare to show himself at court, and all efforts on the part
+of his friends to effect a reconciliation with the King were in vain. The
+King went to see his new opera, _Amadigi_, which came out late in the
+season of 1715, but refused to pardon him, until Handel's old Venetian
+acquaintance, Baron Kielmansegge, now Master of the Horse, devised an
+ingenious expedient for surprising the King into clemency.
+
+One of the favourite amusements of London society was to make up a
+water-party on the Thames, with a band of musicians in attendance. Mrs.
+Pendarves describes a party of this kind in July 1722; they rowed up to
+Richmond, where they had supper, and "were entertained all the time by very
+good music [for wind instruments] in another barge." Baron Kielmansegge
+arranged that the King should go for an excursion of this kind, and that,
+without his knowledge, Handel should conduct appropriate music of his own
+in a barge that followed the King's. As the Baron was often in charge of
+the music for such occasions, this can have been a matter of no great
+difficulty; in any case it achieved the desired result. The King was
+enchanted with the music, and restored Handel to favour. As Mainwaring
+tells this story just before speaking of _Amadigi_, it has generally been
+assumed that this episode took place in the summer of 1715, but more
+recently it has been ascribed to 1717, on the strength of a long account of
+a royal water-party, with music by Handel, given in the _Daily Courant_,
+a newspaper of the period. This account was copied by the Envoy of
+Brandenburg at the court of St. James's and despatched by him to Berlin;
+the discovery of this document has led certain writers to cast doubt on
+Mainwaring's story. Streatfeild is probably right in suggesting that
+Mainwaring's story refers to an earlier water-party, and that Handel
+contributed music frequently for such occasions. He also points out that
+the celebrated _Water Music_ was not published until 1740, and that it may
+quite well have been collected from various aquatic programmes.
+
+Hawkins relates the story of the _Water Music_, evidently copying from
+Mainwaring; but Hawkins had known Handel personally, and had been supplied
+by him with certain reminiscences, one of which was unknown to Mainwaring.
+According to this anecdote, recorded by Hawkins, the reconciliation with
+George I was due to the violinist Geminiani, who had composed a set of
+sonatas dedicated to Baron Kielmansegge; Geminiani was a notoriously
+difficult player to accompany, and insisted on Handel, and no other, taking
+the harpsichord when he went to play the sonatas to the King.
+
+Mr. Flower, in his life of Handel, refuses all credit to Mainwaring's
+well-known tale, and takes the view that the King never had any quarrel
+with Handel at all. In any case it seems certain that he confirmed the
+pension granted to him by Queen Anne, and added a further L200 a year of
+his own. A few years later, Handel received yet another L200 a year--from
+Caroline of Ansbach, now Princess of Wales, for teaching her daughters the
+harpsichord, so that he enjoyed a settled income of L600 a year for the
+rest of his life.
+
+_Amadigi_, produced May 25, 1715, did not have many performances, as the
+season ended on July 9, but it attracted considerable attention, partly
+because that old favourite, Nicolini, sang in it again, and also on account
+of its elaborate staging. "There is more enchantment and machinery in this
+opera," says Dr. Burney, "than I have ever found to be announced in any
+other musical drama performed in England."
+
+During the following season, which did not begin until February 1716, both
+_Rinaldo_ and _Amadigi_ were revived, but Handel produced no new opera. The
+King seems to have wished to see Nicolini in his older parts; _Pyrrhus and
+Demetrius_ was revived, as well as other operas of the days before Handel's
+first arrival in England. In July, at the end of the season, George I
+returned to Hanover, where he remained until the end of the year. Handel
+accompanied him, but seems to have had freedom to travel, for he visited
+Hamburg, where he avoided meeting his old friend Mattheson, though he
+corresponded with him from a safe distance. He also went to Halle, where
+his mother was still living; Zachow, however, was dead, and had left his
+widow in straitened circumstances, with an idle and intemperate son. Handel
+helped the widow, and continued to send her money in later years, but he
+eventually came to the conclusion that it was useless to do anything for
+the son. From Halle he went on to Ansbach, no doubt on some commission
+from the Princess of Wales. At Ansbach he found an old friend from the
+University of Halle, Johann Christoph Schmidt, who was established in a
+woollen business. Although Schmidt was married and had a family, he was
+persuaded by Handel to leave these behind at Ansbach and to travel with
+him to London, where he spent the rest of his life as Handel's faithful
+secretary and copyist. His son came over later on, and, after Handel had
+provided for his education, assisted his father in looking after Handel
+during his old age.
+
+During these six months in Germany, Handel reverted for a moment to German
+music; he set what is known as the _Brockes Passion_, a sacred cantata
+in verse by the Hamburg poet Brockes, which had already been set once
+by Keiser. Later on it was set to music again by two of Handel's former
+friends, first by Telemann, and then by Mattheson. Little is known about
+the composition of this work; Handel apparently had a copy made after his
+return to England and sent this to Mattheson, and it was performed at
+Hamburg in 1717. Handel does not seem to have had it performed in England;
+he used up the music afterwards for other works. Chrysander attributed to
+1716 a set of nine German songs with violin _obbligato_ to semi-sacred
+words by Brockes; but there is some difficulty about accepting this date,
+for, although eight of the poems had already been printed by Brockes, there
+is one which is found only in the second edition of the book, printed in
+1724.
+
+The King came back to London in January 1717, and it is supposed that
+Handel came with him. The opera was on the verge of collapse. _Rinaldo_ and
+_Amadigi_ were once more revived for Nicolini, but Handel contributed no
+new work, and, after the season came to an end in July, there was no more
+Italian opera in London until 1720. It was during this period that Handel
+became musical director to the Duke of Chandos, for whom he composed works
+of a character new both to England and to himself.
+
+James Brydges, first Duke of Chandos, had built himself an Italian palace
+at Canons, near Edgware, in which he must have outdone even the magnificent
+Lord Burlington in sumptuousness and ostentation. Like a German princeling,
+he kept his choir and his band of musicians, though there seems to be no
+evidence that he was himself genuinely musical. The chapel of the house, a
+florid Italian baroque building with frescoes in the appropriate style by
+Italian painters, was opened in 1720, and the anthem for the occasion
+was no doubt one of Handel's. It is not known what music of Handel's was
+performed at the Duke's private concerts, but for the services of the
+chapel he composed the famous _Chandos Te Deum_ and the twelve _Chandos
+Anthems_. Here again Purcell was his model, but the style was Handel's
+own, a style indeed so appropriate to the formal stateliness of the Duke's
+establishment that these works have never become part of the ordinary
+cathedral repertory. It was to Purcell, and to some extent to Scarlatti
+too, that Handel owed the general plan of the anthems with their orchestral
+accompaniments, but even Purcell's anthems with orchestra had by that time
+been found too elaborate for general use.
+
+To the Chandos period belongs also a work which is still one of Handel's
+most popular compositions, the English _Acis and Galatea_, to words by John
+Gay. It was not a revision of the _serenata_ which he wrote at Naples, but
+an entirely new work. More important as a landmark in Handel's development
+is the masque of _Esther_, originally called _Haman and Mordecai_. About
+the early history of these works little is known; both were intended to be
+acted on the stage, and they were very probably performed in this way at
+Canons. The words of _Esther_ were adapted from Racine's play of the same
+name, and it has been suggested that Pope was the author.
+
+Handel's residence at Canons gave rise to two legends about him which
+are still so often repeated that their absurdity must be mentioned here,
+although they have been known for many years to be baseless. One is
+perpetuated by an inscription on the organ in the church at Whitchurch,
+to the effect that Handel composed the oratorio of _Esther_ on this
+instrument. Handel was never organist at Whitchurch; the church existed in
+his day, but it was an entirely separate building from the private chapel
+of the Duke of Chandos which was pulled down with the house. The organ of
+that chapel is now at Gosport. It need hardly be said that in any case it
+was not Handel's practice to compose his works on an organ. The other, and
+even more popular, legend is that of "The Harmonious Blacksmith." It was
+during the Canons period that Handel published his _Suites de Pieces pour
+le Clavecin_ (1720) which had probably been composed for the daughters
+of the Princess of Wales, and one of these suites contains the air and
+variations known by that familiar title. But the air was never called by
+this name before 1820; about that time a young music-seller at Bath, who
+had previously been a blacksmith's apprentice, earned the nickname of "the
+harmonious blacksmith" because he was always singing that particular tune.
+Somehow the name got transferred from the singer to the song, and in 1835
+the story of Handel's having been inspired to compose the tune after
+hearing a blacksmith at Edgware produce musical notes from his anvil was
+first put into print in a letter to _The Times_. Not long afterwards an
+imaginary blacksmith of Edgware was invented, and his alleged anvil sold by
+auction.
+
+Whether the air is Handel's own composition at all is a matter of
+uncertainty; there would be nothing in the least unusual about any composer
+taking another man's air as a theme for variations, and it has been
+suggested, with some plausibility, that the tune is that of an old French
+song.
+
+On August 8, 1718, Handel's sister Dorothea Sophia died of consumption
+at Halle. She was not more than thirty years of age; the other sister,
+Johanna, had died in 1709. The sermon preached at Dorothea's funeral on
+August 11, 1718, has been preserved, and tells us that one of her favourite
+texts from the Bible, which she was often in the habit of quoting, was,
+"I know that my Redeemer liveth." Chrysander suggested, and we may well
+believe, that the setting of these words in _Messiah_, given to a female
+voice, owed its inspiration to the memory of Dorothea Sophia. Handel was
+evidently much attached to her. To attend her funeral was impossible, and
+it was some months before Handel could visit Halle again; but on February
+20, 1719, he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, thanking him for all the
+kindness which he had shown to his sister, and promising to come to Halle
+as soon as his engagements permitted.
+
+Handel's inability to leave London before February 1719 was due to the fact
+that a new scheme for the promotion of opera in London was on foot. The
+first idea was probably suggested in the circle of the Duke of Chandos
+towards the end of 1718. It was the moment of the South Sea Bubble, and
+speculation had become the universal fashion. To revive the Italian opera a
+company was formed among members of the nobility; a capital of L50,000 was
+raised in shares of L100 each, and the King himself contributed L1,000.
+The new venture was called the Royal Academy of Music, in imitation of
+the _Academie Royale de Musique_, under which name the Paris opera was
+officially known. The French designation was obviously suggested by the
+Italian "academies," or literary and musical societies of the period; the
+expression _accademia di musica_ is still occasionally used in Italy to
+signify a concert. The directors engaged Nicolo Haym and Paolo Rolli as
+poets to provide libretti; for the music they naturally secured Handel, but
+also invited Buononcini over from Rome, and Attilio Ariosti from Berlin.
+Handel was sent at once to Dresden to select singers; on February 21 he is
+stated to have left London for that purpose, but it is possible that he may
+actually have started later, for in his letter to his brother-in-law, dated
+February 20, he says, "I beg you will not judge of my desire to see you by
+the delay of my departure, for to my great regret I find myself detained
+here by important business on which I may say my fortune depends, and it
+has dragged on longer than I expected.... I hope I shall be at the end of
+it in a month from now."
+
+Handel's exact itinerary is difficult to establish. We know that he went to
+Duesseldorf, where he engaged the singer Baldassari, but whether this was on
+the outward journey or later in the year is uncertain. From the letter to
+Michaelsen we should imagine that he went to Halle as soon as possible;
+the only authentic document which gives us any date is a letter from Count
+Flemming, a court functionary at Dresden, to Melusine von Schulenburg,
+daughter of George I's mistress the Duchess of Kendal, who in 1733 married
+Lord Chesterfield. Melusine was a pupil of Handel in London. The letter
+is dated from Dresden, October 6, 1719; the Count seems to have been much
+offended by Handel's behaviour, and suggests that he was "a little mad"
+(_un peu fol_). Count Flemming was evidently vain of his own musicianship,
+and this made him feel all the more hurt at Handel's obstinate refusal to
+accept his invitations. The Electoral Prince of Saxony was married about
+this time to an Austrian Archduchess, and the Elector had invited several
+of the most famous Italian singers, headed by the composer Lotti, to
+Dresden to grace the occasion, hoping to make contracts with them for the
+winter season. Handel's object in Dresden was to tempt these celebrities to
+London by the offer of English guineas, so that he was naturally obliged to
+be extremely discreet in his relations with the officials of the court.
+
+He certainly played the harpsichord at court, for in the following February
+(1720) a sum of 100 ducats was paid to him; this however cannot indicate
+that he was actually in Dresden at that date, and may easily have been
+a delayed payment for earlier services. Handel's negotiations with the
+singers were only moderately successful, for he was unable to secure anyone
+except Signora Durastanti for the opening of the London opera, even though
+that was delayed until April 1720. The others remained at Dresden, but it
+is probable that Handel's offers had not been without their attractions,
+for the Italian singers at Dresden gave so much trouble to the management
+that the Elector suddenly dismissed the whole crew in February 1720; none
+of them, however, appeared in London before the autumn season.
+
+Handel's visit to Halle this year is of peculiar interest because of
+the attempt made by J. S. Bach to become acquainted with him. Forkel's
+biography of Bach (1802) is the only authority for this story. Bach in 1719
+was in the service of the Prince of Anhalt-Coethen; hearing that Handel was
+in the neighbourhood, he went over to Halle, a distance of about twenty
+miles, but found that Handel had already departed for London. The exact
+date of Handel's return is not known, but as there was a meeting of the
+shareholders of the opera on November 6, 1719, he may have been in England
+by that time. He was not himself one of the actual directors of the
+company; the only professional member of the board was Heidegger. Burney
+suggests that the affairs of the company were none too prosperous even
+before the season began; and it is strange that so long a delay took place
+between the first initiation of the scheme in the winter of 1718 and the
+first rise of the curtain on April 2, 1720. Handel, at any rate, must have
+felt his own position to be secure, for it was about this time that he took
+the house at what was then 57 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, where
+he resided for the rest of his life. His name appears first in 1725 among
+the ratepayers of the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, but not long
+ago a lead cistern was found in the house, bearing his initials and
+the date 1721. On what terms he took the house is not known; it is not
+mentioned in his will.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Buononcini--Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Senesino--death of George I--_The
+Beggar's Opera_--collapse of the Academy.
+
+
+The opening performance of the Royal Academy of Music was undistinguished;
+it is hard to understand why the noble directors should have begun their
+season with _Numitor_, an opera by Porta, a Venetian composer, who is
+described in the book of words as "Servant to His Grace the Duke of
+Wharton." The Duke of Wharton was not one of the directors. The company,
+moreover, was more English than Italian; it included Baldassari,
+Durastanti, and a second woman called Galerati, together with Anastasia
+Robinson, who afterwards became Countess of Peterborough, Mrs. Turner
+Robinson, wife of the organist of Westminster Abbey, Mrs. Dennis, and Mr.
+Gordon. _Numitor_ ran for five performances; on April 27 it was succeeded
+by Handel's new opera _Radamisto_, in which the same singers took part,
+except that Mrs. Dennis did not appear, and Mr. La Garde sang the part of
+Farasmane. It is interesting to note that two of the male parts were taken
+by women--Radamisto (Durastanti) and Tigrane (Galerati). This looks as if
+the management had found it impossible to secure a sufficient number of
+Italian _castrati_, who probably demanded exorbitant fees.
+
+_Radamisto_ fared little better than _Numitor_; an enormous crowd came to
+the first night, and many were turned away, but the opera was not performed
+more than ten times in the season. It was probably above the heads of the
+audience, for it is one of Handel's finest works for the stage and a great
+advance on any of his previous operas. The only other opera performed was
+_Narciso_, by Domenico Scarlatti, which was even less successful than the
+others. Chrysander seems to suggest that Scarlatti came to London with the
+idea of being a rival to Handel, but it is much more likely that Handel
+himself persuaded the Academy to invite the friend of his youth.
+
+The season ended on June 25. _Radamisto_ was printed, and was published by
+Handel himself at his own house.
+
+A really serious rival to Handel appeared in the autumn. Lord Burlington
+had made the acquaintance in Rome of Giovanni Buononcini, and had heard his
+opera _Astarto_. Perhaps he had had enough of Handel after three years of
+his close company in Burlington House; in any case he probably thought
+himself a better judge of music than Handel. He secured Buononcini for
+the Academy, and the season opened on November 19 with _Astarto_. The
+dedication to the Earl of Burlington is signed by Paolo Rolli, and no other
+author's name is mentioned; but the libretto was really by Apostolo Zeno
+(1708). _Astarto_ had ten performances before Christmas, and twenty
+afterwards; _Radamisto_ was revived again, but Buononcini established
+himself firmly in the favour of a large party. Although Burney speaks very
+disparagingly of the music, it is not in the least surprising that the
+opera attracted the public. In the first place, it had the advantage of
+a magnificent cast of singers--Senesino, Boschi, Berenstadt, Berselli,
+Durastanti, Salvai, and Galerati, and this sudden blaze of vocal splendour
+would in itself have made the success of any opera, especially of one which
+opened the season. Besides, Buononcini's music was pleasing and, after a
+far longer stage experience than Handel's, he naturally wrote what singers
+enjoyed singing. It must further be added that Buononcini himself was a
+striking personality; he had produced operas at Berlin and Vienna, as well
+as in various Italian cities, and was a man of the world, accustomed to the
+society of courts. Besides, Buononcini was a stranger and a novelty; Handel
+was becoming an established institution--indeed, he was well on the way to
+becoming an English composer.
+
+The same singers, with the addition of Anastasia Robinson, appeared in the
+season of 1721-22. A curious experiment was tried in _Muzio Scevola_,
+of which the first act was composed by Filippo Mattei, the second by
+Buononcini and the third by Handel, each act having an overture and
+concluding chorus. Some biographers have supposed that this was intended to
+be a trial of strength, and that the contest resulted in the acknowledged
+triumph of Handel; but Burney is probably right in saying that the
+collaboration was merely a device to save time in getting the opera ready,
+and Burney further points out that Buononcini's position remained as strong
+as ever. It was in fact due to Buononcinci's next two operas, and not to
+Handel's, that the Academy was able to declare a dividend of seven per
+cent.
+
+Handel's _Floridante_ (December 9, 1721) had a moderate success only, and
+against Handel's one opera (except for a few performances of _Radamisto_ at
+the very beginning of the season) Buononcini had three works to his credit.
+The following season brought Handel better fortune, and a decline in the
+popularity of Buononcini. In November and December, _Muzio Sceaola_ and
+_Floridante_ were revived; on January 12, Handel produced a new opera,
+_Ottone_, with a new singer, Francesca Cuzzoni, who eclipsed all the other
+women singers completely, until after some years she herself was driven
+into eclipse by her historic rival Faustina Bordoni.
+
+_Ottone_ contains one number at least which is familiar to everyone who
+knows the name of Handel--the gavotte at the end of the overture. This
+spirited piece of music won popularity at the outset, and even to-day it
+is probably the best known melody of Handel, after the "Harmonious
+Blacksmith." But the real success of _Ottone_ was made by Cuzzoni.
+
+How Cuzzoni came to be engaged at the opera is not clear. Handel cannot
+possibly have ever heard her sing; it has been suggested that she was
+engaged by Heidegger. She was about twenty-two, and had made her first
+appearance at Venice in 1719, after which she sang in various Italian
+theatres. She had a voice of extraordinary range, beauty, and agility; she
+was equally accomplished both in florid music and in airs of a sustained
+and pathetic character, and she was never known to sing out of tune. In
+appearance she was anything but attractive: she was short, squat, and
+excessively plain-featured. She was uneducated and ill-mannered, impulsive
+and quarrelsome. Her arrival in London was delayed for some reason, so
+the management sent Sandoni, the second harpsichord-player, to meet
+her, probably at Dover. On the way to London they were married; Sandoni
+doubtless had an eye to the money which she was to earn.
+
+Her first air in _Ottone_, "Falsa imagine," fixed her reputation as an
+expressive and pathetic singer (Burney); she had at first refused to sing
+it, on which Handel remarked to her, "Madame, je sais que vous etes une
+veritable diablesse, mais je vous ferai savoir, moi, que je suis Beelzebub,
+le chef des diables," seized her round and waist, and threatened to throw
+her out of the window. Handel had similar trouble with Gordon, the English
+singer who came in for a small part in _Flavio_, which was given on May 14.
+Gordon found fault with Handel's method of accompanying, and threatened to
+jump on the harpsichord.
+
+"Oh," replied Handel, "let me know when you will do that, and I will
+advertise it; for I am sure more people will come to see you jump than to
+hear you sing."
+
+Two more operas by Buononcini were given, but his relations with the
+Academy were not very cordial. He had been taken up by the Marlborough
+family, and was commissioned to compose the funeral anthem for the burial
+of the great Duke in June 1722. On May 16, 1723, Mrs. Pendarves informed
+her sister that the young Duchess had settled L500 a year for life on
+Buononcini, "provided he will _not_ compose any more for the ungrateful
+Academy, who do not deserve he should entertain them, since they don't know
+how to value his works as they ought." The contract, however, seems not to
+have been carried out by the composer. Mrs. Pendarves evidently took the
+news from the day's issue of a weekly journal, adding only the name of the
+Duchess, which the paper had suppressed. What the paper tells us is that
+the Academy had not engaged Buononcini for the coming season.
+
+Senesino and Cuzzoni had made life impossible for the other singers.
+Durastanti retired to the Continent; Anastasia Robinson left the stage, and
+married her old admirer Lord Peterborough. Senesino and Cuzzoni, however,
+were indispensable to the success of the opera, and probably the ridiculous
+affectations of the one and the abominable manners of the other were not
+without their attraction to a public which could enjoy all the pleasure of
+gossiping about them without having to put up with them at close quarters.
+
+The season of 1723 began in November with Buononcini's _Farnace_ and
+Handel's _Ottone_; in January 1724 a new opera, _Vespasiano_, by Attilio
+Ariosti, was given, and ran for nine successive nights. Ariosti was never
+a very troublesome rival to Handel; he was a man of amiable character, and
+apparently quite content to remain aloof from the party politics of the
+opera-house. On February 14, Handel produced his _Giulio Cesare_, one of
+his finest dramatic works; it has been revived with considerable success
+in recent years, partly owing to the fact that modern audiences are more
+familiar with the episode of Caesar and Cleopatra than with the subjects of
+Handel's other operas. _Giulio Cesare_ had the advantage of a strong cast;
+Senesino sang the title part, with Berenstadt and Boschi to support him,
+and the women included Cuzzoni, as well as Durastanti and Mrs. Robinson,
+who had not yet quitted the opera company.
+
+Another masterpiece of Handel's, _Tamerlano_, inaugurated the autumn season
+of 1724 in October; in December appeared Ariosti's _Artaserse_, in January
+_Giulio Cesare_ held the stage till the production of another Handel opera,
+_Rodelinda_, which came out on February 13, and ran for thirteen nights.
+Two more operas, by Ariosti and Leonardo Vinci of Naples, completed the
+season, but it was evidently Handel who scored the greatest triumphs,
+unless the honours should more properly go to Cuzzoni, as Rodelinda, and
+her brown silk gown trimmed with silver. All the old ladies, says Burney,
+were scandalised with its vulgarity and indecorum, "but the young adopted
+it as a fashion so universally, that it seemed a national uniform for youth
+and beauty."
+
+Cuzzoni created a further sensation in the summer by giving birth to a
+daughter. Mrs. Pendarves made much fun of the event. "It is a mighty
+mortification it was not a son. Sons and heirs ought to be out of fashion
+when such scrubs shall pretend to be dissatisfied at having a daughter;
+'tis pity, indeed, that the noble name and family of the Sandonis should be
+extinct! The minute she was brought to bed she sang' La speranza,' a song
+in _Otho_."
+
+Revivals of _Rodelinda_ and _Ottone_ took place in the following season,
+and, in March 1726, Handel produced _Scipio_, in which the famous march was
+heard for the first time on the rise of the curtain.
+
+
+But Cuzzoni's throne was soon to be sharply contested. Ever since 1723 the
+directors of the opera had been trying to secure Faustina Bordoni, and at
+last, with a promise of L2,500 for the season (Cuzzoni received L2,000),
+they succeeded. Faustina was born of a patrician family at Venice in 1700;
+she had been brought up under the protection of Alessandro Marcello,
+brother of the well-known composer, and had made her debut at Venice at the
+age of sixteen. She sang mostly at Venice for several years, and in 1718
+she appeared there in Pollaroli's _Ariodante_, along with Cuzzoni herself.
+She sang at Munich in 1723, and in the summer of 1725 she went to Vienna,
+where she stayed six months, enjoying an extraordinary success. Nearly
+forty years afterwards the Empress Maria Theresa recalled with pride how
+she herself, at the age of seven, had sung in an opera with Faustina. At
+the end of March 1726 she left Vienna for London, where she made her first
+appearance, on May 5, in Handel's new opera _Alessandro_, which had been
+designed especially to show off both Faustina and Cuzzoni in parts of
+exactly equal importance and difficulty. The immediate result was to divide
+London society into two parties: young Lady Burlington and her friends
+supported Faustina; Cuzzoni's admirers were led by Lady Pembroke. Lady
+Walpole succeeded in getting both to sing at her house; neither would sing
+in the presence of the other, but the hostess tactfully managed to draw
+first one and then the other out of the music-room while her rival
+enchanted the guests. Mrs. Pendarves also contrived to be on good terms
+with both. She heard Cuzzoni in November privately, or perhaps at a
+rehearsal, and writes, "my senses were ravished with harmony." The opera
+was expected to begin about the middle of December, "but I think Faustina
+and Madame Sandoni [i.e. Cuzzoni] are not perfectly agreed about their
+parts." The opening, however, was delayed by the absence of Senesino, who
+had gone to Italy and did not return until fairly late in December.
+
+It was probably owing to this fact that opera in English was offered at the
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Marcantonio Buononcini's _Camilla_,
+first given in London in 1706, was revived by a mainly English cast of
+singers. Mrs. Pendarves went to see it, and her criticisms are significant
+for the taste of the time. "I can't say I was much pleased with it, I liked
+it for old acquaintance sake, but there is not many of the songs better
+than ballads."
+
+Faustina--"the most agreeable creature in the world in company"--dined with
+Mrs. Pendarves for a small musical party on January 26. On the previous day
+there was the first rehearsal of Handel's _Admeto_. It was the moment, says
+Burney, of Handel's greatest prosperity and English patronage. _Admeto_
+exhibited conspicuously what Dr. Burney called Handel's "science "; it was
+evidently considered to be complicated in style, though at the same time
+both pathetic and passionate. "Music," says Burney, "was no longer regarded
+as a mere soother of affliction, or incitement to hilarity; it could now
+paint the passions in all their various attitudes; and those tones which
+said nothing intelligible to the heart began to be thought as; insipid as
+those of 'sounding brass or tinkling cymbals.'" These words of Burney make
+one realise that Handel's London operas must have affected their audiences
+almost in the way in which the operas of Wagner startled the audiences of
+the nineteenth century. Handel himself, like Wagner, was steadily
+developing his own dramatic powers, and it is important to bear in mind
+that it was only those marvellous singers of Handel's day, such as
+Senesino, Cuzzoni, Faustina, and Boschi, who could inspire him to the
+creation of such music as they only were competent to interpret.
+
+_Admeto_ was received with respect, and although the partisans of the
+"rival queens" were noisy in their applause, no actual disturbance took
+place until Admeto was followed by Buononcini's _Astyanax_ on May 6. On the
+first night of the new opera each side did its best to drown the opposite
+party's favourite with a chorus of catcalls. The behaviour of the audience
+became more and more disgraceful as the opera was repeated, until on the
+last night (June 6), when the Princess of Wales was present, Cuzzoni and
+Faustina delighted the sporting instincts of the nobility and gentry of
+England by indulging in a free fight on the stage.
+
+Five days later George I died suddenly at Osnabruck. George II was crowned
+on October 11, to the music of Handel's Coronation Anthems. The opera
+season reopened a month later. Apparently the quarrel between Cuzzoni and
+Faustina had been patched up; probably neither of them wanted to lose their
+English contracts. They appeared together in Handel's _Riccardo Primo_, and
+again in _Siroe_ (February 5, 1728), as well as in _Tolomeo_ (April 30),
+but the battle seems to have been won by Cuzzoni, who obtained the more
+important parts. We hear of no more disturbances; the fact was that the
+audiences were too thin to be noisy.
+
+Mrs. Pendarves, always a devoted supporter of Handel, was pessimistic from
+the beginning of the season. "I doubt operas will not survive longer than
+this winter," she wrote on November 25; "they are now at their last gasp;
+the subscription is expired and nobody will renew it. The directors are
+always squabbling, and they have so many divisions among themselves that I
+wonder they have not broke up before; Senesino goes away next winter, and I
+believe Faustina, so you see harmony is almost out of fashion."_Admeto_ was
+revived on June 1, 1728; this was Faustina's last appearance, and the last
+night of the Royal Academy of Music. The opera was announced for June 11,
+but Faustina declared herself indisposed. The opera was shut up and the
+company disbanded. Faustina went with Senesino to Paris, and thence to
+Venice, where Cuzzoni also made her appearance, and continued in the local
+dialect the campaign of slander against Faustina's alleged immoralities.
+
+There were many reasons for the collapse of the opera. It had been carried
+on with reckless extravagance, and the noble directors were in all
+probability not very expert men of business. The scandalous behaviour of
+all concerned in _Astyanax_ may well have caused a falling-off in the
+subscriptions. Mrs. Pendarves, who was a lady of unimpeachable conduct,
+continued to go to the opera, but she was a serious lover of music and
+a personal friend of Handel. The failure of the Academy is generally
+attributed to the success of _The Beggar's Opera_, which had been brought
+out at Lincoln's Inn Fields on January 29, 1728, and at once took London
+by storm. A letter of Mrs. Pendarves, dated January 19, but evidently
+continued later, tells us that she went to a rehearsal of _Siroe_: "I like
+it extremely, but the taste of the town is so depraved, that nothing will
+be approved of but the burlesque. The _Beggar's Opera_ entirely triumphs
+over the Italian one." Even Mrs. Pendarves could not help enjoying it, once
+she had seen it.
+
+It is probable that Handel himself had contributed to the downfall of the
+Academy. Out of the 487 performances given between 1720 and 1728, Handel's
+works obtained 245, Buononcini's 108, and Ariosti's 55. The great singers
+had drawn the public to listen to Handel's operas, but it is clear from
+many contemporary allusions that Handel's music was too severe to be an
+attraction in itself, except to cultivated musicians like Mrs. Pendarves.
+The same accusations were made against Handel that were made in later years
+against Mozart and Wagner--that his operas were noisy and overloaded with
+learned accompaniments. The Italian opera was killed, not so much by the
+fact that _The Beggar's Opera_ made its conventions ridiculous (for its
+conventions could at that time have been ridiculous only to quite unmusical
+people), as by the incontestable attraction of the new work itself. It was
+witty and outspoken, with abundance of topical satire; its music consisted
+of the tunes that everybody knew, and it presented the public with the
+irresistible fascinations of Lavinia Fenton, who was soon to become the
+Duchess of Bolton.
+
+Handel may well have resented the success of _The Beggar's Opera_, but
+the collapse of the Academy was in reality no great disaster for his own
+interests. In the first place, he had done very well out of it from a
+financial point of view; the noble directors might have lost their
+money, but he had been only their paid servant, in which capacity he had
+accumulated enough to invest no less than L10,000 of his own in the next
+operatic venture. He obviously realised the strength of the position which
+he had built up for himself both as a composer and as a man of business.
+The most important result of the Academy's career had been to provide
+Handel with the opportunity of consolidating his own style as a composer
+of musical drama. Like all the court composers of his age he had provided
+whatever his patrons required--chamber music, water music, minuets for
+court balls, Church music for royal ceremonial; but the music on which his
+own heart was set was that of the theatre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Handel naturalized--partnership with Heidegger--_Esther_--the Opera of
+the Nobility--visit to Oxford--opera season at Covent Garden--Charles
+Jennens--collapse of both opera-houses.
+
+
+Handel had by this time definitely decided to make England his home; on
+February 13, 1726, he had been naturalised as an English subject. He had
+every reason to regard England as the best place in which to live. He
+enjoyed the protection of the German court; George II and Queen Caroline
+gave him indeed a good deal more encouragement than George I. The
+appointments of composer to the Chapel Royal and composer to the court were
+purely honorary, but they strengthened his position. As to the opera-house,
+he must by now have felt that he was its unquestioned autocrat, and he
+could not help being aware that he was without a rival in Europe as far as
+the stage was concerned, for old Scarlatti had gone to his grave, and the
+younger generation had produced no composer of such outstanding eminence.
+And in England music was generously rewarded from a material point of view;
+high fees were paid, not only to singers, but to teachers as well, and
+England was also one of the few countries where music-printing was a
+flourishing business. A good proportion of Handel's savings must have come
+from the sale of his published compositions; among Handel's contemporaries
+no other composer in Europe had so many of his works printed during his
+lifetime. English society seemed always ready to subscribe for a new
+musical work, and neither in Paris nor in Amsterdam was music so admirably
+engraved as in London.
+
+Encouraged by the Princess Royal, Handel went into partnership with
+Heidegger, who had also made his own profits out of the opera, as well as
+out of his notorious masquerades; they leased the King's Theatre for a
+period of five years. The first thing to do was to secure new singers, and
+for this purpose Handel went to Italy, probably in the autumn of 1728.
+Heidegger had already tried to bring back Senesino and the two "costly
+canary-birds," as Colley Cibber called them, but they had had enough of
+London, and probably of Handel too. Little is known of the details of this
+Italian journey; it has been said that Handel travelled with Steffani,
+but this is impossible, as Steffani died at Frankfurt early in the year.
+Mainwaring tells us that, at Rome, Cardinal Colonna invited him to his
+palace, but that Handel, hearing that the Pretender was staying there,
+prudently declined the invitation. In engaging singers he seems to have
+been perhaps more prudent than was desirable, for his new company did not
+contain any very distinguished names. In place of Senesino he obtained the
+_castrato_ Bernacchi; his new first woman was Signora Strada del Po', who
+was a fine singer, but so unattractive in appearance that London nicknamed
+her "The Pig." It is interesting to note that he also engaged a tenor,
+Annibale Fabri, although in those; days tenors were considered only fit for
+old men's parts of minor importance, and at Naples were generally given the
+parts of comic old women. Fabri's wife and another woman were announced
+as good actresses of male parts. "Fabri has a tenor voice," wrote Mrs.
+Pendarves, "sweet, clear and firm, but not strong enough, I doubt, for the
+stage. He sings like a gentleman, without making faces, and his manner is
+particularly agreeable." Perhaps Handel's friendship with Mrs. Pendarves
+had given him a sure insight into the taste of English gentlewomen.
+
+In the summer of 1729 Handel paid a visit to his mother at Halle; she was
+then blind and half paralysed. Bach sent his son Friedemann over from
+Leipzig to beg Handel to come and see him, as he was himself too ill to
+make the journey, but Handel not unnaturally declined. Towards the end of
+June he passed through Hanover, and also went to Hamburg, where he engaged
+a German bass Riemschneider.
+
+The opera season began on December 2, with Handel's _Lothario_, but it
+had only a moderate success. After a few revivals of _Giulio Cesare_, he
+brought out a second new opera, _Partenope_, on February 24. Despite its
+many beauties, it was even less successful than _Lothario_. Handel's
+audience did not go to the theatre to listen to his music; they went to
+hear the singers, and Bernacchi, who was no longer a young man, was a poor
+substitute for Senesino. Strada was the only member of the company who
+interested the audience. For the next season something better had to be
+found, and through Francis Colman, the English Envoy at Florence, Senesino
+was persuaded to accept 1,400 guineas instead of the 2,000 that he had
+received before. He opened the season of 1730 on November 3, with his
+former role of Scipio. For the moment Handel remained in the background;
+the next opera was a _pasticcio_, that is, an opera made up of favourite
+songs from various operas stuck into any convenient libretto. On February 2
+there came out the new opera of Handel, _Poro_, which turned the tide once
+more in the composer's favour. Later on, _Rinaldo_ and _Rodelinda_ were
+revived, but the season came to an early end on May 29. For the following
+winter some changes were made in the cast. Senesino and Strada were
+of course indispensable, and the most important new acquisition was
+Montagnana, the bass, for whom Handel was to write some of his most
+celebrated songs.
+
+After revivals of _Tamerlano_ and _Admeto_, Handel brought out _Ezio_ on
+January 15, 1732; it had only five performances. _Sosarme_ (February 19)
+had ten; it is remembered now by the exquisite song, "Rendi 'l sereno al
+ciglio," which was sung by Strada. The remainder of the season presented
+nothing of any special interest until on the last night Handel offered his
+subscribers a new type of entertainment in the shape of _Acis and Galatea_.
+
+On Handel's birthday, February 23, Bernard Gates, the master of the
+children of the Chapel Royal, arranged a private performance of _Esther_,
+which had been neglected since its first performance at Canons some twelve
+years before. Among the boys who sang and acted in the "masque" were Beard,
+who afterwards became Handel's favourite tenor, and Randall, eventually
+Professor of Music in Cambridge, who took the part of Esther. The
+performance was repeated twice before a paying public at the Crown and
+Anchor Tavern, where concerts were often held, and on April 20 a rival
+organisation advertised a further performance of Esther at the concert-room
+in Villiers Street. On this occasion it was described as "an oratorio or
+sacred drama," and was evidently sung without action. Princess Anne wished
+to see it on the stage of the opera-house but the Bishop of London forbade
+a dramatic performance. As the bishop's ban was ultimately the cause of
+Handel's turning his attention to oratorio in preference to opera, it has
+sometimes been suggested that Handel might have created a new type of
+national English opera on biblical subjects if only his lordship had not
+interfered. In justice to the bishop it has to be pointed out that his
+objection seems to have been raised, not against the dramatic presentation
+of Bible stories (for he did not discountenance Gates' performances by the
+choristers at the Crown and Anchor), but against their presentation in
+a regular theatre by professional opera singers. Such prejudice may be
+difficult to understand at the present day, but even well into the middle
+of the nineteenth century persons of severe morality regarded the theatre
+and all who belonged thereto with stern disapproval, and the notorious
+scandals associated with Cuzzoni and Faustina, to say nothing of Heidegger,
+were not likely to have washed out the memory of Jeremy Collier's
+denunciations.
+
+"The sacred story of _Esther_, an oratorio in English," was accordingly
+announced for May 2, with the information that "there will be no acting
+on the stage, but the house will be fitted up in a decent manner for the
+audience; the Musick [i.e. the orchestra] to be disposed after the manner
+of the coronation service." Within a fortnight, Thomas Arne, father of the
+composer, advertised a performance of _Acis and Galatea_ at the Little
+Theatre in the Haymarket "with all the choruses, scenes, machines, and
+other decorations, being the first time it was performed in a theatrical
+way." The laws of the time gave no protection to musical and dramatic
+copyright. Handel could only reply by giving a performance of the work
+himself; his one advantage was that as composer he could remodel the score
+and make several new additions to it. But he did not have the work acted;
+it was sung in costume with a background of appropriate scenery. Even in
+this form it obtained four performances; Senesino and Strada took part in
+it, singing in English.
+
+Such a setting may appear strange to modern readers, but, even if it was
+a new idea for England at the time, it was a fairly well established
+tradition on the Continent, and Handel may very likely have seen a similar
+entertainment in Italy. The subscribers to the opera would see little in
+it that was incongruous. They were accustomed to see singers in all operas
+wearing dresses that differed very little from their own, and scenery which
+recalled their own Italianate gardens and palaces; Handelian opera, in any
+case, left little scope for what most people now call acting. At the same
+time we may be pretty sure that concert singers, especially Italians,
+allowed themselves far more liberty of spontaneous expressive movement than
+Victorian oratorio singers holding their music-books in front of them by
+traditional convention.
+
+Four more performances of _Acis and Galatea_ were given at the opera-house
+in December 1732; Handel evidently saw that it would be a sure attraction.
+_Alessandro_ and _Tolomeo_ were revived, and on January 23 he produced a
+new opera, _Orlando_, which had ten performances, with six more later in
+the season. _Orlando_ is one of Handel's most original operas; he seems
+always to have derived a peculiar inspiration from the poems of Tasso and
+Ariosto, as in the case of _Rinaldo_. _Orlando_ is a thoroughly romantic
+opera--Chrysander even compares it with those of Weber--full of episodes of
+madness and magic; it is so far removed from the ordinary conventions of
+its time that we can well imagine it to have startled both its audiences
+and its singers.
+
+The affairs of the opera-house were going badly, and it is probable that
+there were considerable dissension within its walls. It is certain that
+relations between Handel and Senesino were becoming more and more strained;
+_Orlando_ was the last opera of Handel's in which he sang. It seems fairly
+certain also that Heidegger was none too loyal as a partner. Heidegger was
+in a strong position, for he was the actual owner of the stock of scenery
+and other appurtenances taken over from the original Academy. He seems to
+have lent the theatre to Buononcini for some performances of _Griselda_,
+and, when the lease came to an end, it was Heidegger who left Handel in the
+lurch and allowed a rival organisation to secure it.
+
+There was, too, a further reason for the general hostility against Handel.
+Encouraged by the success of _Acis and Galatea_, he had composed a new
+oratorio, _Deborah_, which was performed at the opera-house on March 17,
+by the King's command. For this work prices were doubled; tickets were a
+guinea each, and admission to the gallery half a guinea, instead of five
+shillings. At the second performance the normal prices were charged. The
+raising of prices for an extraordinary performance might well seem nothing
+unreasonable; but the event came exactly at the moment of the popular
+outcry against Walpole's Excise Bill, and the satirists of the day seized
+the opportunity of comparing Handel with Walpole.
+
+Handel was now nearly fifty years of age. In the days of _Rinaldo_ he had
+been a young man of twenty-five, making friends with those of his own age
+or younger, a new attraction with all the fascination of genius and youth.
+In the course of a generation he had become an established institution. He
+had made a success; he had amassed a fortune; he had secured to himself the
+unshaken confidence of the court; but he had inevitably made enemies. The
+native musicians were very naturally jealous of the foreigner, and the
+numerous foreign musicians in London jealous of one who made more money out
+of the extravagant English than they did themselves. The Italian singers
+found him tyrannical, and society very probably resented his rough manners.
+Society had engaged him to provide music for their entertainment, and he
+took up the unheard-of attitude of expecting society to pay its guineas
+for whatever music he chose to write. England, one might almost say, had
+spoiled him, for it was only in England that "The Great Bear," as he was
+sometimes called, could go his own way--a musician behaving with the
+complete disregard of public opinion which was considered the exclusive
+privilege of the English nobility. In any other country he would have
+been forced either to pander to the taste of a court or to relapse into
+obscurity. It was not until after the French Revolution that a Beethoven
+could display the independence of Handel in the aristocratic environment of
+Vienna.
+
+The English nobility, having set Handel this example, claimed their own
+rights, and organised a rival opera-house at Lincoln's Inn Fields. They had
+no difficulty in seducing, first Senesino, then Montagnana, and finally
+Heidegger. Only Strada remained faithful to Handel. Buononcini having lost
+their favour, they engaged as composer the Neapolitan Nicolo Porpora,
+famous then as a great trainer of singers, and still more famous in later
+years as the teacher of Haydn. If Handel had the King and Queen on his
+side, the nobility could count on the support of Frederick Prince of Wales,
+who was immensely popular throughout the country and was on the worst
+possible terms with his royal parents. The Opera of the Nobility, as the
+new syndicate was called, was making its plans in good time, directly after
+the end of Handel's season.
+
+In July 1733, Handel was invited to Oxford for a series of performances
+of his works, and it was proposed to confer on him the honorary degree of
+Doctor of Music. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Holmes, was a loyal Hanoverian,
+and hoped by honouring Handel to do something to counteract the Jacobite
+reputation of the University. _Esther_ and _Deborah_ were performed, as
+well as the Utrecht _Te Deum_ and _Jubilate_, and the Coronation Anthems;
+Handel further provided a new oratorio, _Athaliah_. The degree he refused
+to accept, for what reason has never been explained. Various suggestions
+have been offered. The Abbe Prevost, who was in England at the time, says
+that he refused the degree out of modesty; later biographers have differed
+in their views as to whether modesty was one of Handel's characteristics.
+Others have supposed that he refused to pay the fee of L100 that was
+demanded, but it is inconceivable that a fee should have been demanded
+for an honorary degree, although it would naturally have been paid by
+candidates who took the degree in the normal way. The concerts were
+attended by large audiences, many music lovers coming over from Eton and
+Cambridge, although there was considerable resentment at the price of
+admission--five shillings, a small amount compared with Handel's London
+charges. This "Handel Festival" at Oxford is significant, for it shows
+that in the space of no more than a year oratorio had begun to make a wide
+appeal, even outside London, although it was a form of composition that was
+new to English audiences. _Esther_, considered as a masque to be acted,
+might be said to continue the English traditions of the previous century,
+but there was no precedent in England for anything like _Esther_ in concert
+form. The only English works which offered anything remotely like oratorio
+were the odes of Purcell and Blow for the musicians' festivals on St.
+Cecilia's Day, apart from the greater services and anthems of Purcell,
+which were composed, not for entertainment, but for liturgical use.
+
+After the Oxford concerts, Handel and Schmidt went to Italy to look for
+singers. They heard Farinelli, the most famous _castrato_ of the century,
+but did not engage him; perhaps his demands were too high. The _castrato_
+whom they did engage was Carestini, who, though less celebrated, was at any
+rate a singularly artistic singer. Durastanti came back, and, in place of
+Montagnana, Handel contented himself with Waltz, a German, who is often
+described as having been Handel's cook. Burney, at any rate, recorded that
+he was said to have filled this office, but Burney remembered him chiefly
+as a popular comic singer. He had sung Polyphemus in Arne's pirated
+performance of _Acis and Galatea_, and owing to the defection of
+Montagnana, took his place in _Athaliah_ at Oxford. He had "a coarse figure
+and a still coarser voice" (Burney).
+
+Handel opened his season on October 30, 1733. He had already finished the
+composition of a new opera, _Ariadne_, but it was not brought out until
+January 26, 1734. The reason, no doubt, was that an opera on the same
+subject by Porpora was produced by the Opera of the Nobility on December
+29. Handel would no doubt have heard that it was in rehearsal, and
+have postponed his own production until he could see how Porpora's was
+succeeding. The two operas obtained the same number of performances, but
+Handel's theatre was seldom full, and many opera-goers were dissatisfied at
+his giving them oratorios, such as _Deborah_ and _Acis_, on opera nights;
+these, however, seem to have been commanded by the King, and that in itself
+would make them all the more unpopular.
+
+In March the Princess Royal was married to the Prince of Orange, and Handel
+was commissioned to write a wedding anthem. He also provided a secular
+entertainment in the shape of _Parnaso in festa_, described as a
+_serenata_. It was not unlike a masque; Apollo and the Muses appeared in
+costume on Mount Parnassus, but apparently there was no acting. The music
+was adapted from _Athaliah_, which, so far, had only been heard at Oxford.
+Oratorio was also attempted by Handel's rival; Mrs. Pendarves heard a work
+of his at Lincoln's Inn Fields in March. "It is a fine solemn piece of
+music," she wrote, "but I confess I think the subject too solemn for a
+theatre. To have words of piety made use of only to introduce good music,
+is reversing what it ought to be, and most of the people that hear the
+oratorio make no reflection on the meaning of the words, though God is
+addressed in the most solemn manner." Needless to say, it was "not equal
+to Mr. Handel's oratorio of Esther or Deborah." Mrs. Pendarves was at this
+time a near neighbour of Handel's in Lower Brook Street; one of her letters
+describes a small musical party (her musical parties were always small) a
+month later. Apparently there were not more than ten guests, including Lord
+Shaftesbury, who begged another guest to bring him, and was admitted as
+being "a profess'd friend of Mr. Handel"; the only professional musicians
+present were Handel and Strada. "I never was so well entertained at an
+opera! Mr. Handel was in the best humour in the world, and played lessons
+and accompanied Strada and all the ladies that sung from seven o' the clock
+till eleven." In such company Handel could evidently be more agreeable than
+on the stage at rehearsals, and it is interesting to note that the amateurs
+had no timidity about singing before Strada, and that Handel was willing to
+accompany all of them alike.
+
+In July 1734, Handel's lease of the King's Theatre came to an end, and he
+found the theatre let at once by some means to his rivals, the Opera of the
+Nobility. He therefore entered into an arrangement with Rich for the use of
+his new theatre in Covent Garden, but his autumn season actually opened at
+Lincoln's Inn Fields on October 5. The probable reason for this was that
+the Princess Anne was spending the summer in England and wished to hear
+some of Handel's operas. She was a remarkably gifted musician, and Handel
+considered her to be the best of his pupils; she not only sang and played
+the harpsichord well, but was thoroughly grounded in the theoretical side
+of music and quite capable of composing a fugue, according to a Dutch
+musician who became acquainted with her after her marriage. She came to
+England on July 2 for a long stay, and at once persuaded Handel to give
+three additional performances of _Il Pastor Fido_, which he had revived
+that season. _Pastor Fido_ and _Ariadne_ were given again for her in
+October; probably Covent Garden was not quite ready for performances.
+Princess Anne left England on October 21, and her last words at parting
+were to beg Lord Hervey to do all he could to help Handel.
+
+The chief attraction to the public at Covent Garden was probably not Handel
+but Mlle Salle, a French dancer who had been engaged by Rich. The first
+performance at the new theatre was a ballet, _Terpsichore_, in order that
+she might inaugurate the season. _Terpsichore_, which includes songs and a
+chorus, served as prologue to _Il Pastor Fido_. The next opera was _Oreste,
+a pasticcio_ made up by Handel himself from his own works; on January 8,
+1735, he produced his Ariodante, an opera over which he had spent the
+unusually long time of ten weeks. The score was begun on August 12 and
+finished on October 24. The story is taken from Ariosto, and, as with
+Orlando, Handel found that it afforded opportunities for his peculiar vein
+of romanticism. On April 16 he followed it up with Alcina, again on a
+subject from Ariosto, and one of even more romantic character. Ariosto's
+enchantress Alcina was the model for Tasso's better-known Armida, who
+provided both Lulli and Gluck with one of their most dramatic heroines, and
+Burney says, with some justice, that Handel's Alcina gave birth to all the
+Armidas and Rinaldos of modern times. Both Ariodante and Alcina contained a
+large amount of ballet music, and the dances in Alcina, intermingled
+with choruses in the French manner, are among Handel's most attractive
+compositions.
+
+Mrs. Pendarves, after the rehearsal of Alcina, described Handel as himself
+"a necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments," but he could not
+prevail against the enchantments of Farinelli, who had been engaged by the
+rival opera company. There could be no competing against a combination that
+included along with him Senesino, Cuzzoni, and Montagnana. The one powerful
+counter-attraction that Handel could offer was oratorio on Wednesdays and
+Fridays in Lent, when operas were not allowed to be given. Porpora's David,
+which the rival management put on, had no chance against Esther, Deborah,
+and Athaliah. Alcina carried the Opera on to the end of the season, the
+well-known air "Verdi prati," which Carestini had at first refused to
+sing, being encored at every performance. Handel's alleged angry retort to
+Carestini in comical broken English has been often quoted from Burney; but
+Schoelcher very sensibly observed that Handel was pretty certain to have
+conversed with Carestini in Italian.
+
+The newspapers informed the world in May that Handel was going to spend the
+summer in Germany. His health had been seriously undermined, and it
+may well have been possible that he had talked of taking a cure at
+Aix-la-Chapelle; but on this occasion he went no farther than Tunbridge
+Wells. It was probably in the earlier part of 1735 that he made the
+acquaintance of Charles Jennens, a young man who was eventually to play a
+great part in his life, for on July 28 he wrote to Jennens to say that he
+was just starting for Tunbridge.
+
+The letter is so short that it may be quoted here in full, for it gives us
+a great deal of interesting information.
+
+  London,
+  _July 28, 1735_.
+  Sir,
+
+  I received your very agreeable letter with
+  the enclosed Oratorio. I am just going to Tunbridge;
+  yet what I could read of it in haste,
+  gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I shall
+  have more leisure time there to read it with all
+  the attention it deserves.
+
+  There is no certainty of any Scheme for
+  next Season, but it is probable that something
+  or other may be done, of which I shall take
+  the liberty to give you notice, being extremely
+  obliged to you for the generous concern you
+  show upon this account.
+
+  The Opera of Alcina is a writing out, and
+  shall be sent according to your direction. It is
+  always a great pleasure to me if I have an
+  opportunity to show the sincere respect with
+  which I have the honour to be,
+
+  Sir,
+  &c., &c.,
+
+  GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL.
+
+Jennens was a conspicuous figure in the London society of his day. At the
+time of this correspondence he was thirty-five, and unmarried; he
+had inherited vast wealth in his youth and spent it freely. He was
+ostentatious, even for an age when extravagance was fashionable; but
+although he was conceited and on occasions foolish, he was certainly
+possessed of considerable intellectual gifts, and the things which
+interested him most in life were literature, music, and the fine arts. The
+letter shows us that he must have admired _Alcina_ sufficiently to ask
+the composer for a copy of the score. He also seized the opportunity of
+offering him a libretto for a new oratorio. He had a very good opinion of
+himself as a poet, and it is possible that he foresaw the importance of the
+new type of semi-dramatic entertainment which Handel was creating. There
+were plenty of Italian poetasters, even in London itself, who could put
+together a conventional opera-book, but English oratorio was still in the
+making, and it was not so easy to find a literary framework for it.
+
+In any case, it was evident that Italian opera was a precarious enterprise.
+In October the papers again gave out that Handel was going to give
+oratorios and concerts at Covent Garden; no operas were announced, and for
+the time being Handel appeared to have abandoned opera altogether. He made
+no move until Lent 1736, and then brought out _Alexander's Feast_ (February
+19), which he had set to music in the previous two months. Those ever
+popular favourites _Esther_ and _Acis and Galatea_ followed it, and, as in
+the foregoing season, Handel played organ concertos between the acts of
+these works. It is evident that as Handel could not secure the great
+Italian singers for his oratorios he felt obliged to offer his public some
+other display of virtuosity, and his own performance on the organ seems to
+have been considered a very powerful attraction.
+
+The marriage of the Prince of Wales to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
+(April 27, 1736) provided him with unexpected opportunities for coming
+before the public. It seems to have been at the desire of the Princess
+herself that he undertook a short Italian opera season of eight
+performances, which eventually was extended to ten. _Atalanta_, Handel's
+new opera for this season, in which the chief singer was Gizziello,
+then making his first appearance in England, was composed especially to
+celebrate the royal nuptials, and seems to have finally converted the
+Prince of Wales to the music of Handel. He now became a regular supporter
+of Handel's theatre, with the result that the King promptly withdrew his
+patronage, as he refused to be seen in the same house as the Prince.
+Encouraged by this sign of princely favour, Handel reopened Covent Garden
+in November with a revival of _Alcina_, followed by _Atalanta_. Three more
+new operas were ready, or nearly so; Handel seems to have prepared himself
+for the winter in better time than usual. But neither _Arminio_ (January
+12, 1737), nor _Giustino_ (February 16), nor even _Berenice_, with its
+famous minuet (May 18), could save Handel from ruin. The rival opera-house
+was in no better case. Handel was obliged to close Covent Garden on June 1,
+and the Haymarket followed suit ten days later. Opera at both houses had
+been killed, mainly by the folly of party strife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Bankruptcy and paralysis--visit to Aix-la-Chapelle--the last
+operas--Vauxhall Gardens--Handel's "borrowings"--visit to
+Ireland--_Messiah_ and other oratorios.
+
+
+The collapse of the Opera left Handel not only bankrupt, but with seriously
+endangered health. In April 1737 it had been announced that he was
+"indisposed with the rheumatism," from which he made a slight temporary
+recovery; but before the season was over it became clear that he was
+suffering from paralysis. "His right arm was become useless to him," says
+Mainwaring, "and how greatly his senses were disordered at intervals, for a
+long time, appeared from an hundred instances, which are better forgotten
+than recorded." With some difficulty his medical advisers persuaded him to
+go to the sulphur bath of Aix-la-Chapelle, where, according to Mainwaring,
+he submitted to prolonged and drastic treatment. His cure was considered
+remarkably rapid, and the nuns (presumably nursing sisters) who heard him
+play the organ within a few hours of leaving his bath ascribed it to a
+miracle. "Such a conclusion," observes our clerical biographer, "in such
+persons was natural enough."
+
+It has been asserted that during his stay at Aix, Handel composed a cantata
+for the five-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of Elbing, a town in
+East Prussia between Danzig and Koenigsberg. A German researcher about 1869
+appears to have discovered documents at Elbing mentioning the cantata,
+with the name of the poet and that of a local singer, Jean du Grain, who
+composed the recitatives; Handel "of London" was said to have composed the
+choruses. No trace of the music has survived, and there seems to be no
+evidence whatever to connect this work with Handel's visit to Aix. Nor is
+it possible to suggest any reason why the authorities of this remote place
+should have applied to Handel for a composition.
+
+According to Mainwaring, Handel stayed six weeks at Aix; the London papers
+announced his return on November 7, 1737. The management of the Opera
+had now been taken over by Heidegger, but the death of Queen Caroline on
+November 20 caused all theatres to be closed from that date until the end
+of December. It was announced in the papers that the Opera would reopen
+on January 10 with a new oratorio by Handel, called _Saul_, but this
+performance did not take place, and the theatre actually reopened on
+January 7 with his new opera _Faramondo_. This opera was the first work
+that Handel had undertaken after his return to London, but its composition
+was interrupted by that of the Funeral Anthem for the Queen. Although she
+died on November 20, Handel did not receive the King's command to write the
+anthem until December 7, as George II was strangely undecided in making
+arrangements for the funeral. It was finally fixed for December 17, and
+a special organ was hurriedly built for it in Henry VII's chapel at
+Westminster Abbey. Handel's anthem was performed by 80 singers and 100
+instrumentalists. Queen Caroline had been one of his most faithful friends,
+and his gratitude and affection for her found utterance in music which
+Burney placed "at the head of all his works for expression, harmony and
+pleasing effects."
+
+It was at ten at night on Christmas Eve that Handel finished the score of
+_Faramondo_; on Boxing Day he began the composition of _Serse_. _Faramondo_
+had only six performances, and _Serse_ did not appear on the stage until
+April 15, when it ran for five nights only. It is remembered now, if at
+all, by the fact that the first song in it is the so-called "celebrated
+Largo," but the opera as a whole is of curious interest. "He was neither
+in health, prosperity, or spirits," says Burney, "when it was composed;
+appearances remain in his foul score [i.e. rough copy] of a mind
+disturbed, if not diseased. There are more passages, and even whole pages,
+cancelled in this score, than in any one of all his former operas."
+_Serse_, it must be explained, is a comic opera, and the only comic opera
+that Handel ever wrote. What induced him to attempt this style it is
+difficult to conceive. It is of course true that the failure of Handel's
+earlier operas was largely due to the success of _The Beggar's
+Opera_ (1728), and of other comic entertainments which succeeded
+it--_Hurlothrumbo_ (1729), _Pasquin_ (1736) and _The Dragon of Wantley_
+(1737). A new type of comic opera had arisen in Italy too, and comic
+_intermezzi_ were first seen in Italian grand opera in London in January
+1737, although it was not until 1748 that a real company of Italian
+comic-opera singers came over to England. But what is more important to
+notice is that the whole style of Italian opera was changing during the
+second quarter of the century. Handel had continued to develop his own
+style, based on the grand manner of old Scarlatti, but Handel's operas were
+practically unknown outside London and Hamburg; in Italy, Scarlatti's style
+had already become old-fashioned before his death in 1725, and opera was
+moving on towards the lighter and flimsier manner of Galuppi, who first
+came to London in this year of _Serse_, 1738.
+
+In choosing the libretto of _Serse_, Handel seems to have been making a
+desperate attempt to keep up with the taste of the day. Humour he had
+in plenty; one has only to recall _Acis and Galatea_. But the humour of
+_Serse_, diverting as it is to the modern historical student, is neither
+the musical nor the dramatic humour of 1737; the plot bears no resemblance
+whatever to the Neapolitan comic operas of Vinci and Pergolesi, but rather
+recalls the very early operas, based on Spanish comedies, composed by
+Alessandro Scarlatti in the 1680's. _Serse_ was revived a few years ago
+in Germany, considerably cut about and reduced to one act, in which
+arrangement it had some success; but we can well understand its complete
+failure on its first London production.
+
+The only satisfaction which Handel received in that unfortunate season of
+1738 was the proceeds of his benefit concert at the Haymarket on March 28,
+organised for him by his friends, apparently rather against his own wish.
+According to Burney the net receipts were L800; Mainwaring puts the figure
+at L1,500. Even if we accept Burney's estimate, the sum is remarkable,
+and particularly so in view of the known hostility of a large section
+of society towards the composer. It can only be supposed that Handel's
+physical and mental collapse had been grave enough to awaken a wide-spread
+sense of pity for his misfortunes. Another mark of popular appreciation
+was the erection of a statue of Handel, executed by Roubiliac, at Vauxhall
+Gardens, in recognition of the pleasure which his music had afforded to the
+frequenters of that famous resort. This piece of "laudable idolatry," as
+Burney calls it, was thus described by a contemporary journalist: "Mr.
+Handel is represented in a loose robe, sweeping the lyre, and listening to
+its sounds; which a little boy sculptured at his feet seems to be writing
+down on the back of a violon-cello. The whole composition is in an elegant
+taste." Commissioned by an impresario who had made a fortune out of the use
+of Handel's music, it now appropriately adorns the vestibule of Messrs.
+Novello's music-shop in Wardour Street.
+
+Charles Jennens, writing to his cousin Lord Guernsey on September 19, 1738,
+remarks that "Mr. Handel's head is more full of maggots than ever." Towards
+the end of July he had begun the composition of _Saul_, for which Jennens
+had provided the libretto three years before. It is evident that Handel
+intended to startle his audiences with his new oratorio scheme. He had
+ordered a new organ for the theatre at a cost of L500, constructed so that
+he might have a better command of his performers, and he had also acquired
+another instrument, which Jennens calls a "Tubalcain"--in other words a set
+of bells played from a keyboard--which he intended to use in the scene in
+which the Israelites welcome David after his victory over the Philistines.
+It is curious that Handel should have dramatised the insanity of Saul just
+after he had himself recovered from mental derangement.
+
+No sooner was _Saul_ finished (September 27) than Handel, four days later,
+began the composition of _Israel in Egypt_. _Saul_ was first performed on
+January 16, 1739, and enjoyed a moderate success, but _Israel_ (April 4)
+was a failure, even after it had been shortened and made more attractive by
+the insertion of Italian opera songs.
+
+_Israel in Egypt_ is the most conspicuous example of a strange and almost
+unaccountable habit which from about this period began to show itself in
+Handel's methods of composition--the incorporation of large quantities
+of music by other composers. Samuel Wesley was the first person to draw
+attention to this practice of Handel's, though only in a private letter of
+1808. In 1831 Dr. Crotch, in his professorial lectures at Oxford, named no
+less than twenty-nine composers whom Handel had "quoted or copied." The
+researches of Chrysander, Dr. Max Seiffert, Ebenezer Prout, and Sedley
+Taylor eventually proved beyond dispute that not only _Israel_, but several
+other works of Handel were largely made up from the music of other men.
+
+Chrysander maintained that Handel began appropriating other men's ideas
+as early as 1707, for not only _Rodrigo_ and _Agrippina_, but also _La
+Resurrezione_ and the _Laudate pueri_ show obvious reminiscences of
+Keiser's opera _Octavia_ (Hamburg, 1705). These were probably subconscious,
+like Handel's reminiscences of Scarlatti and others at this period; they
+need not be taken any more seriously than Schubert's frequent reminiscences
+of Beethoven. But in _Atalanta_ (1736) and _Giustino_ (1737), Prout
+discovered quotations and adaptations several bars long from a _Passion_ by
+Graun, which is known to have been composed not many years before. Further
+fragments of this _Passion_ were identified by Prout in _Alexander's Feast_
+and the _Wedding Anthem_ (1736); _Saul_, like _Israel_, incorporates
+several movements from a _Te Deum_ by Urio (_fl_. 1660). From this date
+onwards until the end of his career Handel systematically drew upon the
+works of other musicians.
+
+There has been much controversy over this question, and many attempts have
+been made to explain away Handel's "borrowings" so as to leave no moral
+stain on his character, which indeed, by all contemporary accounts, was
+scrupulously upright. Sedley Taylor (1906) was certainly anxious to clear
+Handel's character, but still more concerned to arrive at the exact truth,
+and his method of presenting the evidence throws a new light on Handel's
+procedure. He showed that in most cases Handel made frequent alterations in
+the music which he utilised, almost as if Stradella (to cite one name
+out of many) had been a young pupil to whom he was giving a lesson in
+composition.
+
+A careful study of these alterations suggests a reason for Handel's action
+which seems not to have occurred to any previous writer on the subject. No
+one seems to have noticed hitherto that Handel's "borrowings" begin in
+1736 on a small scale, and become more frequent in 1737, after which they
+develop into a regular habit. It seems only natural therefore to connect
+them with Handel's mental collapse; it became acute in the spring of 1737,
+but it may well have been approaching in the previous year.
+
+There is no need to go so far as to suggest that Handel suffered from moral
+insanity and was incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong; but
+it is quite conceivable that his paralytic stroke affected his brain in
+such a way that he may sometimes have had a difficulty in starting a
+composition. Biographers of Handel have more than once drawn attention to
+phases in which he seems to have suffered from the inability to make a
+definite decision. Indecision is a common symptom of overstrained nerves,
+and anyone who has attempted musical composition or taught it to students
+will understand the hesitation and uncertainty which often attends the
+first writing down of a musical theme, although, once the initial idea has
+been settled, the continuation and development of it may proceed without
+difficulty. Any musician who studies the examples printed by Sedley Taylor
+will at once exclaim that for a man of Handel's experience, to say nothing
+of his fertility or indeed of his genius, it would have been far less
+trouble to compose an original setting of given words than to adapt them
+so laboriously to music written by someone else for a totally different
+purpose. But after his attack of paralysis there may well have been
+occasional moments when Handel could not make up his mind to write down an
+idea of his own, but may very likely have found that when once he had an
+idea ready on paper before him, whether that of another composer or an
+old one of his own, he could then continue to compose, and often make
+alterations in the music under his eyes which transformed it from a
+commonplace into a masterpiece.
+
+In the autumn of 1739 Handel transferred his concerts to the smaller
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where at first there seemed some hope of
+success. On November 17 he produced his setting of Dryden's _Ode for St.
+Cecilia's Day_; it was repeated several times, _Alexander's Feast_ and
+_Acis and Galatea_ being added to the programmes. But a month later an
+exceptionally severe frost set in; the Thames was frozen over, and for two
+months it was useless to open the theatre, owing to the impossibility of
+warming it adequately. In February he produced _L'Allegro_, adapted by
+Charles Jennens from Milton's _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, to which
+Jennens had added a third part of his own, _Il Moderato_; but the public,
+whether from indifference to the work or from fear of the cold, refused to
+come to it. Handel was once more on the verge of ruin, but that did not
+prevent him from giving a performance of his two most popular works, _Acis_
+and _Alexander's Feast_, for the benefit of a new musical charity.
+
+The charity in which Handel was so keenly interested had been founded in
+1738 to assist impoverished musicians and their families; it still carries
+on its honourable work under the title of the Royal Society of Musicians of
+Great Britain.
+
+The same year saw the inauguration of another charitable institution which
+owed much to the continued generosity of Handel, the Foundling Hospital.
+Like Hogarth, who was also a benefactor, Handel did not confine his support
+to an occasional gift, but took the warmest personal interest in the place,
+and eventually both he and Hogarth were made governors of it.
+
+The managers of the Opera had found themselves quite unable to continue
+productions on the grand scale of former years. In the winter of 1739-40
+there had been an insignificant season at Covent Garden; it seems to have
+been directed by the Italian composer Pescetti, who, in the following
+winter, started concerts at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket. Mrs.
+Pendarves, who during the last few years had not lived much in London, and
+had thus dropped out of Handel's life, wrote in November: "The concerts
+begin next Saturday at the Haymarket. Carestini sings, Pescetti composes;
+the house is made up into little boxes, like the playhouses abroad." Dr.
+Burney gives a comic account of the undertaking. "The opera, a tawdry,
+expensive and meretricious lady, who had been accustomed to high keeping,
+was now reduced to a very humble state. Her establishment was not only
+diminished, but her servants reduced to half-pay. Pescetti seems to
+have been her prime minister, Carestini her head man, the Muscovita her
+favourite woman, and Andreoni a servant for all work." Concerts and
+_pasticcios_ formed the main repertory, and Burney ascribes such success as
+they enjoyed to the fact that the Little Theatre was a "snug retreat" in
+which those who had the courage to quit their firesides during the great
+frost might keep reasonably warm.
+
+Handel had nothing to do with this theatre, but in 1740 again rented the
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where on November 8 he revived _Parnaso
+in Festa_ "in its original oratorio manner, with the addition of scenes,
+dresses and concertos on the organ and several other instruments." It had
+but one performance; on the 22nd, Handel produced a new opera, or, as
+Burney calls it, an _operetta_, which had no more than two performances.
+This was _Imeneo_. On January 10, 1741, he brought out another new opera,
+_Deidamia_, which ran for three nights. _Imeneo_ is a work of little
+importance; _Deidamia_, on the other hand, contains several very beautiful
+songs. But Dr. Burney, notwithstanding his admiration of it, has to admit
+that much of it was old-fashioned, in the style of Handel's youth, and
+sometimes "languid and antique." To Handel's admirers to-day such criticism
+may seem ridiculous, but to his audiences of 1741 these reversions to an
+earlier style would certainly have been most unwelcome.
+
+_Deidamia_ was Handel's last work for the stage; the glorious achievements
+of his youth and maturity had come to a hopeless end. His own public had
+unjustly neglected him, posterity consigned his operas to oblivion.
+
+At some period during the summer of 1741 Handel received an invitation from
+the fourth Duke of Devonshire, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to go over
+to Dublin and give concerts there for the benefit of the local hospitals.
+It is very probable that Mrs. Pendarves may have helped to secure this
+engagement for Handel. She had spent a year and a half in Ireland in
+1731-32, and her letters give a lively account of society in Dublin.
+Matthew Dubourg, an excellent violinist, was at the head of the Viceroy's
+band, and musical entertainments were frequent, for to judge from Mrs.
+Pendarves' descriptions the Irish bishops and deans lived almost as
+magnificently as the cardinals in Rome. Mrs. Pendarves was naturally a very
+popular guest in Dublin society; she was a remarkably fine harpsichord
+player for an amateur, and was constantly in demand as a performer at
+private parties. There was no one in London or Dublin who had a more
+intelligent understanding of Handel's music, and her enthusiasm for his
+works was unbounded. She kept constantly in touch with Dublin life when in
+England, for she corresponded with Dean Swift, and, what was more important
+still, she had in 1730 made the acquaintance of Dr. Delany, an Irish
+clergyman, whom she was to marry in 1743.
+
+Handel did not leave London until the first week of November. During
+the summer he had been occupied with the composition of a new oratorio,
+_Messiah_, the words for which had been chosen and arranged by Jennens,
+apparently with a good deal of assistance from his chaplain, the Rev. Mr.
+Pooley. Whether _Messiah_ was composed with a view to production in Dublin
+is not known; it was begun on August 22 and finished on September 14. A
+fortnight later he had completed the first act of _Samson_. On the way to
+Holyhead he stopped at Chester, where he was obliged to stay several days
+on account of contrary winds which prevented his embarking. He seized
+the opportunity to try over some of the choruses of _Messiah_ with local
+church-singers, and Burney, who was at school at Chester, gives an amusing
+account of the little rehearsal, at which Handel was roused to grotesque
+fury by the inability of the bass, a printer by trade, to read "And with
+His stripes" at sight. On November 18 he arrived in Dublin, and opened his
+season at Neal's new music-hall in Fishamble Street on December 23 with a
+performance of _L'Allegro_, interspersed with concertos. A few days later
+he wrote a long letter to Jennens describing the unprecedented success
+which he had enjoyed. Dublin received him with open arms, and he thoroughly
+enjoyed his triumph, the more so as he felt himself to be in unusually good
+health.
+
+A series of concerts followed, at which various oratorios and other works
+were performed. On April 8, 1742, there was a rehearsal of _Messiah_, open
+to those who had taken tickets for the first performance, which took place
+on Tuesday, April 13. The choir was provided by the singers from the two
+cathedrals, some of whom took the male solo parts as well; the female
+soloists were Mrs. Cibber and Signora Avolio. Over seven hundred persons
+were present, and about L400 was divided between the three charities, the
+Relief of Prisoners, Mercer's Hospital, and the Charitable Infirmary.
+
+_Saul_ was performed on May 25, and a second performance of _Messiah_ took
+place on June 3. Handel left Ireland on August 13. In another letter to
+Jennens he says that his plans for the winter are undecided; for "this time
+twelve-month" (i.e. September 1743) he intended to continue his oratorios
+in Ireland. For some reason or other this second visit to Ireland never
+took place.
+
+It was not until February 17, 1743, that Handel came before the London
+public again with _Samson_, which, unlike most of his oratorios, had
+an immediate success. He had by this time dropped the Italian singers
+altogether, and depended mainly on Mrs. Cibber and John Beard, a tenor who
+had more sense of artistic style than power of voice. Mr. Flower says that
+his voice was more powerful than sweet; Horace Walpole, who heard him, said
+that he had only one note in it, and Mrs. Pendarves, whose judgment was
+probably more trustworthy, said that he had no voice at all. The first
+London performance of _Messiah_ was given on March 23, but it had no more
+than two subsequent repetitions this season. There were many reasons why it
+should have fallen flat. Jennens himself was extremely dissatisfied with
+it. _Israel_ had been a failure too, and it is extremely probable that
+musical people, accustomed to the Italian opera, were estranged by a
+setting of Bible words in prose instead of a libretto in verse laid out on
+more or less dramatic lines.
+
+William Law's _Serious Call_ had been published in 1729; the book makes
+frequent allusions to the frivolity of Italian opera, and opera-going is
+picked out as one of the chief characteristics of irreligious persons. In
+1739 John Wesley first began to preach in the open air; in 1742 Edward
+Young's _Night Thoughts_ achieved its extraordinary popularity. These three
+events were all significant of the religious movement that was taking place
+among the more cultured classes in England, and this movement undoubtedly
+affected Handel's oratorio concerts. The ultra-religious were shocked
+at the association of sacred subjects with the theatre; those who could
+combine religion with culture, like Mrs. Delany, who was now approaching
+the age of piety, were Handel's most earnest supporters. It is quite
+probable that the section of society which preferred its culture unmixed
+with religion resented the attitude of the second party even more than that
+of the first, because the second party belonged to their own social class,
+and this resentment may well have contributed to the ever-increasing
+hostility shown by many social leaders toward Handel. And Handel's personal
+oddities were becoming rapidly more acute, partly owing to increasing age,
+and still more owing to recurrences of paralysis and associated mental
+derangement. He had another attack in this very year--1743.
+
+_Messiah_ and _Samson_ were composed at a more favourable moment, and show
+little use of borrowed material, except that _Messiah_ incorporates some
+of Handel's own chamber duets, the melodies of which were more suitably
+illustrative of their original Italian words than of the sentences from
+Scripture to which he adapted them. But his next important work, the _Te
+Deum_ in celebration of the victory at Dettingen (June 27), begun in July
+and performed on November 27, incorporates no less than nine movements from
+the Latin _Te Deum_ by Urio already drawn upon for _Israel in Egypt_. Mrs.
+Delany "was all raptures," and thought it "excessively fine."
+
+It is curious that, whereas the Dettingen _Te Deum_ was largely based on
+borrowed material, Semele, composed in the previous month of June, should
+be, as far as is at present known, entirely original. The libretto had been
+written by Congreve in 1707 for an opera, and it was only natural that
+its theatrical sense and its literary grace and distinction should have
+inspired Handel to one of his loveliest works. Handel was never quite at
+home in the English language, but in his later years he seems to have
+developed a feeling for English poetry, more especially for that of
+approximately his own time. But _Semele_ did not attract the opera
+audience; it became increasingly clear that the opera party would have
+nothing to do with Handel, and were in fact deliberately doing all they
+could to bring him to ruin. Mrs. Delany and a few other great ladies
+remained faithful, but they were in a small minority. It was evidently the
+younger generation who were in opposition; Mrs. Delany alludes to them as
+"the Goths--the fine ladies, the _petits maitres_ and the ignoramuses," and
+seemed surprised that they allowed the oratorio to be performed without
+making a disturbance. Mrs. Delany was settling down to being the wife of a
+dean.
+
+_Joseph_ (March 2, 1744) fared no better, and Handel himself "was mightily
+out of humour about it" at the rehearsals. The summer was devoted to the
+composition of _Belshazzar_, for which Jennens had supplied the libretto.
+The collaboration was not altogether happy, for although Jennens had
+considerable sense of the picturesque, and offered Handel opportunities for
+what may be called spectacular music on the grand scale, his literary style
+was pompous, rhetorical, and long-winded. Handel protested perpetually
+against the length of the work, for the Handelian style of composition
+naturally extended the prolixity of the words; Jennens greatly resented the
+musician's criticism, and insisted on printing the poem in full.
+
+When the winter came, Handel produced nothing of importance until January
+5, when he brought out _Hercules_, a secular oratorio which he had composed
+in the summer during intervals when _Belshazzar_ had to be laid aside owing
+to Jennens' delays. _Belshazzar_ was given on March 27. _Semele, Joseph_,
+and _Saul_ were revived, but, whatever oratorio was given, the theatre was
+almost empty, and the season came to a premature end on April 23. Handel
+was again suffering from some form of illness, and was unable to take any
+part in the performances, although he was present at them. Lady Shaftesbury
+describes "the great, though unhappy, Handel, dejected, wan and dark,
+sitting by, not playing on, the harpsichord," and adds that "his light had
+been spent in being overplied in music's cause." Hawkins states definitely
+that Handel became blind in 1751, and this date has been generally
+accepted; Lady Shaftesbury's letter suggests that he was already blind,
+or partially so, as early as March 1745, unless the word "light" is to be
+taken as meaning the light of his reason. This interpretation, in fact, is
+confirmed by a later letter of Lord Shaftesbury in October, in which he
+says: "Poor Handel looks something better. I hope he will entirely recover
+in due time, though he has been a good deal disordered in the head."
+Another friend of Handel's, William Harris, met him in London, in August,
+when he seems at first not to have recognised Harris and to have behaved
+with some oddity; "he talked much of his precarious state of health, yet he
+looks well enough."
+
+It has generally been stated that in 1745 Handel again became bankrupt, but
+Barclay Squire pointed out that his name does not occur in the official
+lists of bankrupts. It must be remembered that, however disastrous his
+opera or oratorio seasons were, he had always his permanent pension of L600
+a year to fall back on, and Hawkins states that this pension, originally
+granted by Queen Anne and George I, was punctually paid throughout his
+life.
+
+From the end of August, London was in a panic over the Jacobite rebellion
+under the Young Pretender, Charles Edward. The Opera remained closed on
+account of the prejudice against the Papist Italian singers; at the other
+theatres patriotism expressed itself in appropriate music. Purcell's
+"Genius of England" was sung at one, Arne's recently composed "Rule,
+Britannia" at another, and on November 14 a "Chorus Song, set by Mr. Handel
+for the _Gentlemen Volunteers_ of the City of London," was sung by Mr. Lowe
+at Drury Lane. The words suggest that the anonymous author was familiar
+with the Epilogue to Purcell's _King Arthur_; Handel's music is neither in
+his own style nor in Purcell's, but resembles the poorest sort of English
+patriotic song of the early eighteenth century. Patriotic poetry was well
+illustrated by an additional verse for "God Save the King" which was
+printed in this same month:
+
+  _From France and Pretender
+  Great Britain defend her,
+  Foes let them fall;
+  From foreign slavery,
+  Priests and their knavery,
+  And Popish Reverie,
+  God save us all._
+
+On December 6 the Pretender began his retreat from Derby, and panic was
+allayed. Handel seized the opportunity to compose and bring out his
+_Occasional Oratorio_, about half of which was taken from _Israel in
+Egypt_; it contains a well-known quotation of "Rule, Britannia," and the
+point of the quotation is made clearer when we know that it was one of the
+patriotic songs sung at the theatres during the period of panic.
+
+The Duke of Cumberland's defeat of the Pretender at Culloden on April
+16, 1746, finally disposed of the Jacobites, and Handel made a further
+contribution to the national rejoicings in "A Song on the Victory over the
+Rebels," which was printed in the _London Magazine_ for July. The words
+were by John Lockman; the first and last verses are as follows:
+
+  _From scourging rebellion and baffling proud France,
+  Crown'd with laurels behold British William advance:
+  His triumph to grace and distinguish the day,
+  The sun brighter shines and all nature's gay.
+
+  Ye warriors on whom we due honours bestow,
+  O think on the source whence our late evils flow;
+  Commanded by William, strike next at the Gaul,
+  And fix those in chains would Britain enthral._
+
+In the same month Handel began the composition of a new oratorio in honour
+of the Duke; this was _Judas Maccabaeus_, for which he had discovered a
+new librettist, the Rev. Thomas Morell, formerly Fellow of King's College,
+Cambridge. Morell has given a lively account of his collaboration with the
+great man, whom he did not fear to criticise. Handel's retorts to him have
+been reproduced as if they were outbursts of righteous indignation against
+a snarling poetaster, but, in view of many other records of Handel's
+rough tongue and genial humour (in which he seems often to have resembled
+Brahms), we need not take them too seriously. It is quite clear that
+Morell was more amused than offended, and the fact that they continued to
+collaborate up to the end of Handel's career as a composer shows that they
+must have remained on completely friendly terms.
+
+Morell, to judge from the contemporary portrait of him, must have been a
+rather comic little figure with a strong sense of humour. He was a scholar,
+and something of a musician too. The academic primness of his verses has
+endeared him to all lovers of Handel, and to no one more than Samuel
+Butler; they are always admirably suited to their purpose, neat and
+scholarly, concise and direct, with never a word too many. They run easily
+for a singer, and it is not improbable that Morell was acquainted with the
+works of that great model of all opera-poets, Metastasio, for his words,
+like Metastasio's, acquire an unexpected beauty when they are sung.
+
+Handel must have felt himself fully restored to health in the summer
+of 1746, for _Judas_, which was written in five weeks, contains no
+"borrowings," apart from a few numbers added some ten years later and
+adapted from some of his early Italian opera songs. It was not performed
+until April 1, 1747.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Judas Maccabaeus--Gluck--Thomas Morell--incipient blindness--Telemann and
+his garden--last oratorios--death--character and personality.
+
+
+The new oratorio met with surprising success. In the first place, Handel
+had given up the subscription system, and opened the theatre to all comers.
+The relief produced by the victory of Culloden had no doubt encouraged
+the general public to spend more money on entertainments; the Duke of
+Cumberland was a popular hero, and, through the _Occasional Oratorio_,
+Handel's name had come to be associated with him. _Judas_ was naturally
+patronised by the court and by the Duke himself, who had made a handsome
+present to Morell in recognition of his literary laurels. And a new class
+of enthusiasts appeared in the shape of the Jews, we are told, who were
+attracted by the glorification of a national hero of their own. We do not
+hear much of the Jewish community in London in the days of Handel, and
+it cannot have been a very large one, but they appear to have been worth
+Handel's consideration. It may be mentioned that Handel's early librettist
+in London, Nicolo Haym, must have been a Jew, to judge from his name.
+Handel, at any rate, was sufficiently impressed to ask Morell to find
+another Jewish subject for his next oratorio; this was _Alexander Balus_,
+produced the following year.
+
+The Italian opera party had this year engaged Gluck as a composer, and he
+too celebrated the Duke of Cumberland's achievements with an opera, _La
+Caduta dei Giganti_ (January 5), which was a complete failure. It must
+have been put together in a hurry, for all of the "favourite songs" in it,
+published by Walsh (and no other record of the music remains), were taken
+from earlier operas of Gluck's; in any case they are poor stuff, and from
+Burney's description of the singers it is no wonder that the opera had no
+success. Gluck called on Handel, who told someone that he knew no more of
+counterpoint than his cook. Gluck was just under thirty, Handel just over
+sixty, and one can understand Handel's attitude; in any case he gave him
+some plain and practical advice as to how to please an English audience,
+which was not much use to Gluck, as he never visited this country again.
+Handel was quite right in his criticism, for Gluck was always very clumsy
+in his technique; and, at any rate, Gluck found him friendly enough and
+spoke of him forty years later with the profoundest respect. It is probable
+that Gluck heard _Judas_, as he was still in London in April.
+
+A significant indication of the new popularity which Handel had acquired
+was the production of a _pasticcio_, at the Italian Opera in November 1747,
+made up chiefly from the operas of Handel; but the experiment was not
+repeated. In the autumn of 1748 a company of Italian comic-opera singers
+came over to London; they brought an entirely new type of entertainment,
+and after their success Handelian opera was buried for ever.
+
+_Alexander Balus_ was not one of Handel's popular works; _Joshua_ (March
+23, 1748) is now pretty well forgotten, but was a great attraction when
+new, mainly because it contained "See the Conquering Hero," which was
+afterwards transferred to _Judas Maccabaeus_. "What the English like is
+something that they can beat time to," said Handel to Gluck. He agreed with
+Hawkins in not caring very much for it himself, but added, "you will live
+to see it a greater favourite with the people than my other fine things."
+_Joshua_ contains two "borrowings," one from Handel's own opera _Riccardo_,
+and another from Gottlieb Muffat.
+
+The productions of the next year (1749) were _Susanna_ (February 10) and
+_Solomon_ (March 17); it is not known who wrote their libretti, though
+_Solomon_ has been tentatively ascribed to Morell. _Susanna_ was remarkably
+successful, perhaps on account of its story, which has always been a
+favourite with the painters of the later Renaissance. One can understand
+Lady Shaftesbury's saying, "I believe it will not insinuate itself so much
+into my approbation as most of Handel's performances do, as it is in
+the light operatic style." _Solomon_ was a complete contrast, with its
+magnificent scenes of oriental pageantry.
+
+The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (October 1748) had no doubt contributed, as
+the victory of Culloden did, to make people more inclined to enjoy the
+pleasures of life, with beneficial results to the organisers of music and
+drama. The King ordered a grand celebration of the event to take place
+on April 27, 1749, and preparations for it were begun as early as the
+preceding November. The famous theatrical architect Servandoni was
+commissioned to design an elaborate entertainment of fireworks on a
+colossal scale to be let off in the Green Park, accompanied by the music of
+Handel. The Fireworks Music was scored for fifty-six wind instruments. A
+rehearsal of it (without fireworks) was held at Vauxhall Gardens a week
+before, at half a crown admission, and it is said to have been attended by
+a crowd of twelve thousand persons. At the actual performance the fireworks
+were a disastrous failure, owing to various accidents, but Handel's music,
+accompanied by the firing of ordnance, was the real event of the evening. A
+month later Handel repeated the music at the Foundling Hospital, along with
+selections from Solomon, and a new work, composed for the occasion, known
+as the Foundling Anthem. His next act of generosity was to present the
+hospital with an organ, which he inaugurated on May 1, 1750, with a
+performance of Messiah. Henceforth the performance of Messiah at the
+Foundling Hospital for the benefit of the institution became an annual
+event, and it was this charitable association which really secured the work
+its subsequent popularity.
+
+Handel's next oratorio, Theodora (March 16, 1750), came out at a bad
+moment, for a series of earthquakes were being felt in London, with the
+result that many people took refuge in the country, and those who stayed
+behind were reluctant to go to the theatre. The blame for the neglect which
+has always overtaken Theodora has been very unjustly laid on Morell. Handel
+himself, remembering the successes of Judas and Susanna, observed to the
+poet, "The Jews will not come to it, because it is a Christian story; and
+the ladies will not come, because it is a virtuous one." Theodora was
+always Handel's favourite among his oratorios, and he considered the
+chorus, "He saw the Lovely Youth," to be far beyond anything in Messiah.
+None the less, the theatre was half empty when Theodora was given. "Never
+mind," said Handel, with grim humour, "the music will sound all the
+better."
+
+An old acquaintance reappeared this year in London in the shape of Cuzzoni,
+who had continued her quarrelsome career at Venice, Vienna, and Stuttgart.
+An unsuccessful benefit concert was given for her, at which Giardini the
+violinist made his first appearance in London. Handel engaged her to sing
+in Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, but her voice was gone. She was
+arrested for debt and bailed out by the Prince of Wales; after a few years
+in Holland, where she was again in prison, she died in destitution at
+Bologna.
+
+In the summer Handel went to Germany for the last time. Nothing is known of
+his movements there beyond the fact that on the journey out he met with a
+carriage accident between the Hague and Haarlem. He was seriously injured,
+but was stated in a London paper of August 21 to be out of danger. Nor is
+it known when he returned; we have no further news of him until in January
+he began work on Jephtha. Morell says that he himself wrote Jephtha in
+1751, but, as Handel had completed the first act on February 2, it is
+probable that Morell, like Jennens, supplied him with the words in
+instalments.
+
+The composition of the music suffered various interruptions owing to the
+failure of Handel's eyesight, and possibly to a return of mental disorder
+(Streatfeild). He was able to play the organ at the Foundling Hospital
+in May, and directly afterwards went for a short visit to Cheltenham,
+returning to London on June 13. He resumed work on Jephtha, and finished it
+on August 30. It was some time this year (the precise date is unknown) that
+he consulted Samuel Sharp, a surgeon of Guy's Hospital, who told him that
+he was suffering from gutta serena, and that freedom from pain in the
+visual organs was all that he had to hope for during the remainder of his
+days. It was a severe shock, especially to a man whose general physical and
+mental health was already undermined, and it is no wonder that Handel began
+to give way to periods of profound depression. The condition of Handel's
+eyes, and of his hand as well, may be clearly observed in the autograph of
+Jephtha, and it may be noted that here he again reverted to the process of
+"borrowing"--this time from five Masses by Habermann, a composer twenty
+years his junior, published in 1747.
+
+It may well be asked how Handel acquired the original copies of all the
+works which he utilised in his later years, since it is obvious that they
+could not have been well known or easily available to musicians in England.
+A guess may be hazarded that he obtained them through his old friend
+Telemann at Hamburg. Telemann, it will be remembered, had been a close
+friend of Handel's during their student days at Halle; whether they met
+again in Germany after Handel had taken up his residence in London is
+not known, but it is quite probable. The fact remains that Handel was
+undoubtedly in friendly correspondence with Telemann in 1750, for in
+December of that year he wrote a long letter to him (in French) thanking
+him for a theoretical work. Telemann appears to have been a keen gardener,
+and had evidently asked Handel to send him some rare plants. Handel's reply
+suggests that he was not much interested in gardening himself, but was most
+anxious to do all he could to give Telemann pleasure.
+
+Another letter (again in French) to Telemann, dated September 20, 1754,
+explains that Handel had set about procuring the plants when Captain
+Carsten of Hamburg, by whose ship he intended to send them, told him that
+Telemann was dead; but, after another voyage to Hamburg and back, Carsten
+brought the news that Telemann was alive and in good health. He also
+brought a list of the rare plants desired, and Handel writes to say that he
+has obtained almost all of them, and will send them by Captain Carsten when
+he sails for Hamburg again in December.
+
+It is true that there is no mention of any parcel of music in these
+letters, beyond Telemann's "System of Intervals," but they suggest that
+they were part of a longer correspondence. Telemann was keenly interested
+in contemporary music, as his correspondence with Graun shows; he also
+seems to have asked Graun to send him plants from Berlin. He is the most
+likely person to have sent musical works of interest to Handel; possibly
+they were sent on loan, and returned after Handel had made the extracts
+which are to be seen in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge.
+
+Jephtha was produced on February 26, 1752. Handel's oratorios had by now
+become a lucrative undertaking, and it was characteristic of English
+audiences that they came in crowds to see Handel playing the organ in his
+blindness, and enjoy the luxury of tears when Beard sang "Total Eclipse!"
+Sharp, the oculist, recommended Handel to employ as his assistant John
+Stanley, who had been blind from early childhood and was a singularly
+accomplished organist. Handel burst out laughing. "Mr. Sharp, have you
+never read' the Scriptures? Do you not remember? If the blind lead the
+blind, they both fall into the ditch."
+
+He underwent various operations, but derived only partial benefit from
+them. During these last years he led a very retired life, but he continued
+to play the organ at his oratorios, at first from memory, and later
+extemporising the solos in his concertos, which were always an integral
+feature of his concerts. The profits of these were enormous, and when he
+died in 1759 he left investments to the extent of 20,000. Composition
+naturally became a more difficult matter after blindness set in, but new
+songs were added to many of the oratorios, and in 1758 he made a complete
+revision of his old Italian cantata, Il Trionfo del Tempo. Morell
+translated it into English, and seventeen new numbers were added. Some of
+these were new, but many were adapted from other works of Handel's, chiefly
+from Parnasso in Festa, and there are also borrowings from Lotti and Graun.
+Two choruses by Graun had already been utilised in the revision of the
+Italian version which Handel brought out in 1737.
+
+All this time John Christopher Schmidt, now known as Smith, had been his
+indispensable factotum. Smith made fair copies of his music, and managed
+his affairs for him, though Handel, almost up to the end, seems to have
+discussed his investments in person with his financial adviser, Mr. Gael
+Morris, in the City. Smith's son, who had come with his father to London as
+a child, had been educated under Handel's direction, and in 1754 became the
+first organist of the Foundling Hospital. In Handel's later years it was
+the son who assisted him at the performances of the oratorios and acted as
+his musical amanuensis. There is a curious story of a quarrel which took
+place at Tunbridge Wells, about four years before Handel's death, between
+the two old men. The cause of it is not known, but it is stated to have
+been quite trivial; old Smith left Handel abruptly, and Handel vowed he
+would never see him again. The son attempted to heal the breach and even
+went so far as to say that he would refuse to assist Handel at his concerts
+any more unless Handel restored to his father the legacy which after the
+quarrel he had intended to leave to the son; young Smith foresaw that he
+himself would be accused of having deliberately alienated the affections of
+Handel from his father in order to secure the money for himself.
+
+Handel apparently yielded to some extent, but it is clear that he was not
+reconciled to old Smith for a long time. "About three weeks before his
+death," we are told, in Coxe's Anecdotes of Handel and Smith, published
+soon after young Smith's death, "Handel desired Smith junior to receive the
+sacrament with him. Smith asked him how he could communicate, when he was
+not at peace with the world and especially when he was at enmity with
+his former friend, who, though he might have offended him once, had been
+faithful and affectionate to him for thirty years." Handel was much
+affected by Smith's words, and the reconciliation took place. Religion had
+gained a strong hold upon Handel in his years of suffering; he spoke much
+to Hawkins and others of his delight in setting the Scriptures to music,
+and he was a regular worshipper at St. George's, Hanover Square.
+
+His last appearance in public was at the performance of Messiah on April 6,
+1759, but at the end of it he was seized with a fainting attack, took to
+his bed, and died during the night between the 13th and 14th of April. He
+was buried in Westminster Abbey on the evening of the 10th; the choirs
+of the Chapel Royal and St. Paul's joined the Abbey choir in singing the
+burial music of Dr. Croft, and it is said that three thousand people were
+present.
+
+Handel's will, executed June 1, 1750, left the bulk of his fortune to his
+niece and goddaughter Johanna Friderica Floerken (nee Michaelsen) of Gotha;
+other relatives were also left legacies. To Christopher Smith (junior) he
+left 500, besides his large harpsichord, his chamber organ, his portrait
+by Denner, and his manuscripts. He had at one time thought of leaving the
+manuscripts to the University of Oxford, and, having already promised them
+to Smith, offered him a legacy of L3,000 if he would resign all claim to
+them. Smith refused, and also refused an offer of L2,000 made for them,
+after Handel's death, by Frederick the Great. He kept them until 1772, when
+he presented them to George III in return for a pension of L200 a year. But
+he did not hand over the whole of the manuscripts to the King, and a
+large collection of rough sketches and fragments was acquired by Lord
+Fitzwilliam, who bequeathed them to the University of Cambridge.
+
+The foregoing pages will have shown how singularly few are the definite
+facts about Handel's life which can be ascertained with any degree of
+certainty. There are a number of portraits which give some idea of his
+outward appearance, but most of them represent him as a man of middle age,
+and the anecdotes of his life and habits recorded by various contemporaries
+belong mostly to the same period. It is almost impossible to form any idea
+of his private character and his inward personality. Biographers of
+musicians often attempt to deduce their characters from their musical
+works, but it need hardly be said that such a procedure is thoroughly
+unreliable.
+
+Portraits are notoriously unsafe as guides to the interpretation of
+character, but if the miniature reproduced by Mr. Flower as having been
+painted in Rome is an authentic likeness of Handel as a young man and it
+certainly bears some resemblance to the portrait by Denner painted about
+1736 or 1737--he must have been singularly attractive in those days. It
+cannot have been his musical abilities alone that won him the immediate
+friendship of Telemann at Halle and Mattheson at Hamburg; and, although he
+seems from his earliest days to have been ambitious and determined to make
+a career for himself, his contemporaries give the impression that he was
+retiring rather than self-assertive. In later life he was often described
+as bearish and rough-mannered, but this cannot have been the case in his
+youth, or he would never have achieved the position which he held in the
+most cultured and distinguished society of Rome and Naples. His visit to
+Italy must inevitably have been a wonderful education in the humanities,
+otherwise he could never have been received as he was on his first visit
+to London by the society which most nearly resembled that of his Italian
+friends and patrons.
+
+Professional musicians, and especially those connected with the theatre,
+were regarded in England as being more or less disreputable, unless they
+held university degrees and posts of distinction. Handel moved among them
+in his professional life, as was only natural, but his more intimate
+friendships seem, throughout his career, to have been confined mainly
+to the innermost circle of the well-bred amateurs; we must not forget,
+however, that it was only persons of that class whose letters and memoirs
+have come down to us. Burney and Hawkins at any rate were well acquainted
+with the professional world, and their testimony tends to confirm that
+Handel stood more or less aloof from it. It was only in later life that he
+associated on terms of friendship with such a person as Mrs. Cibber, the
+singer. In an age when all opera-houses were, with some truth, regarded as
+centres of sexual promiscuity, it is indeed remarkable that not the least
+evidence exists, with one solitary exception, that Handel was ever even
+alleged to have had an illicit love-affair. Mr. Flower discovered a copy of
+Mainwaring's biography, with marginal notes said to be in the handwriting
+of George III, and there we read: "G. F. Handel was ever honest, nay
+excessively polite, but like all Men of Sense would talk all, and hear
+none, and scorned the advice of any but the Woman he loved, but his
+Amours were rather of short duration, always within the pale of his own
+profession." The _Anecdotes of Handel and Smith_ mention two occasions on
+which he was said to have become engaged to be married, or nearly so, but
+the writer is so reticent that little faith can be placed in his statement,
+and in any case the _Anecdotes_, published in 1799, are not very reliable
+as far as Handel is concerned.
+
+It is not difficult to understand that there were two Handels, one
+"excessively polite" (which, in the language of the eighteenth century,
+does not mean that he was servile and cringing, but simply that he behaved
+like a man of good breeding), as he appeared to such people as Mrs. Delany
+and the Harris family, and the other as he showed himself at rehearsals,
+or in the society of men friends of more or less his own standing--bluntly
+outspoken and perhaps at times inconsiderate. The hostility of a large
+number of social leaders may well have been aroused in the first instance
+by some careless harsh word.
+
+"The figure of Handel was large," says Burney, "and he was somewhat
+corpulent and unwieldy in his motions; but his countenance, which I
+remember as perfectly as that of any man I saw but yesterday, was full of
+fire and dignity; and such as impressed ideas of superiority and genius. He
+was impetuous, rough, and peremptory in his manners and conversation, but
+totally devoid of ill-nature or malevolence; indeed there was an original
+humour and pleasantry in his most lively sallies of anger or impatience,
+which, with his broken English, were extremely risible. His natural
+propensity to wit and humour, and happy manner of relating common
+occurrences in an uncommon way, enabled him to throw persons and things
+into very ridiculous attitudes. Handel's general look was somewhat heavy
+and sour, but when he did smile, it was his sire the sun, bursting out of
+a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good
+humour, beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other."
+
+Both Burney and Hawkins record that outside his profession he was said to
+be ignorant and dull, and the fact that they are at pains to defend him on
+this charge shows that there was apparent ground for it. Pepusch said of
+him that he was "a good practical musician," which is what one might well
+expect of Pepusch, whose devotion to antiquarian learning aroused the
+amusement rather than the admiration of his contemporaries. Handel was at
+any rate keenly interested in painting, like Corelli, and the third codicil
+to his will, dated August 4, 1757, mentions two landscapes by Rembrandt,
+one a view of the Rhine, which he bequeathed to one of the Granvilles from
+whom he had received both as a gift.
+
+Another characteristic of Handel's for which his early biographers are
+hard put to find an excuse was his enormous appetite for food and drink,
+satirised by his once intimate friend the painter Goupy in a well-known
+print called "The Charming Brute," in which Handel is represented with the
+head of a pig, seated at an organ, with various comestibles disposed at his
+feet. In this connexion it may be noted that for all his gluttony Handel
+was never accused of drunkenness; if he exceeded in the pleasures of the
+table, it was as a gourmet and a connoisseur. Yet it is recorded that he
+never led an extravagant life, and apart from this particular weakness
+he lived as simply in the days of his wealth as in those of his poverty.
+Generosity to those in distress was at all times characteristic of him.
+
+Although Handel became a naturalised British subject, none of his
+contemporaries would ever have dreamed of regarding him as an Englishman,
+or as a composer of English music. Burney's account of the commemoration
+festival of 1784 may be regarded as an official panegyric, but even in
+that he goes no further than to say that Handel, "though not a native
+of England, spent the greatest part of his life in the service of its
+inhabitants, improving our taste, and introducing among us so many species
+of musical excellence, that, during more than half a century, while
+sentiment, not fashion, guided our applause, we neither wanted nor wished
+for any other standard. Indeed, his works were so long the models of
+perfection in this country, that they may be said to have formed our
+national taste." In the pages which deal with the character of Handel as a
+composer, he says that he united "the depth and elaborate contrivance of
+his own country with Italian elegance and facility." Handel's music, he
+holds, was from the first congenial to the English temperament, but he
+never regards it as being at all English in style, though in other writings
+he naturally recognises the occasional indebtedness of Handel to the
+influence of Purcell. It was only in the nineteenth century that Handel
+came to be regarded as a national institution. His own country for the most
+part neglected his works; his operas were thought impossible to revive, and
+the oratorios were considered by most Germans as being "too English"--an
+opinion which the writer of this book frequently heard expressed in Germany
+some fifty years ago. Since 1920 there has been an astonishing revival
+of Handel in Germany, beginning with the restoration to the stage of his
+operas--the last works of his which most people would have thought suitable
+for presentation to modern audiences--and much energy has been expended
+by German critics on an attempt to demonstrate the essentially Germanic
+character both of Handel's music and of his personality.
+
+The more closely we study Handel in relation to his own times, and in
+relation to the general history of music, the clearer it becomes that Goupy
+the caricaturist was only right when he put into Handel's mouth the words,
+"I am myself alone."
+
+The foundation of Handel's musical style was Italian, and it was only
+natural that this should be the case, for, in his days, Italy dominated
+European music as she did European architecture. All music in the grand
+manner, except in France, was Italian in its tradition, and if ever there
+was a composer who illustrated the grand manner throughout his life, it was
+Handel. France had produced a grand manner of her own, though not without
+an initial impulse from Italy; in all other countries north of the Alps
+native music was only for the humbler classes of society. When Handel
+condescended to it, as he did in the political excitement of 1745, he
+deliberately adopted the musical style of a tavern song.
+
+Handel's serious music was never written for popular audiences; in his
+later oratorios he sometimes admittedly wrote down to the taste of the
+middle classes, but we have the records of his conversations with Gluck,
+Hawkins, and others to prove how little respect he had for that taste. He
+composed for the needs of the moment, and not with a view to immortality,
+but he composed for a society which was cultured enough to desire, even in
+its entertainments, grace, dignity, and serenity.
+
+If Handel's works have for later generations become a source of joy and
+delight to a very different social class, it is because they are the
+musical equivalents of those palaces and gardens of Handel's day which
+are now national monuments and open to all comers. We walk beneath their
+colonnades, peopling them in imagination with the gracious and stately
+figures of the past; and from the museum of memory there arise the unheard
+strains of Handel's music:
+
+  _Hark! the heavenly sphere turns round,
+  And silence now is drown'd,
+  In ecstasy of sound!
+  How on a sudden the still air is charm'd,
+  As if all harmony were just alarm'd
+  And every soul with transport fill'd!_
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+Mainwaring, J.: _Memoirs of the Life of the Late G. F. Handel_. London.
+1760.
+
+Burney, Charles: _A General History of Music_. London. 1776-89.
+
+Burney, Charles: _An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster
+Abbey, etc._ London. 1785.
+
+Hawkins, Sir John: _A General History of the Science and Practice of
+Music_. London. 1776.
+
+Coxe, W.: _Anecdotes of G. F. Handel and Y. C. Smith_. London. 1799.
+
+Schoelcher, Victor: _The Life of Handel_. London. 1857. The first attempt
+at a complete and documented biography.
+
+Chrysander, Friedrich: _G. F. Haendel_. Leipzig. 1858-67. This biography
+does not go beyond 1740, but it is the most valuable source for carefully
+documented facts.
+
+Delany, Mary: _Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs.
+Delany_. Edited by Lady Llanover. London. 1861-62.
+
+Taylor, Sedley: _The Indebtedness of Handel to Works by Other Composers_.
+Cambridge. 1906.
+
+Robinson, Percy: _Handel and His Orbit_. London. 1908.
+
+Streatfeild, R.A.: _Handel_. London. 1909. The best biography of Handel and
+critical study of his works in English.
+
+Squire, W. Barclay: _Handel in 1745_ (Riemann-Festschrift). Leipzig. 1909.
+
+Rolland, Romain: _Haendel_. Paris. 1910.
+
+Flower, Newman: _George Friederic Handel: His Personality and His Times_.
+London. 1923.
+
+This book contains much new biographical matter. I have to thank Mr. Flower
+for kind permission to make use of his valuable discoveries.
+
+Leichtentritt, Hugo: _Haendel._ Stuttgart. 1924. Biography based mainly on
+Streatfeild; gives a detailed analysis of all Handel's works.
+
+Young, Percy M.: _Handel._ London. 1947.
+
+
+
+
+HANDEL'S WORKS
+
+OPERAS
+
+  _Almira_ (Hamburg, 1705).
+  _Nero_ (Hamburg, 1705, music lost).
+  _Florindo_ (Hamburg, 1707, music lost).
+  _Dafne_ (Hamburg, 1707, music lost).
+  _Rodrigo_ (Florence, 1707?).
+  _Agrippina_ (Venice, 1709).
+
+The following operas were all produced in London:
+
+  _Rinaldo_ (1711).
+  _Il Pastor Fido_ (first version, 1712).
+  _Teseo_ (1712).
+  _Silla_ (1714).
+  _Amadigi_ (1715).
+  _Radamisto_ (1720).
+  _Muzio Scevola_ (1721, only Act III by Handel).
+  _Floridante_ (1721).
+  _Ottone_ (1723).
+  _Flavio_ (1723).
+  _Giulio Cesare_ (1724).
+  _Tamerlano_ (1724).
+  _Rodelinda_ (1725).
+  _Scipione_ (1726).
+  _Alessandro_ (1726).
+  _Admeto_ (1727).
+  _Riccardo I_ (1727).
+  _Siroe_ (1728).
+  _Tolomeo_ (1728).
+  _Lotario_ (1729).
+  _Partenope_ (1730).
+  _Poro_ (1731).
+  _Ezio_ (1732).
+  _Sosarme_ (1732).
+  _Orlando_ (1733).
+  _Arianna_ (1734).
+  _Parnasso in Festa_ (1734).
+  _Il Pastor Fido_ (second version, 1734).
+  _Terpsichore_ (1734).
+  _Ariodante_ (1735).
+  _Alcina_ (1735).
+  _Atalanta_ (1736).
+  _Arminio_ (1737).
+  _Giustino_ (1737).
+  _Berenice_ (1737).
+  _Faramondo_ (1738).
+  _Serse_ (1738).
+  _Jupiter in Argos_ (1739, announced but never performed).
+  _Imeneo_ (1740).
+  _Deidamia_ (1741).
+
+ORATORIOS:
+
+  _St. John Passion_ (German, Hamburg, 1704).
+  _La Risurrezione_ (Italian, Rome, 1708).
+  _Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno_ (Italian, Rome, 1708).
+  _Aci, Galatea e Polifemo_ (Italian, Naples, 1709).
+  _Brockes Passion_ (German, Hanover, 1716).
+
+All the following oratorios are in English:
+
+  _Esther_ (first version, London, 1720).
+  _Acis and Galatea_ (London, 1720).
+  _Esther_ (second version, London, 1732).
+  _Debora_ (London, 1733).
+  _Athalia_ (Oxford, 1733).
+  _Alexander's Feast_ (London, 1736).
+  _Saul_ (London, 1739).
+  _Israel in Egypt_ (London, 1739).
+  _Ode for St. Cecilia's Day_ (London, 1739).
+  _L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato_ (London, 1740).
+  _Messiah_ (Dublin, 1742).
+
+HANDEL 139
+
+The following oratorios were all produced in London:
+
+  _Samson_ (1743).
+  _Semele_ (1743).
+  _Joseph_ (1743).
+  _Belshazzar_ (1744).
+  _Hercules_ (1744).
+  _Occasional Oratorio_ (1746).
+  _Judas Maccabaeus_ (1747).
+  _Alexander Balus_ (1747).
+  _Joshua_ (1747).
+  _Solomon_ (1748).
+  _Susanna_ (1748).
+  _Theodora_ (1749).
+  _The Choice of Hercules_ (1749).
+  _Jephtha_ (1752).
+  _The Triumph of Time and Truth_ (1757).
+
+SACRED WORKS:
+
+  _Laudate Pueri_ (Rome, 1707).
+  _Dixit Dominus_ (Rome, 1707).
+  _Nisi Dominus_ (Rome, 1707).
+  _Gloria Patri_ (Rome, 1707).
+  _Salve Regina_ (1707?).
+  _Silete Venti_ (1707?).
+  _Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate_ (London, 1713).
+  _Te Deum_ in D (1714?).
+  _Te Deum_ in B flat (Chandos) (1718-20).
+  _Te Deum_ in A (1727?).
+  _Twelve Chandos Anthems_ (1716-19).
+  _Four Coronation Anthems_ (1727).
+  _Wedding Anthem for Princess Anne_ (1734).
+  _Wedding Anthem for the Prince of Wales_ (1736).
+  _Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline_ (1737).
+  _Dettingen Te Deum_ (1743).
+  _Dettingen Anthem_ (1743).
+  _Foundling Hospital Anthem_ (1749).
+
+SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC:
+
+  _Birthday Ode for Queen Anne_ (1713).
+  _Italian Cantatas, Duets and Trios_.
+  _German Songs_.
+
+INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC:
+
+  _Six Concertos_ (so-called "Oboe Concertos"), published 1734.
+  _Three Concertos_ ("Select Harmony"), published 1741.
+  _Twelve Grand Concertos_, op. 6 (published 1740).
+  _Three Concertos a due cori_.
+  _Overtures, Marches, Dances, etc_.
+  _Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra_.
+  _Concerto for Violin and Orchestra_.
+  _Water Music_ (1715-17).
+  _Forest Music_ (1742, probably spurious).
+  _Music for the Royal Fireworks_ (1749).
+  _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_, op. 4 (1738).
+  _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_ (1740).
+  _Six Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ_, op. 7 (1760).
+
+Many of these are arrangements of other works.
+
+  _Sonatas for Flute, Oboe or Violin and Bass_ (19).
+  _Six Sonatas for two Oboes and Bass_.
+  _Six Sonatas for two Violins (Oboes or Flutes) and Bass_, op. 2 (1733).
+  _Seven Sonatas for two Violins (Flutes) and Bass_, op. 5 (1739).
+  _Sonata for Viola de Gamba_.
+  _Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin_ (8) (1720).
+  _Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin_ (8) (1733).
+  _Miscellaneous Harpsichord Music_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Handel, by Edward J. Dent
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