Handel

ANDEL

FEB JL .' 1C33

ML 410 .H13 C38
Clarke, Eliza.
Handel

THE WORLD'S WORKERS.

Handel.

BY

ELIZA CLARKE.

ASSELL & COMPANY, Limited:

LONDON, PARIS, N£W YORK &» MELBOURNE.
[ail rights reserved.)

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I.

A STRONG WILL 5

CHAPTER If.

THE WONDER-CHILD I5

CHAPTER HI.

LIFE AT HAMBURG . 23

CHAPTER IV,

WANDERINGS 32

CHAPTER V.

" VENI, VIDI, VICI " 41

CHAPTER VI.

IN LONDON .... 52

iv

CONTENTiy.

PAGE

CHAPTER VII.

A NEW KING 67

CHAPTER VIII.
HANDEL AT COVENT GARDEN Si

CHAPTER IX.

NATIONAL FESTIVITIES .... ... 98

CHAPTER X.

NEARING THE END II3

HANDEL.

CHAPTER I.

A STRONG WILL.

IT is Sunday morning, and service is just over in the
private chapel of the Castle of Sachse-Weissenfels.
Some of the worshippers have left, but the Duke and
a confidential servant stand together down below,
while up in the organ-loft several musicians linger.
The organist lifts a little boy about seven years old
on to the high stool before the organ, and bids the
bellows blower do his duty, while the child's tiny
hands bring such music out of the instrument that
the bystanders look at one another and at him in
amazement.

"Who is playing.?" asks the Duke of his com-
panion, as the music rises and falls, dying away in
echoes under the vaulted roof.

" It is the little Handel from Halle, my grand-
father's youngest son," is the answer.

" Bring him and his father here to me," is the Duke's

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command, and in a few minutes the old man and his
httle son stand before him.

" Put these in your pocket, my boy," says the
kind-hearted Duke, handing the child more bright
coins than he had ever seen before, and to the father
he talks in persuasive tones which alter the whole
tenor of the child's future life, and place his feet on
the threshold of Paradise.

This happened long ago : over a hundred and
ninety years have rolled away since that Sunday
morning, and the name of George Frederick Handel
is a household word wherever the English tongue
is spoken. He was the little boy who played for the
first time on the great organ, and all unconsciously
swept away the obstacles that had hitherto barred his
way in following the art he loved. He was the child
of his father's old age, tenderly cherished and cared
for ; but he was determined to be a musician, and
his parent was equally determined to make a lawyer
of him, and had positively refused to allow him to
have any instruction in music, or even to visit friends
who loved the harmony of sweet sounds.

Perhaps this was not so extraordinary as it ap-
pears, for the Handels had always been a practical
family, and earned their living by downright hard
work and industry, and they looked upon art gener-
ally, and music in particular, as frivolity, and not at
all likely to help any one to rise in the world.

The quaint old town of Halle in Lower Saxony,

Handel.

7

about twenty-five miles north of Leipzig, was a busy,
prosperous place in the beginning of the seventeenth
century, and attracted the attention of a copper-smith
of Breslau, Valentine Handel, who migrated thither
with his young wife, and, after obtaining the freedom
of the town, worked hard and saved money, and
managed to bring up his family in decent comfort.
There were five sons and one daughter. Two of
the former grew up to the paternal trade, while two
others died in childhood ; and the youngest, George,
who was only fourteen when his father died, made a
better position for himself than any of the rest. The
barbers of that period were also the surgeons and
dentists, and the barber of Halle, Herr Christoph
Oettinger, who united in his own person all three
functions, took young George Handel as his assistant,
probably as his apprentice in the first place. Ho
died in April, 1639, leaving a widow about twenty-
eight years old, who was quite able to carry on the
business with the aid of her husband's assistant, who,
though young, had already proved his value. In
February, 1643, she was married to George Handel,
who thus became a freeman of Halle before he was
twenty-one. They lived happily together, and had six
children, only two of whom, Dorothea and Karl, lived
to grow up.

Meister Gorge, as he was now called, worked
diligently at his profession, and in 1652, when he was
thirty years of age, was appointed town surgeon of

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Giebichenstein, a suburb of Halle, and soon afterwards
was made Surgeon-in-Ordinary and Valet-de-Chambre
to Prince Augustus of Saxony, a wise and good man,
who ruled Halle very justly from the conclusion of
the thirty years' war till his death in 1680, when the
Elector of Brandenberg took up the reins of govern-
ment, and gave Meister Gorge the same position in
his own household as he had enjoyed in that of Prince
Augustus.

Frau Handel, who was twelve years older than
her husband, died in October, 1682, at the ripe old
age of seventy-two, and about six months afterwards
the widower married Dorothea Taust, the daughter of
a Lutheran pastor of Giebichenstein, who on February
23rd, 1685, became the mother of a son who was
named George, after his father and his maternal grand-
father, and who lived to be the great musician whom
all the world still delights to honour.

He was not his mother's first-born, for her eldest
boy died within an hour or so after his birth, and
he was no doubt all the more cherished on that
account.

Although the weather was cold and dismal, the babe
was carried the very day after he was born over to
the Liebfrauenkirche, and there baptised, the quantity
of swaddling clothes always worn by German infants
no doubt accounting for his parents having no fear as
to sending him out at such a very tender age, and in
the depth of winter. Like all boy babies, he had two

Handel.

9

godfathers, Herr Philipp Fehrsdorff, the Court Ad-
ministrator at Langendorff ; and Herr Zacharias Klein-
hempel, the town barber of Halle, an old professional
friend of his father's, who lived in the Naumarckt ; and
one godmother, Fraulein Anna Taust, his mother's
sister, between whom and the child, in whom she
took an almost maternal interest, there was always
a warm affection.

Later on two sisters were added to the family,
Dorothea Sophia and Johanna Christina, and they
were a very happy little party in a roomy old house
near the Market Place, and also conveniently handy
to the dark old Moritzburg, where Prince Augustus
had formerly held his small court. It is now pointed
out to strangers under the name of "Grosser Schlamm,
No. 4."

If the names of places go for anything, the spot
where this house was built must originally have been
on the mud or marsh ; but all traces of that had long
been drained away, and it was situated in a very
pleasant and busy part of the town. Many are the
pilgrims who now visit it, and then go to the great
church dedicated to " Our dear Lady," with its dim
half lights, and rich carvings, and tall towers with the
bridge between them, and try to picture to themselves
what Halle was like in Handel's childhood, before it
became the seat of a University,- when there were no
professors and no bands of students, but only the quiet,
busy burghers, with their families and apprentices.

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We, too, will follow their example^ and try to see
in our mind's eye the busy Marktplatz, where every
roof was red tiled, high and steep, with row upon row
of little dormer windows belonging to attics, and
store and lumber rooms, all of which were very much
needed by people whose houses were over and behind
their shops, so that they had to accommodate all their
goods and packages, as well as their families. Many
of the dealers in linen and woollen cloth had rows of
heavy looms fitted up in long rooms, where men sat
and made the substantial white webs and broad cloths
sold in their masters' shops ; so the houses were
obliged to be spacious. Then there were storks' nests
among the chimney stacks, and every burgher brought
up his children to love and protect the long-legged
birds which were supposed to bring good luck to the
family on whose roof they dwelt. The streets were
narrow and dark, and the Moritzburg, with its many
memories of brave men and knightly deeds, rose high
above them.

Here was a great red tower, and the legend of a
giant named Roland who once dwelt there ; but it
was only a tradition even then, though no doubt there
was some foundation of truth in it. The Rathhaus,
quaint and picturesque, was old and stately, and the
deliberations of the burghers within its walls were
as grave and business-like as themselves. The salt
springs in the neighbourhood were an unfailing
source of wealth, and consequently the men of Halle

Handel.

II

were prosperous and well-to-do in a quiet, homely
way, and the Handels were highly respected among
them.

Little George Frederick, like other children, liked
toys that made a noise, and his friends gave him small
drums and trumpets, whistles, horns, &c. He early
discovered what music could be got from a Jew's
harp, and also from a flute, and with the aid of his
playmates he organised a mimic orchestra in which
all these instruments were played. His father at
first laughed, and thought it only a childish freak ;
but when he discovered that his little boy was in
earnest, and that music was as the breath of life to
him, he set his face sternly against it, and declared
" he would have no more of such jingling." He went
still further, and forbade all practising music of any
kind, and declared that thenceforth " all houses in
which music is practised must be avoided." He was
an old man, and perhaps disliked all kinds of noise,
over and above his persuasion that music was not a
profitable study for an embryo lawyer.

This prohibition was the only cloud between
father and son, for the child was obedient, and
showed a fair amount of application to his tasks ; but
without music he could not live, and it is extremely
probable that his mother or aunt aided and abetted
him in evading his father's commands. Some one, at
all events, must have helped him, for he managed to
get hold of an old clavichord, an instrument which we

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who have our pianos should be inclined to despise,
but which was of untold value to him.

A clavichord was a sort of little keyboard, not
unlike those which we sometimes see played at the
corners of the streets. It was not quite dumb, though
its sounds were so muffled that they were scarcely
audible except to the performer, and its sounds were
often called "Mouse-music." Some stood on legs like
the old spinets, and others could be placed on a table ;
and it was probably a small clavichord of this latter
kind that George Frederick Handel carried up to a
garret under the tiled roof of the house, into which
his father was not likely to penetrate.

The love of music conquered sleep when he
became the happy owner of this precious little in-
strument ; and when the rest of the family were
wrapped in sound slumber, he used to steal up to his
garret and practise what he knew or had heard, and
improvise new melodies for himself. He was one of
the few whose inborn genius can find its own way to
a great extent without the aid of lessons, and these
stolen practisings were of inestimable value. It was
scarcely possible to prevent any inhabitant of Halle
from occasionally hearing good music, for two or
three times a week it was then, as now, the custom to
play or sing chorales on the tower of the Liebfrauen-
kirche. These were seasons of delight to George
Frederick, as he stood and listened, retaining the
melodies and reproducing them on his clavichord as

Handel.

13

soon as he had the opportunity, and thus the flame was
kept aHght and fed from time to time with music that
probably gave the tone and colour to future master-
pieces.

Meister Gorge, Surgeon in-Ordinary to the Elector
of Brandenburg, as you will remember, had a grown-
up family before he married his second wife. The
fifth son, Karl, had married young, and had a son,
George Christian, born in July, 1675, and therefore ten
years older than the juvenile George Frederick, who
stood to him in the relation of a half-uncle. It was
no doubt his grandfather's influence that procured for
this youth the post of Valet-de-Chambre to the clever
and art-loving Duke of Sachse-Weissenfels, who, like
so many other German potentates, held his small court
in all solemnity, though his estate and revenues were
not larger than those of many an English squire.
His great delight was music, and the fame of the
musicians attached to his Kapelle had reached Halle
and dwelt in the mind of little George Frederick,
who naturally heard whatever news reached the family
about their relative, and what he heard and did in
the ducal household.' There came a day when the
clever old surgeon of Halle was summoned to the
Court of Sachse-Weissenfels, most likely on his grand-
son's suggestion, and started off at once. His little
boy begged hard to go with him. " There was plenty of
room in the carriage ; he wanted to see his big nephew ;
and though last, but not least, even if this was not

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mentioned, he wanted to hear the music at Sachse-
Weissenfels. The father would not Hsten to his proposal,
so the child coaxed in vain, and saw his parent drive
away without him. But his will was strong and his
limbs sturdy, so he set off running after the carriage,
not showing himself, however, till he was too far from
home to be sent back. At last it halted, and the
child, all dusty and hot, came forward, braving his
father's anger, and feeling sure that he had gained
his purpose. A good scolding for disobedience and
wilfulness he deserved and got, but there was no help
for it : the father was obliged to take him on to
Sachse-Weissenfels, and that was exactly what the
boy wanted.

When the pair reached the castle, Meister Gorge
had his business to attend to, and the child was to
a certain extent free. He soon made the acquaint-
ance of the various musicians of the choir, and they
took him to their rehearsals, and when Sunday came
let him go up into the organ-loft, where, as you
have seen, he was allowed to try the great organ,
and being heard by the duke was encouraged
and praised, while his father was seriously spoken
to about his boy's wonderful gift and the duty of
cultivating it.

As we read the story, and judge of it by the light of
our own feelings, it seems not impossible that whoever
helped the child to get a clavichord and use it in the
garret at home must have connived at his following

Handel.

his father's carriage, perhaps even arranged behind
the scenes for the summons to Sachse-Weissenfels
and the co-operation of the kindly players and singers,
ready as such men always are to foster young talent
and give it a helping hand. However this may have
been, it was the turning-point in young Handel's life;
for though his father did not yield one iota of his
intention of making him a lawyer, he allowed himself
to be persuaded that music need not hinder his
education and future studies, and promised to give
him every advantage in his power.

CHAPTER n.

THE WONDER-CHILD.

It appears that the memorable trip to Sachse-Weis-
senfels took place when Handel was about seven years
old, and it seems that he took his father's consent to
allow him to study music as a good boy ought to do,
and made it a motive for working hard at his Latin
and other lessons by way of proving his gratitude. A
selfish, wrong-headed child would have applied himself
to the one and neglected the other.

There was only one person in Halle to whom the boy
could be entrusted, and that was Friederick William
Zackau, who had been appointed organist at the Lieb-
frauenkirche in 1684, the year before young Handel's

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birth, and retained it till his death in 1721. He soon
became verj' fond of his talented pupil, and taught
him all he knew. This included fugue and counter-
poiat in the way of theoretic music, and also how to
plaj- the organ, harpsichord, violin, and hautboy, with
other instruments used in the orchestras of the day.
Nothing seemed hard to the child, or else his power
of surmounting difficulties was almost past compre-
hension. His skill on the organ and harpsichord was
the wonder of all who heard him, and so clever was he
in composition that almost everj' week he produced a
new sonata, a cantata for instruments and voices, or
an exercise, or variation on some familiar theme. His
own account was that the hautboy was his favourite
instrument, and he wrote more for that than for any-
thing else. It is certain that a book containing six
sonatas for tvvo hautboys and bass written by Handel
while under Zackau's tutelage was bought some years
afterwards in Germany by Lord Polworth and given
to Weidemann, the flute-player, and that it ultimately
found its way into the ro\ al collection, from which it
is now thought to have disappeared.

He worked so diligently at his classics, gi\nng his
father the utmost satisfaction, that probably music
came quite easily to him as it does to some few in
v. hom it is inborn, or he would not have been able to
accomplish so much.

In about three j-ears Zackau felt that there was
nothing more he could teach the boy in the way of

Haxdel.

17

music, and said so frankly. He also recognised and
pointed out that his pupil had real genius, something
far beyond and above mere talent, and accompanied
by the steady perseverance and good sense that are
too seldom found in a genius. George Frederick never
forgot his first master, and when he died gave his
widow a yearly allowance of money, and would
have done his best to help her son on in the world
had he not proved to be a tipsy, good-for-nothing
fellow. This, of course, was after he himself had
risen to prosperity.

• Meister Gorge must have been verj' proud of his
son, and thoroughly convinced at last of the importance
and value of his musical powers, for he allowed himself
to be coaxed into consenting to send him to Berlin for
further instruction in 1696, when he was little more
than ten years old.

Berlin, where the Elector Friedrich, who later on
became King Friedrich I. of Prussia, lived and reigned
with his clever wife, the Electress Sophia Charlotte,
was just then a centre of German art, and especially
of music, as the Electress was herself one of the most
remarkable amateur musicians in Europe. She had
been one of the Abbate Stefifani's pupils, and though
she welcomed professors of harmony from all parts of
the world, her great preference was for Italians. The
Court of Berlin was music mad ; concerts and operas
were the social events of the time ; and Princes and
Princesses, under the enthusiastic direction of the
B

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Electress, sang and played indefatigably at the one
and danced at the other. Her great favourite was
Attilio Ariosti, her Kapellmeister, who was a re-
markable and most kind-hearted man from Bologna.
Giovanni Battista Buononcini was another prominent
musician at Berlin ; and, besides these two, there were
many minor stars. This was the circle into which
little George Frederick Handel was introduced in his
eleventh year, having been sent to Berlin in charge of
a friend of the family. He was presented to the Elector
and Electress and invited to play before them. Their
surprise and delight, not only at his mechanical skill
but at the quality and expression of his music, were
unbounded, and Ariosti took him at once under his
fostering care.

The Italian maestro was then about thirty-six
years of age, and no father could have been kinder
and more affectionate to the wonder-child than he.
For hours together George Frederick sat on his knee
at the harpsichord, not hampered and restrained
by too much teaching, as he might have been by a
smaller man, but listened to appreciatively and guided
wisely.

Buononcini pursued opposite tactics,. for he took
no notice of the boy at all, either in the way of praise
or blame, and showed the most utter indifference till
the little fellow attracted such universal attention that
he could no longer stand aloof He therefore com-
posed a cantata with a thorough bass for the harpsi-

Handel.

19

chord full of chromatic progressions of very great
difficulty, and requested the child to accompany it at
sight. It proved just as easy to him as any other
musical task, for he played it correctly, grasping every
difficulty, and exhibiting such taste and feeling in the
performance that Buononcini was obliged thenceforth
to respect his talent, though he never showed any more
cordial feeling, and under the cloak of civility cherished
bitter rivalry in his heart of hearts, which brought forth
bad fruit in future years.

The Elector Fried rich by this time foresaw that if
little Handel lived he would be one of the most extra-
ordinary geniuses the world had ever seen, and out of
genuine liking, as well as the desire to pose as his
benefactor, offered to take him into his service then
and there, to send him at his own princely expense to
Italy and give him every advantage in the way of
education, and on his return to place him in a good
position. This offer, which would have tempted many
fathers, had no attractions for Meister Gorge; he wished
the boy to pursue the solid classical education which
would be of value to him throughout life, and felt
pretty sure that going to Italy as the Elector's protege
would mean the exclusive study of music, a course of
injudicious spoiling, and the utter absence of all home
influence and training. So he .thanked the potentate
with becoming warmth and gratitude, but put his
veto on the scheme, declaring that he could not
part entirely with the child of his old age, and sent
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for him to come home to Halle at once. He had
not much more time in which to enjoy the boy^s
presence and watch his progress, for on the nth
of February, 1697, Meister Gorge died, surrounded
by his family, beloved and regretted, at the age of
seventy-five.

The old man's practical wisdom and foresight were
proved nearly twenty years afterwards, when the King
died, and his successor, Friedrich VVilhelm I., whose
taste for music was but small, sent all the court musi-
cians about their business. If Handel had then
been among them he would have been cast adrift
with the rest, but thanks to his prudent parent, he
had already begun to carve out his own career and
fortune.

George Frederick was at this time twelve years
old, and under the guidance of his good mother went
on diligently with his studies, and really distinguished
himself as a Latin scholar, besides mastering French
and Italian, to which he afterwards added the English
language.

In 1694, the Elector Friedrich of Brandenburg
had founded a University at Halle, which was called
by his name ; and in course of time became one of
the best and most prominent Protestant colleges in
Germany.

In its young days it offered considerable advan-
tages, and Frau Dorothea Handel wished her son, on
leaving school, to enter himself as a student there.

Handel.

21

His music had already made him famous ; strangers,
passing through Halle, esteemed themselves fortunate
if they were able to hear him play ; and musicians
sought his company, corresponded with him about
their art, and frequently co-operated with him in com-
positions.

In 1 701, the Calvinistic Lutherans of Halle, who
worshipped at the Moritzburg Cathedral, and among
whom, from Meister Gorge's connection with the
Moritzburg, the Handel family was popular, dismissed
their organist, a certain Johann Christoph Leporin,
and appointed George Frederick, then just seventeen,
as his successor on a year's probation, with a salary of
fifty thalers per annum, paid quarterly and an official
residence, which, as he did not require it, was let for six-
teen additional thalers. Perhaps posterity might not
have known much about this appointment had not the
" reformed subjects " of Halle communicated with the
Elector, by that time King Friedrich of Prussia, who
continued to take an interest in the youth, on the
subject.

The Konigliche Schloss - und - Domkirche zur
Moritzburg, though not so fine or old a building as
the Liebfrauenkirche, had a very fine organ, which
had been built in 1667, at the expense of the Grand
Duke Augustus, Meister Gorge's friend and patron ;
and it had fifteen hundred pipes, twenty-eight stops, two
manuals, and three pairs of capacious bellows. The
organist's office was no sinecure, for he was required to

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set the Psalms and cantatas for all the Sundays and the
regular or irregular festivals of the year to fresh music,
take all necessary measures for their correct, efficient
and harmonious performances ; keep his instrument in
proper order and repair, and do full justice to it by
his playing. Handel, however, was not afraid of work,
and though he was busy with his University curriculum
under Professor Buddeus, was as diligent an organist
and choir master as though he had nothing else to
do. The choir was a voluntary one, formed of his old
schoolfellows and friends, whom he gathered together
on their Wednesday and Saturday half-holidays to
practise under him the higher kinds of vocal and in-
strumental Church music, and so much was this appre-
ciated that all his successors in office were afterwards
bound to keep up a similar choir as part of their
regular duty.

The sixty-six thalers were no doubt very valuable
to the family, for Meister Gorge does not appear to
have left his widow very well off, and she had two
little girls younger than George Frederick to bring up;
so it was rather wonderful that he threw up the
organistship at the close of the year of probation,
when he had also finished his University course ; but
with strong faith in his own powers, and what the
future might have in store for him, he set forth like
so many other German youths, on bis Wanderjahre,
and made his appearance in Hamburg in 1703, when
he was about nineteen.

23

CHAPTER III.

LIFE AT HAMBURG.

Hamburg, in Northern Germany, the important sea-
port of the kingdom of Hanover, and centre of a pros-
perous trading community, was as much the home and
stronghold of German music as Berlin, in the days of
the Electress Sophia, the "Philosophic Queen,"had been
of Italian. In 1678, a musician, named Thiele, there
produced "Adam and Eve," the first " Singspiel" ever
performed in German ; and fourteen years later a large
theatre was built, facing the Goosemarket, in which
Keiser's first opera, Basilhis, whose fame had preceded
it from Wolfenbuttel, was warmly welcomed and ap-
plauded by a Hamburg audience. The sacred music
composed for, and played in the churches of this
old Hanse town, was also magnificent, and it is not
impossible that something was known there of young
Handel as an organist and a prodigy. Who in-
troduced him to the Hamburg professionals is not
known, but he would hardly have gone there without
some definite promise of employment, and he was at
once received into the Opera orchestra as ripieno second
violin, not a very distinguished or lucrative post, but
something to rely on, and by its aid, and a little money
sent from time to time by his mother, he managed to

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live and wait, with a fair amount of patience, for better
times. It is said that he played his violin in a very-
unpretentious simple way, as if it were all he could do ;
but once, when the harpsichord player was absent, he
took his place, after much persuasion, to the great
astonishment and delight of every one who heard
him.

He soon made friends among his brother musicians,
and attached himself especially to Johann Mattheson,
the principal tenor singer at the Opera, who was four
years his senior. They went round to every organ
and listened to every choir in Hamburg, rowed on the
Elbe together in the summer evenings, took the
lumbering packet boat up to Lubeck, and were the
pleasantest of comrades. Handel often dined at the
house of Mattheson's parents, and taught the singer
counterpoint, while he in return gave his new ac-
quaintance some useful wrinkles with regard to
dramatic music.

The British Ambassador or Representative at
Hamburg just then was Sir Cyril Wych, to whom
Mattheson introduced Handel, who soon came to be
on intimate terms with the family, and gave lessons
on the harpsichord to the little son.

In the middle of August Mattheson was invited to
Lubeck by one of the officials of that town, that he
might succeed to the post of organist in the Marien-
kirche, which was just then vacated by Dietrich
Buxtehude, a clever musician who had an only

Handel.

25

daughter, and was extremely desirous that whoever
succeeded him at his beloved organ might also marry
his child. Mattheson was more of a harpsichord than
an organ player, and took Handel with him. The
journey this time was made by coach, and the mental
occupation of the two young men, as the heavy
vehicle rolled along the flat roads, was making fugues.
Wherever they found either of the two instruments
they played them, and at Lubeck they listened to
Buxtehude with much reverential interest. They
were both most hospitably entertained and feted
during their stay, but neither felt inclined to woo and
win the young lady, so they shook the dust of Lubeck
off their feet and returned to Hamburg.

Mattheson tells us that the idea of melody per se
first dawned on Handel after his connection with the
Hamburg Opera. He had always been great in
fugue and counterpoint, and used to set very long
airs and interminable cantatas, which, though per-
fectly harmonious, were long and dreary. This was
quite a characteristic of old music, and Kuhnau was
one of the first composers to introduce melody into
his pieces.

The Opera House was not open during spring and
summer, because every one who could afford it went
out of Hamburg into the country, and consequently
the musicians would have had the unprofitable and
irksome work of playing to empty seats, unless they
had closed their doors and applied themselves to

26

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other business. In 1704, Mattheson took advantage
of this enforced hoHday to go to Holland, where he
had the pleasure of playing on all the best organs in the
towns he visited, heard every local performer of any
note, and gave some concerts at Amsterdam. So
highly was he thought of that the authorities at
Haarlem offered him the appointment of organist to
their cathedral, with a salary equivalent to ;^'l50 a
year, an income which at that time, and in that
country, represented a great deal of solid comfort, and
even luxury. He seems to have been divided between
accepting this and a project of trying his fortune in
England, but a certain reluctance to leave the
directors of the Hamburg Opera in the lurch, com-
bined with a letter from his friend Handel, which,
though written in all sincerity, could not have failed
to flatter his vanity, induced him to relinquish all
other views and return home. This is what Handel
said to him before he had been very long away, the
writer being probably ignorant of the offer of the post
at Haarlem : —

March \%th, 1704.

" I often long to enjoy your very agreeable con-
versation, and hope very soon to do so, since the
time approaches, when, without your presence,
nothing can be attempted at the Opera. I there-
fore humbly beg you to give me notice of your
returning, that I may take this opportunity of ful-
filling my obligation by coming to meet you," &c!, &c.

Handel.

27

It was rather a stifif style of writing between one
young man and another, but Mattheson was four years
older than Handel, and those were the days when
children called their parents Sir and Madam, and did
not sit down unless bidden in their presence. The
same formality extended into other relations of life,
and friendship flourished on mutual respect better
perhaps than it does on excessive familiarity.

You may be sure that Handel, who could not afford
to travel, was not idle while the Opera was closed,
and his friend absent. It was during this time that
he made his first attempt at what has been called
" setting the Bible to music," and wrote a " Passion
Oratorio," which was performed on Good Friday of
that very year, so he must have done it with his usual
rapidity.

From the time of the Reformation it had been the
custom to sing the History of the Passion of our
Lord in the churches during Holy week, the words of
the gospel narrative being alternated with choruses
and the popular old chorales, of which everybody
knew both words and music by heart, so that immense
congregations joined in them heart and soul. In the
spring of 1704 a musician named Keiser, as well as
Handel, wrote Passion oratorios at Hamburg, both
entirely dispensing with the chorales, the former
simply setting to music the words of a poem written
expressly for the purpose, and thereby drawing down
upon himself the wrath of the Lutheran clergy, while

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the latter introduced St. John's narrative verbatim, in
conjunction with some verses by a friendly poet. His
work was much admired, and entirely escaped con-
demnation from the pulpit, though, as a musical
composition, it was afterwards severely criticised.
For more than a century the score of this first oratorio
disappeared, but it was discovered in Handel's own
writing and with his signature some years ago
among the Polchau MSS. in the Berlin Library,
and was published in i860 by the German Handel
Society.

Mattheson was not back in time to hear his
friend's oratorio, but when he did come, he brought
an opera of his own composition entitled Cleopatra,
the rehearsal and preparation of which he superin-
tended with great care, and it was performed at the
Opera House on October 20th for the first time,
Handel presiding at the harpsichord, and the author
singing the part of Antonius which he had naturally
written for himself as first tenor. Antonius dying
long before the end of the opera Mattheson had no
more to do, and asked Handel to resign the harpsi-
chord to him, which he appears to have done on
several occasions.

As autumn deepened into winter, the friendship of
the two young men suffered a severe shock. Sir Cyril
Wych appointed Mattheson tutor to his little son, and
secretary to the Legation, and, not satisfied with these
additions to his position and income, he took upon

Handel.

29

himself the harpsichord lessons which Handel had for
some time given the child. That at least was the
view Handel took of it, for the little money thus earned
was of importance to him. But there are two sides
to every question, and perhaps, as Mattheson was a
good harpsichord-player, he felt it to be his duty to
save his patron extra expense by including the music
lessons of his pupil with the other studies he was en-
gaged to superintend.

However this may have been, Handel was a good
deal irritated, and at the beginning of December,
during the performance of Cleopatra, he refused to
vacate his place at the harpsichord when requested to
do so by Mattheson, and the latter being very cross
gave him a sounding box on the ear which was no
doubt intended to provoke a duel. Handel was a fine,
tall, broad-shouldered young man, nearly twenty years
of age, and quite ready to take his own part, so they
Avent outside, and in front of the Opera House, before
a crowd of spectators in the Goosemarket, they drew
their swords and fought vigorously. Fortunately
Mattheson, after a few passes,- broke his sword against
a large metal button on his opponent's coat ; and
honour being satisfied, the duel came to a bloodless
end. One of the directors of the theatre, who was
also a municipal councillor, made peace between the
two young men before the end of the month, and on
the 30th Handel dined with Mattheson, after which
they both assisted at the rehearsal of Alviira, and

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thenceforth they became more affectionately intimate
than ever.

We should not have gathered these particulars,
which comprise nearly all we know of Handel's life
at Hamburg, had not Mattheson been better remem-
bered as an author than as a composer. He abandoned
music as a profession soon after his appointment as
secretary to the British resident, and wrote several
critical books on the science he had so much loved in
his youth. Most of the details about his early friend
and comrade are given in the " Grundlage einer
Ehren-Pforte," which was published in 1740, and
many years later, in 1761, when himself an old man,
he translated into German Mainwaring's Memoirs of
the author of the Messiah.

Almira was Handel's first opera, and though the
music was magnificent, it was not wedded to immor-
tal verse, for the story, in spite of its grandiloquent
title, " The Vicissitudes of Royalty ; or, Almira,
Queen of Castile," was extremely poor. The lyric
drama in Germany was then in a transition state,
and the performances were partly in German and
partly in Italian. Almira contained forty- four
German songs, and fifteen Italian airs, and many of
its strains were used over and over again in later
years by the composer, and are still reckoned among
his masterpieces. Its success was so great that it ran
consecutively from the 8th of January, 1705, till the
25th of February, and would not have been removed

Handel.

31

from the stage then had not Handel had a second
opera ready to replace it. This was entirely in Ger-
man, and was called Nero, and contained seventy-five
airs. During the following year he produced two more
operas, Florinda and Daphne, but though admired at
the time, they were not destined to immortality, for
the scores of all three have entirely disappeared.
An imperfect score of Almira in Mattheson's hand-
writing, with Handel's autograph corrections, is in the
Berlin Museum, and as its authenticity is beyond
doubt, it was published by the German Handel
Society in 1873, the two missing Italian arias being
supplied from other sources.

Of course young Handel could not produce all
these works without deriving some pecuniary benefit
from them, added to which he had a great many
pupils for harpsichord and organ, for whose benefit
he wrote sonatas, exercises, and studies innumerable.
All these were profitable sources of income, and
not only enabled him to live in comfort, but to
repay his good mother whatever sums she had been
able to advance when he first went to Hamburg, and
to make her a handsome present, and lay by two
hundred ducats for the journey to Italy that is the
essential pilgrimage for a musician.

32

CHAPTER IV.

WANDERINGS.

It was nothing uncommon for great people from many-
lands to visit the Hamburg Theatre, but still there
was a great flutter among the orchestra one evening,
when it was known that one of the Medicis, brother to
the reigning Grand Duke of Tuscany, was present,
and that he had come expressly to hear Handel's
Ahnira. When the opera came to an end his admira-
tion was unbounded, and he, then and there, made the
young composer the offer of taking him to Italy free
of all expense, and there giving him the opportunity of
studying the works of the best Italian masters.

Handel must have been of an independent turn of
mind, and perhaps also he remembered a similar offer
made in his childhood by the Elector Friedrich and
refused by his father, and thought it would not be good
policy to accept the kindness of one Prince after de-
clining that of another. Still the occurrence very
likely spurred him on to go to Italy at his own ex-
pense, as soon as he could afford it, so he worked hard
and saved diligently, and after paying all that he owed
he bade farewell to his friends, turned his back on
Hamburg, and, as those who have studied his move-
ments most closely think, spent the Christmas of 1706
with his mother at Halle.

Handel.

33

It does not much matter to us who travel by rail
at what time of the year we start to cross Europe from
north to south, but January of 1707 must have been
about the worst month Handel could have chosen for
travelling from Halle to Florence. Still it was impor-
tant that he should spend as much of the winter there
as possible, so he set out by post and diligence, and
does not seem to have met with any particular obstacle
or delay. No sooner had he reached the beautiful
city, than he captivated its music loving public, by
producing the Cantata, O Numi Eterni, now known as
La Lucresia, which was followed by a variety of simi-
lar new works, and a re-arrangement of the overture
to Almira, with which he incorporated some delightful
dance music.

At this time ffandel was a perfect musician in all
respects, save one. He was a master of fugue and
counterpoint, at which the Italians scoffed, but was
deficient in the art of managing the voice. Perhaps he
would hardly have comprehended this so early had
not the Prince, who had listened to Alniira in Ham-
burg, pointed it out to him, but it was the great thing
the Italian school was able to teach him ; and he set
to work to learn it with all his might.

He did not stay very long at Florence, for he
naturally wished to push on and reach Rome for Holy
week, and when there church music became for some
time paramount, and he produced a Nisi Domiuus,
Dixit Dominiis, Laudate Pueri, and, as is generally
C

34 The World's Workers.

thought, a splendid Magnificat, original autograph
scores of which are all preserved in the Royal Collec-
tion at Buckingham Palace.

He probably spent April, May, and perhaps June,
in Rome, and then returned to Florence, where in July
he produced his first purely Italian opera, Rodrigo,
which was received with the greatest delight. There
was a freshness about it that took the Florentines by
storm, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany was so pleased
that he presented Handel with a hundred sequins, and
a service of silver plate, both of them valuable gifts,
not only as proofs of favour, but as actually providing
the sinews of war, for no one can live and travel in a
foreign land, and among strangers without a great
deal of expense.

An act of homage, which was likely to be deeply
felt by Handel, is recorded of Vittoria Tesi, then
queen of song and the favourite of all Florence. The
principal role in Rodrigo had been written expressly
for her voice, and she was so much delighted with both
music and composer, that when the season was over
she requested leave of absence, and followed Handel
to Venice in January, 1708, that she might be able to
sing in another new opera, which he was preparing to
bring out at the request of the directors of the Teatro
di S. Giovanni Grisostomo, the principal house in
Venice.

It was probably love of Handel himself, as well as
enthusiasm for his music, that led the fair Vittoria to

Handel.

35

Venice, for they are said to have been engaged to be
married, but, perhaps he felt that his fortune was still
in the future, and the lady did not care to wait. We
know very little about it, and the one thing certain is
that the match did not take place.

Handel must have had some introductions to
Venetian society, though he was not lionised at first,
nor distinguished from any other visitor to the Queen
of the Adriatic. One evening, however, he was at a
masquerade, and seeing a harpsichord standing open
could not resist running his fingers over the keyboard.
Domenico Scarlatti, a well-known musician, happened
to be present and at once exclaimed, " That must
either be the famous Saxon, or the evil one himself."
This meeting was the beginning of a long and faithful
friendship.

Handel had not the least wish to hide his light
under a bushel, and enjoyed the reception he had met
with at Venice immensely. The first performance of
his opera, Agrippina, with Vittoria Tesi as the principal
female singer, was enough to turn the brain of even a
more staid and sober person than the young German.
The audience was beside itself with delight, and at
every little pause in the music, the air was rent with
shouts of " Long live the dear Saxon ! "

Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, who spent
much of his time in Venice and always had a box at
S. Giovanni, was there that evening, surrounded by
several English noblemen who were passing the

C 2

36

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winter in Venice : and as they were greatly struck by
the music, though less excited than the susceptible
natives, Handel may be said that night to have
sown the first seeds of his future success in this
country.

In a few days every one was singing the airs from
the new opera ; it ran for twenty-seven consecutive
nights, and retained a place of favour on the stage of
S. Giovanni for the next twenty years. Part of the
original autograph score is to be seen at Buckingham
Palace, and in 1874 the whole work was reprinted
by the German Handel Society.

As spring and Easter drew near, Handel once more
wended his way to Rome, where he became the guest
of the Marchese di Ruspoli, a nobleman of great taste
and culture, and leader of the Roman Academy, then
famous throughout the world under its name of
Arcadia. The " Arcadians " cultivated literature,
poetry, and art, and gathered around them all intel-
lectual people who visited the Eternal City.

There was something very childish about the
fanciful names by which they were known among
themselves and to one another, but it was the taste
and fashion of the day, not only in Rome but even in
England, where every lover called himself Strephon
or something similar, and if he happened to be of a
poetical turn of mind, wrote verses to the girl of his
heart under the name of Phyllis or Chloe.

The Marchese di Ruspoli was known in this little

Handel.

37

circle as Olinto, and his wife was Almiride ; Ales-
sandro Scarlatti, the father of Domenico, was called
Zerpandro, and his friend Benedetto Marcello was
Driante.

No member was admitted to their guild under
twenty-four years of age, and as Handel was too
young, he took the position of a favoured guest among
them, as he was also at a rival yet friendly Academy, of
which Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni was the leading spirit.
Music was a more prominent feature at the Palazzo
Ottoboni than among the Arcadians, and its orchestra
was led by Arcangelo Corelli, the great violinist, whose
disposition was as sweet as his music. He had need
of all his power of self-control in Handel's company,
for the " dear Saxon " had a very hasty temper and
used to write such terribly difficult violin music that
Corelli had the greatest difficulty in mastering it.
One day while they were practising, Handel roughly
snatched the violin out of his hand, in order to show
him how some particular passage was to be played.
Most men would have resented it, but Corelli only said,
meekly, " Dear master, this music is in the French
style, which I do not understand."

It is supposed that Handel wrote La Reziirre-
sione, his first Italian oratorio, at the instigation of
Cardinal Ottoboni, and he certainly wrote it in the
Palazzo Ruspoli, finishing it on Easter Day, 1708. The
first violin part was written for Corelli, and that for the
viola da gamba, for a patrician amateur, while flutes,

38

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oboes, and trumpets played important parts in the
orchestration.

He soon afterwards wrote another, the Hbretto of
which was composed by Cardinal Panfili, a well-known
"Arcadian," called " Fenizio " among them, and in this
the overture was really too much for Corelli, and
Handel substituted a symphony for it. Alessandro
Scarlatti, the most noted Itahan musician of his day,
was delighted with Handel, and his cordial affection
helped to rivet yet closer the bonds of friendship
between his son and the "dear Saxon."

Cardinal Ottoboni one day put this affection to a
test, which would have proved fatal to the pleasantness
of future intercourse between men whose minds were
of smaller calibre. He persuaded them to enter into
a contest, first on the harpsichord, and then on the
piano. Of course, he and some of his circle were the
judges, and they pronounced the two perfectly equal on
the former instrument, but considered Handel by far the
better performer on the organ. Henceforward Handel
always spoke enthusiastically of Scarlatti, and the
Italian, whenever complimented on his organ playing,
crossed himself with all the fervour of a pious Roman
Catholic and say, " Ah, but you should hear Handel ! "

From Rome our young German went to Naples
where he was received with open arms, and produced
a screnata on the same theme as the Acis and Galatea
he wrote some years afterwards in England, proving
that the idea had been born in his mind though

Handel.

39

it was not yet perfected. It was very much liked, but
there was just one little drawback which probably
caused it to sink into comparative oblivion. This was
the fact that the part of the principal bass singer re-
quired a compass of two octaves and a half Perhaps
there was such an one in Naples at that time, and it
may have been written for him. Handel, as you have
seen, delighted in difficulties, but even he could not
create voices.

He seems to have gone back to Rome for Christ-
mas, and there heard the famous Pifa which in later
years he introduced into the Messiah, and then
he spent a little time with his friends in Florence,
winding up his stay in Italy at Venice with the
Abbate Steffani and Baron Kielmansegge, in whose
company he bade adieu to the " land of the cypress
and myrtle''' and went home to Halle in the spring or
early summer of 1710.

There he found the old home circle completely
broken up by death and marriage, for the elder of
his two sisters, Dorothea Sophia, was married to Dr.
Michael Dieterich Michaelsen, a lawyer of consider-
able wealth and high character, much older than
herself, but who from that time forth adopted the
Handel family as his own. This, though a change,
contained its own elements of comfort and joy ; but
there was also the shadow of recent death, for Frau
Handel and Dorothea were both overwhelmed with
grief at the loss of the youngest daughter, Johanna

AO

The JVorld's Workfrs.

Christina, who had been cut off by consumption a
few months previously. But the visit of her beloved
only son was a comfort and gleam of brightness to the
mother, for she could not but feel proud of his gifts
and the manner in which they had been recognised.
He could not stay long with her, for his future was
not yet assured, and he needed not only an income
but a sphere in which he and his work would be ap-
preciated.

Handel next started off to Hanover, where his
friend Steffani, who had once been Kapellmeister to
the Elector, was most likely on a visit. The Saxon
musician was well known in the little realm of
Hanover, and Steffani told of his Italian triumphs to
such good purpose that the Elector appointed him his
Kapellmeister, an office which secured him an annual
stipend and gave him free leave of absence that he
might still rove about to his heart's content. Having
secured his appointment, Handel went to Dusscldorf,
where he had a long standing invitation from the
Elector Palatine, whom he had met in Rome, and who
was the devoted friend of Corelli, and thence he went
through Holland and crossed the sea to England about
the beginning of December, 17 lO, little foreseeing
that it would prove to be the land of his adoption.

41

CHAPTER V.

" VENI, VIDI, VICI."

s

Good music was then at a very low ebb in England,
Purcell had been fifteen years dead, and none had
as yet arisen to take his place. Every one had great
expectations from Handel, and he was engaged to
write the opera of " Rinaldo " for the Queen's Theatre,
the director, Mr. Aaron Hill, himself sketching out
the story from Tasso's Gcnisaleinvie Liberata, while
Giacomo Rossi translated it into Italian verse, com-
plaining bitterly all the time that he could not do it
fast enough to keep pace with Handel's music, which
was composed in a fortnight.

There was a Nicolini in Handel's time, and he it
was who sang the part of Rinaldo when the opera ap-
peared ; and Valentini, Cassani, the Boschis, husband
and wife, Signora Pilotti Schiavonetta, and Isabella
Girardeau were the other singers. It was received
with such enthusiasm as had never been known before
in this country, and was revived over and over again
at intervals, the last time being in 173 1. A curious
innovation was at first made in the opening act, where
a song known to musicians as the Aria d'imitazione
was sung to an accompaniment of flutes, interspersed
with the twittering of live birds, a number of which

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were at that moment let loose on the stage. The poor
little things were too frightened to sing, and as they
added nothing to the effect a great deal of rather un-
kind fun was made of the proceeding. The original
manuscript no longer exists as a whole, though there
are parts of it at Buckingham Palace, and in the I^tz-
william Library at Cambridge. A portion was pub-
lished by Walsh, the music-seller, soon after the opera
came out, and reached a second and amended edition.
Walsh made ;^i,500 by it, and Handel, who scarcely
thought it fair, said that Walsh should compose the
next opera, and he would publish it, as the most pro-
fitable part of the business.

As Handel wrote and worked so rapidly he had
plenty of time for society, and preferred that of musical
people, though, as he had a great fund of common
sense, had travelled much, and enjoyed a liberal
education, he was found to be a pleasant companion
by many of the leading men of the period, with
whom nmsic did not happen to be the ruling
passion. Among them were Lord Burlington, and
Mr. Andrews, William Babell, and many others,
including Mr. Thomas Britton, who was then and for
many years after known as the " Small Coal Man."
His poor abode, which was merely a stable and loft,
was the rendezvous of some of the most noted men
and women of the time, who appreciated his talents
and respected his industrious frugality. He was born
of poor parents, picked up a great deal of information

Handel.

43

by hook or by crook, and educated himself in a most
surprising manner. He earned his Hving by selling
small coals from door to door, carrying the sack con-
taining them on his back, and as soon as his day's
work was over he retired to his loft over the stable in
which his coals were stored, washed and changed his
clothes, and spent the evening either in study or
in practising on the viola da gamba. He had con-
trived to save enough money to purchase a small
chamber-organ and a harpsichord, and had also
collected quite a treasure of rare books and manu-
scripts.

Mr. Britton was "at home" every Thursday
evening, and the company, gentle and simple, who
climbed up the rude outside ladder to his low-roofed
loft in Aylesbury Street, Clerkenwell, in which a
tall man could scarcely stand upright, were regaled
with good music and clever talk. Here came John
Bannister the violinist, Sir Roger L'Estrange, a
good amateur violoncello player, Dr. Pepusch, of
musical renown, Woollaston the painter, Wichello,
Needier, John Hughes, Lady Oueensberry,and Handel,
who took the general direction of the performances
when in London, and played his best on the small
organ and harpsichord. Here Matthew Dubourg,
who became afterwards a splendid violinist, was
lifted up on to a stool in order to play his first
little solo.

These gatherings were delightful, but it is sad to

44

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relate that they were brought to an unexpected end
through Britten's sudden death of fright at a ventri-
loquial trick.

The London opera season was over on the 2nd
of June, and Handel having no longer any excuse
for lingering in London, returned to Hanover, where
his kind old friend the Abbate Stefifani had been
officiating for him as Kapellmeister. He busied him-
self for a short time in writing concertos to be played
by the Court orchestra, songs for Princess Caroline,
the young wife of the Elector's eldest son, and duets
and cantatas innumerable. In the autumn he went to
Halle, and stood godfather to his sister's child, named
Johanna, after the young girl who died during her
brother's absence in Italy, and returned a few days
afterwards to London, where he produced a new
opera, // Pastor Fido, at the Queen's Theatre, on the
26th of November, 1712. As the christening took
place on the 23rd of that month, we feel that Handel
must have travelled with the fastest of post-horses,
and had a remarkably quick passage across the
Channel on this occasion. Most likely, however,
the date of the family gathering at Halle is in-
correct.

The Elector renewed his leave of absence from
Hanover, on condition that he should return to his
duties there within a reasonable time, a term that on
Handel's part proved marvellously elastic. He seems
to have spent most of the first year after he came

Handel.

45

back to London with a Mr. Adams, a distinguished
amateur, who had a pleasant country house at
Barn Elms, in Surrey, and it is probable that during
that time he composed the opera of Tcseo, which was
first performed to a crowded house at the Queen's on
the loth of January, 1713. It went on for twelve
consecutive nights, and was the backbone of the house
during the whole operatic season. On the 15th of
May there must have been what we now call a
benefit night, for there was a special performance
" for Mr. Handel, with an entertainment for the
harf)sichord," and on the 30th the season came to
an end.

The 6th of February, 171 3, was Queen Anne's
forty-ninth birthday, and in honour of it Handel set
to music a birthday ode with English words, which is
considered one of the earliest indications of the grand
style that culminated in the Messiah and Israel in
Egypt.

About the same time he composed the Utrecht
Te DeuDi in honour of the peace of that year,
though it was not performed till the public thanks-
giving in St. Paul's Cathedral, at which the poor
Queen was too ill to be present, though she after-
wards heard it at St. James's, and was so delighted
that she bestowed on the composer a life-pension
of .£'200 a year. In these two compositions Handel
touched the English heart, and created with it that
bond of sympathy which led him to forsake his

46

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own country and his father's house and take up his
abode among us. Perhaps he would not have been
very graciously received if he had gone back, for the
Elector of Hanover did not approve of the Peace of
Utrecht, and long bore a grudge against his Kapell-
meister for the popular Te Deum, which continued to
be a favourite in England, and was played annually
at St. Paul's in alternation with Purcell's Te Deum
at the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy for the next
thirty years.

It sounds very strange to us who know Burlington
House principally in connection with the Royal
Academy, and are accustomed to see strings of cabs,
carriages, and omnibuses, and swarms of pedestrians
continually hurrying past it, to be told that in Handel's
time it stood by itself among green fields. " Why,"
said George I. to Lord Burlington, " did you build
your house in the middle of the fields ? "

" I chose the spot because no one could come and
build beside me," was the reply.

And, indeed,so far was central Piccadilly considered
from the village of Charing and St. James's Palace,
and so lonely was the road thither, that it was not
safe to go to or from Burlington House at night
without linkmen and armed servants as some sort
of defence against the highwaymen who infested the
suburbs of London. Lord Burlington loved to gather
clever men round him, and Handel became his guest
for three years, which must have been quite an oasis

Handf.l.

A7

of quiet in his restless, energetic life. He played
both organ and harpsichord to his patron's guests,
conducted the musical performances, Svhich were fre-
quent in that hospitable mansion, went down con-
tinually to St. Paul's Cathedral where congregations
listened rapturously while he played the great organ,
and on many evenings when he had no pressing
engagement elsewhere, he retired with the choir to
the Queen's Arms Tavern, in the adjacent Church-
yard, and played on the harpsichord for hours to-
gether. Sometimes after the afternoon service, in
the Cathedral, Handel would persuade some one
to stay and blow the bellows for him, and then
taking off his coat, would play till far on into the
night. On many of these occasions a lad named
Greene, about fourteen years of age, considered it a
privilege to blow for him. This youth as he grew
up chose music as his profession, though he never
attained any great excellence in it. When he had
to write a piece of new music as a preliminary to
obtaining his doctor's degree at the University of
Cambridge, he chose Pope's " Eurydice " for the
words, but did not link them to a very wonderful
melody. The poet, who was a great admirer of
Handel, some time afterwards requested him to
set the same poem to music, but he declined,
saying :—

" It is the very thing what my bellows-blower has
already set for a doctor's degree at Cambridge ! "

48

The World's Workers.

He, perhaps, would not have made the observa-
tion had not Greene been a very warm supporter of
Buononcini, whose rivalry when they both found them-
selves in London was quite as marked, and a great
deal more mischievous than when Handel was a little
boy at Berlin.

While Handel was living with Lord Burlington
an event occurred which put an end to all idea of his
eventual return to Hanover. Queen Anne, who had
long been ailing, died on the ist of August, 1714, and
that very day the Elector of Hanover was in due
form and order proclaimed as her successor. This
was a dignity he had not always had reason to expect,
for Queen Anne and her husband, Prince George of
Denmark, had been the parents of seven children, and
fondly hoped that at least one of them would have
lived to succeed his mother on the English throne.
But the last survivor died in 1701, and immediately
afterwards an Act of Settlement was passed setting
aside all other relatives of the Stuarts, and vesting
the succession in Sophia, the Electress dowager of
Hanover, who was a daughter of Elizabeth, the
Queen of Bohemia, the daughter of James L, who; in
the days of her youth and beauty, had been called the
Queen of Hearts. George I. was her son, and although
he knew that he would one day be King of England,
if he outlived his distant relative Queen Anne, he did
not trouble himself to learn our language, and it used
to be said that Sir Robert VValpole, after his accession.

Handel.

49

governed him in Latin, for he and the other ministers
were quite as ignorant of German or French as their
Royal master was of Latin.

Such was the man who, six weeks after the Queen
died, came over and was crowned, on the 20th of
October, in Westminster Abbey.

Handel, conscious that his conduct towards the
Elector had not been quite as considerate as it ought,
could not venture to present himself at Court, but
felt sure that a time would speedily come when
he would have the opportunity of apologising and
re-instating himself in favour. He now began
again to write for the stage and produced the
opera of Amadigi, founded on the ancient French
romance Ainadis de Gaul. The old Theatre had
changed its name, and was called the " King's," and
there on May 15th, 1715, Amadigi was first played,
and the famous Mrs. Robinson for the first time
sang Handel's music. The King and his daughter-
in-law, Princess Caroline, came repeatedly to hear
it, and freely expressed their opinion of its great
merits, but still the former Kapellmeister was not in-
vited to Court, and his friends turned over in their
minds many schemes for bringing him into favour
again.

Father Thames, until it became so crowded with
steamers and small mercantile- craft, was always
beloved by our sovereigns, and many a gorgeous
pageant has moved down that silent highway in
D

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bygone times. George I., with his family and a
splendid retinue of courtiers, could not have hit on any
pleasanter way of showing themselves to the populace
than by going in state barges, one brilliant August
day, from Whitehall to Limehouse, and when they
came back by the same route in the evening both
banks of the river were illuminated, cannon fired at
intervals, and large numbers of wealthy citizens in
their best clothes followed the procession in boats.
The fete was in preparation for some time before-
hand, and Handel's kind friends. Lord Burlington
and Baron Kielmansegge, thought they saw the
opportunity of bringing him prominently, yet grace-
fully, into notice, and he fell into their plan most
willingly.

The King's one passion of an artistic nature was
music, so Handel composed something quite new for
wind and stringed instruments, engaged an efficient
orchestra, hired a boat large enough to accommodate
them, acted himself as conductor, and followed the
Royal barge closely enough to let the lovely melodies
be clearly heard, though softened, as music on the
water always is. This was a delicate compliment as
well as a great treat, and the King, after listening
with the utmost pleasure, asked to whom he owed it.
Baron Kielmansegge, who was on board with his
Majesty, told him, and at once plunged into such a
clever apology and such warm praise of Handel that
the monarch's vexation with him was put on one side,

Handel.

51

and he said he should be happy to see the musician
at Court on the first opportunity. Here the services
of another faithful friend stood him in good stead,
for Gcminiani, having been asked to play some
new concertos at St. James's, said he could not
give them their proper effect unless Handel accom-
panied on the harpsichord. Handel was at once
told that he might present himself for that pur-
pose, so he went and apologised in person for
his long absence from Hanover, was graciously
received, and before he departed had been pro-
mised a pension of £200 a year in addition to the
one which he still enjoyed from the late Queen
Anne.

This, then, was the origin of Handel's famous
Water Miisick, which. was too charming not to be
repeated. In July, 1717, the Royal Family were in-
vited by Lady Catherine Jones to a supper party at
Lord Ranelagh's house at Chelsea, and as the
pleasantest way of going there was by water, Baron
Kielmansegge arranged that fifty performers should
be seated in an open barge, and, conducted by Handel,
should play as they followed the Royal party up the
river. The King was so much pleased that he
ordered the entire composition to be three times
repeated.

Soon afterwards George I. went back to Hamburg
for a few months, and took Handel with him. While
there he composed and executed a Passion oratorio
D 2

52

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for the principal church, which was the last music
he ever wrote to German words.

He paid a visit to Anspach, most likely for the
purpose of renewing his friendship with an old college
chum, John Christopher Schmidt, who returned with
him to England, and became his treasurer and
secretary, an office in which his son ultimately suc-
ceeded him.

CHAPTER VI.

IN LONDON.

For three years after the close of the Opera season
in 1717 no more lyric dramas were performed at the
King's Theatre, and though Handel still enjoyed his
royal pensions, and a further sum of £200 a year
from the Princess Caroline as musical instructor
to her daughters, he was not sorry to accept an
engagement in the household of the Duke of
Chandos.

This nobleman had been Paymaster of the British
Forces under the Duke of Marlborough, and amassed
an immense fortune. On retiring from active service
at the conclusion of the peace of Utrecht, he built
him.self a magnificent mansion at Cannons near
Edgware, where he had a private chapel, and main-
tained for it a choir and a band of instrumental

Handel.

53

performers, after the fashion of a music-loving German
prince. This chapel is now the parish church of
Whitchurch, but the mansion has long since been
razed to the ground, its magnificent marble staircase
having been removed to Chesterfield House, Mayfair,
the marble columns of the hall to the portico of
Wanstead House, and the statue of George I. to
Leicester Square.

The Duke's first musical director was Dr. Pepusch,
who was succeeded by Handel in 171 8. His com-
positions for the anthems or choral cantatas used in
the chapel are but little remembered, though Arnold
published twelve of them in 1789, and the German
Handel Society has reprinted them.

Handel's residence at Cannons is chiefly marked
by the production of the first of those English
oratorios on which his great fame rests. This was
Esther, for which Pope is said to have written the
words. It was first performed on the 20th of
August, 1720, and the Duke, in the fulness of
his delight, presented Handel with a thousand
pounds. A little later he composed the pastoral
Acis and Galatea, the poem being furnished by
Gay, with some small additions by Pope and
Hughes.

The Harmonious Blacksmith also dates from this
time, and tradition says that Handel, while walking-
home to Cannons, through the village o. Edgware,
was caught in a sudden storm, and took refuge in

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a smithy, where the blacksmith was singing as he
worked, and beating time to his tune by the blows
on the anvil. He afterwards wrote down the air the
blacksmith sang, and made variations on it, and thus
this particular anvil and hammer came to be regarded
as relics.

It is said that the blacksmith belonged to a very
musical family, but it is also said that Handel adap-
ted the melody from an old French song, but nothing
certain is known. Tradition, however, even if unsup-
ported by circumstantial evidence is often trustworthy,
and unless the anvil of the Edgware blacksmith had
had some authentic connection with Handel's com-
position, it is most unlikely that it would have been
handed on from one generation to another, and finally
sold as a curiosity.

The Royal Academy of Music was founded in
1720, and was a company formed to encourage the
performance of Italian Opera at the King's Theatre.
George I. took the scheme under his protection,
subscribed 1,000 to its funds, and arranged that
the Lord Chancellor for the time being should
always be its Governor. The shareholders were
annually to elect a Deputy Governor and twenty
directors.

The first Governor in his official capacity as
Lord Chancellor was the Duke of Newcastle,
and the first Deputy was Lord Bingley, while the
directors were men of rank and position. Two

Handel.

55

poets were also appointed, Nicola Haym, and Paolo
Rolli, and as it was not supposed that the writing
of poetry would occupy all their time, they were also
to act as Italian secretaries. Heidegger, a Swiss
then well known in London, undertook to be stage
manager, and the capital was ;^50,ooo, in five hun-
dred shares of ;^'ioo each. Every shareholder was
to be entitled to a seat at each performance, and
as the theatre accommodated a thousand spectators,
there were five hundred seats left for the paying
public. To undertake the supreme management, and
as principal composer, Handel left the service of the
Duke of Chandos, and with him were associated in
the latter capacity, Giovanni Battista Buononcini,
his enemy, and Attilio Ariosti, his staunch and valued
friend.

Of course the project had been talked about for
some time previously, for early in the spring of 17 19,
Handel had been sent abroad by the directors for
the purpose of getting together a good band of pro-
fessional singers. He was very successful, for Italians
were quite eager to be engaged, and the two principal
ones he chose were Bernardi, usually called Senesino,
a famous artificial soprano, then at Dresden, while
Signora Durastanti accepted the position of Prima
Donna.

At Dresden the great musician played on the
harpsichord before Augustus, the Elector of Saxony
and King of Poland, and the Crown Prince, and so

56

The WoRLiJs Workhrs.

highly did the first named appreciate the pleasure
that he presented him with a hundred ducats.

Sebastian Bach was at that time Kapellmeister to
Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Koethen, and would have
given anything to have heard his brother musician at
Dresden, but as the news of his visit there did not
reach him till too late, he started off to Halle where
Handel was staying with his bereaved mother and
brother-in-law, Dr. Michaelsen, who were mourning
the loss of Dorothea, who had died of consumption
just when life, as the cherished wife of a good husband,
and mother of a sweet little girl, looked full of happi-
ness. Unfortunately Bach did not get to Halle till
the very day after Handel had departed on his
journey back to England. These two great com-
posers, who flourished contemporaneously for sixty-
five years, were never destined to meet.

Handel, who now began always to sign his
initials G. F., instead of his plain name, managed
all his business in time to arrange that the Royal
Academy should open its theatre on April 2nd, 1720,
with an old opera that served as prelude to his
Radainisto, which would have been first performed on
the 26th had not the Royal Family commanded its
postponement to the following night, that they might
all be present. The new singers had not arrived,
so Mrs. Robinson took the principal part ; but the
audience was in a mood to idolise the composer.
Every scat was filled, and in the struggle for ad-

Has DEL.

57

mission ladies had their dresses torn to pieces, and
were carried away fainting from the pressure of the
crowd. Money was not only refused, but returned,
and those who were fortunate enough to get inside
were as excitable as the theatre-goers of Venice when
they first greeted the "dear Saxon" in 1708. Rada-
misto continued to be the great attraction till the end
of May, and the King's Theatre was closed for the
season during the last week in June.

John Christopher Schmidt now saw that Handel
was in a position which would give him constant
employment as amanuensis and treasurer, and there-
fore felt justified in bringing his wife and children
over from Anspach. Their eldest boy was then eight
years old, and was at once sent to Mr. Clare's
Academy in Soho Square. Handel was very fond
of the little fellow, and when he found, in 1725, that
he had a great talent for music, removed him from
school, himself grounded him in the science of the
art, and then arranged for him to study under Dr.
Pepusch and Thomas Roseingrove.

Of course Buononcini and Ariosti took their turns
in composing operas, though without any great suc-
cess, and at last the directors of the Royal Academy
took it into their heads that the three composers
should each write an act of a new opera ; so the
libretto or poem of Muzio Scevota was prepared, and
Ariosti undertook the first act, Buononcini the second,
and Handel the third, each being opened by an

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The World's Wokkeks.

overture and ended with a chorus, so that it might
if necessary form a complete work. Handel's act
was wonderfully superior to the other two, but it
would not have been worth noticing here had
not this opera had a very disastrous effect on the
Academy.

Handel's overture was remarkably fine, but there
are always people ready to find fault, and a self-
constituted critic who objected to a certain semitone
mentioned it to Geminiani, who, though obliged to
own that the use of a semitone in that place was
technically incorrect, showed his enthusiasm for his
friend by exclaiming, " But that semitone is worth a
world ! "

Handel's next important opera was Ottone, in
which he wrote a beautiful Aria, Falsa Immagine,
expressly for Signora Francesca Cuzzoni, whom he
had just engaged. Her one good point was her lovely
voice, for she was a short plain woman with a very
bad temper, and an extremely small amount of sense
or taste. She would have been a terrible plague to
any one who did not know how to manage her, but
in Handel she met her master.

At the first rehearsal she flatly refused to sing her
song, and Handel, seeing the kind of woman he had
to deal with, said, " I know, madam, that you are
a very demon ; but I will let you see that I am
Beelzebub, the prince of the demons ! " He seized
her in his strong arms, carried her to the window,

Handel.

59

and declared he would throw her out. She saw it
was no use trying his temper any further, so she
meekly sang the song exactly as he wished, and by
so doing achieved one of her greatest triumphs. She
thenceforth allowed herself to be guided by him, and
took the musical world by storm, while the Royal
Academy gave her ;£'2,ooo a year. So delighted was
the public with Ottone that on the second night the
seats were sold for five guineas each, and it was
succeeded by Handel's Flavio, in which Signoras
Cuzzoni and Durastanti with Mrs. Robinson, and
Senesino, as Bernardi was usually called, distinguished
themselves more than ever.

The next great triumph of composer and singer
was in the opera of Rodelinda, which came out in
February, 1725. Cuzzoni was the heroine, and wore
a brown silk dress trimmed with silver, which took
everyone's fancy so much that it set the fashion of
the season. Her singing was pronounced divine, and
Senesino also won great applause by his singing of
Dove Set, Amato Bene, which is now familiar to us
as " Holy, holy ! "

The Academy closed its doors on the 19th of May,
and Handel, whose affections were very warm, was
anxious to go home to Halle and see his aged
mother once more. He was, however, unable to
leave England, but he wrote gratefully about Frau
Dorothea to Dr. Michaelsen, who by this time had
married again. He says —

6o The World's Workers.

" Jime nth, 1725.

" Sir, and most Honoured Brother, — Again
I find myself very much to blame for not having
performed my duty towards you, with regard to
my letters, for so long a time ; nevertheless I do not
despair of obtaining your generous pardon, when I
assure you that my silence does not proceed from
forgetfulness, and that my esteem and friendship for
you are inviolable, as you must have already re-
marked, my honoured brother, from the letters I have
written to my mother.

" My silence, indeed, has proceeded rather from a
fear lest I weary you with a correspondence \vhich you
might find troublesome. But that which leads me to
disregard these reflections in worrying you with my
present letter is that I cannot be so ungrateful as to
pass over in silence the goodness you have shown to
my mother in her advanced age, for which I offer you
my very humble thanks. You know how deeply
I am interested in all that concerns her, and can
therefore judge the depth of the obligation under
which you have placed me.

" I should esteem myself happy, my very dear
brother, if I could engage you to send me some news
from time to time ; and you may depend upon my
sincerity and good faith in reply. I had hoped to be
able to renew my friendship by word of mouth, and
to visit your neighbourhood on the occasion of the
King's visit to Planover ; but I cannot yet put my

Handel.

6i

wishes into effect. However, though the position ot
my affairs deprives me for the present of the pleasure
I have so long coveted, I do not despair of enjoying
this happiness some day ; and in the meantime it
would be a great consolation to me if I could flatter
myself that you would think of me sometimes, and
still honour me with your friendship, since I shall
never cease to be, with devoted affection and attach-
ment,

" Sir, and most honoured Brother,

" Your very humble and obedient servant,
"George Fridertc Handel.
" I send my very humble respects to madame, your
wife, and I embrace tenderly my dear god-daughter,
and the rest of your dear family. My compliments,
if you please, to all rny friends."

Is not this a grateful and warm-hearted letter }
And yet Handel's opponents used to say that he was
morose, and had no warm affections. Perhaps most
old bachelors bear that character, but it is not always
true by any means. There was one remarkable
thing about Handel, and that was his courtesy and
politeness. Hasty though he often was, he always
addressed and wrote of people by their proper
names. Even when he wrote on a score the names
of those for whom the parts were • intended he never
put " Jones," or " Brown," but invariably " Mr. Jones,
Mr. Brown," &c. This is a habit we should do well to

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copy, for small civilities oil the wheels of life and
make them roll as smoothly again as they do when
such trifles are disregarded.

The Grenadier Guards say that a parade slow
march, which they still frequently play and are very
proud of, was composed specially for them by Handel
about this time. In March, 1726, it came before the
public as the Triumphal March opening the first act
of the opera of Scipioiie, and was speedily popular all
over England ; but the Guards adhere to their story,
and declare that thej^ have the first claim on that
splendid composition.

In the same winter Handel became a naturalised
Englishman, and took, as was then necessar}', the
Oath of Allegiance in the House of Lords. This
opened the way for one or two more appointments,
as the King at once gave him the offices of Composer
to the Chapels Royal and to the Court, which could
only be held by a British subject, and, though they
were unsalaried, gave him a good position in the
Royal Household.

It was at this time that Handel took up his resi-
dence at 25, Brook Street, the house he occupied till
his death, and on which a tablet may now be seen with
an inscription to that effect. It was very central and
suitable for him, and, the modern mania for continual
moving not having then set in, it is probable that he
found himself among pretty much the same set of
neighbours as long as he lived.

Handel.

63

Handel undertook a very difficult piece of business
in 1726, when he secured Signora Faustina Bordoni,
a young singer of European reputation, who was in
every respect, except the beauty of her voice, the
exact opposite of Cuzzoni. She was pretty, graceful
and intelligent, and amiable to a degree. Her voice
was clear, sweet, and flexible, and she had a native
warbling way of singing ; Dr. Burney even said that
she " invented a new kind of singing, by running divi-
sions with a neatness and velocity that entranced all
who heard her.''' Everything was to be quite equal
between her and Cuzzoni, and Handel in writing his
opera of Alessandro gave them song for song. Each
of them sang a duet with Senesino, and when they
sang one together he managed to give each the upper
part by turns, so that no one could know who was
singing first and who second.

This opera was a splendid success to all but the
Company of the Royal Academy, who had never
made any profit out of the high prices obtained for
seats, because they were all bought up at the regular
price by speculators who charged according to the
demand and pocketed a large amount of interest,
pretty much as is now done in America. Moreover,
the expenses of the Academy had always been larger
than their receipts, and ruin began to stare them in
the face.

The rivalry between Faustina and Cuzzoni became
a matter of public notoriety, and great ladies were

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foolish enough to be violent partisans of one or the
other, and could not say anything unkind enough of
the one who did not happen to be their favourite.
Cuzzoni^'s cause was espoused by Lady Pembroke,
Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Sir William Gage, and Mr. Simon
Smith ; while Faustina rejoiced in the support of
several of her own sex, including Lady Burlington,
Lady Cowper, Lady Delaware, and Sir Robert and
Lady Walpole. Their programme was that while the
friends of one singer applauded at the Theatre, those
of the other hissed, and the unseemliness of the effect
may be imagined. Lady Walpole alone never conde-
scended to hiss, and on Sundays, when her husband
was away, she used to invite both ladies to dinner and
endeavour to keep peace between them. One evening,
however, when she had a great many distinguished
guests she found her task more than usually difficult,
for her friends expected to hear them sing and neither
would allow the other to sing first. Fortunately Lady
Walpole always had some treasures to show, so she
took Faustina away to look at her rare old china, and
Cuzzoni thinking she had taken her departure sang
song after song. When she had finished, the hostess
again appeared on the scene, and taking Cuzzoni on
a similar visit of inspection gave the company the
opportunity of hearing Faustina.

Both artistes, however, practised diligently under
Handel, and as neither wished her rival to excel her
the public had the benefit of the best efforts of both.

Handel

65

In the following year Handel produced his Am-
ineto, which contained very lovely airs for both these
ladies, and it was while Cuzzoni was singing " Sen
vola" that some one called out from the gallery that
she had " a nest of nightingales in her bosom." Things,
however, did not go any more smoothly, and on the
last night of the season, when one of Buononcini's
operas was going on, the hisses, yells, and catcalls of
the rival parties produced such a hubbub that the
voices of the singers were quite drowned, and though
one of the Princesses was present, the scene was simply
disgraceful.

When the next season came round it opened with
Ammeto, which was speedily superseded by Handel's
Riccardo Primo, Re d'Inghilterra, in which he had
again arranged the songs for Cuzzoni and Faustina so
that one had just as much opportunity of display as
the other, and those for Senesino were so difficult that
they were feats of skill and agility in voice-manage-
ment. The public enjoyed it to a certain extent, but
the absurd tumults and rivalries between the prime
donne and their foolish partisans, made respectable
people feel too much disgusted to go to the theatre,
and those who had caused the disturbances could not
in any way make up to the directors for the loss thus
incurred. In vain Handel strained every nerve to
attract supporters, bringing out Siroe in February,
and Tolomeo at the end of April, in which the lovely
Echo Song, " Dites cJie fa ? " was enough to charm any
E

66

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audience. Cuzzoni sang each phrase of it on the stage,
and Senesino repeated them behind the scenes with
the most beautiful effect.

But the mischief was done, for Mr. Rich had in
January opened a Httle theatre in Lincohi^s Inn Fields,
and there produced the Beggar's Opera, by Gay,
which was not only full of songs set to well-known
English airs by Dr. Pepusch, but was in reality a satire
on many existing evils and abuses. Miss Fenton, who
as we say now " created " the part of Polly Peachum,
made a matrimonial conquest and became the Duchess
of Bolton, and that is a sort of thing that always de-
lights the crowd. The piece ran for sixty nights, and
Gay thought he could not do better than follow it
up by a second called Polly, on which, however, the
Lord Chamberlain speedily put his veto. Foolish Lady
Queensberry then persuaded him to publish it, and
insisted that everybody she knew should buy a copy.
So far did she carry it that the King actually forbade
her to appear at Court.

Still night after night all the world flocked to see
the Beggar's Opera, and this rival attraction com-
pleted the downfall of the King's Theatre.

The Company had raised every penny of its
£^o,ooo, and no more money was forthcoming, so the
Royal Academy of Music came to an end, and the
artists were dispersed. Faustina and Senesino went
to Venice, and so did Cuzzoni, Boschi, Nicolini, and
parinelli, where they sang at different theatres.

67

CHAPTER VII.

A NEW KING.

In tracing Handel's career we must now go back a
little to the last days of King George I. This monarch
never liked England very well, and was always glad to
escape back to Hanover for a time. He remained very
ignorant of our language, and many stories are told
of the mistakes he made in consequence.

On one of his birthdays, a son of the Prince of
Wales, Prince William, was taken to wish his Ro3'al
grandfather many happy returns of the day, and
the old man asked him what time he got up in
the morning.

" When the chimney sweepers go about," said the
child.

" Vat, vat is de chimney sweep ? " asked the
King.

" Have you been so long in England," said the
little fellow, " and don't know what chimney sweepers
are ? "

He looked round for something or someone to
help him in making his grandfather understand, and
as Lord Finch was standing by, who had a very dark
skin and very black hair and whiskers, he added —

" Why, chimney sweeps are like that man there."
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The King was not much the wiser, but every-
body else thought the child's speech was capital
fun.

But though there were many things the English
as a nation did not care about in their German
sovereign, he had other qualities which claimed their
respect. He first established Professorships of modern
history in our universities, endowing them with £^O0
a year each ; he had twenty-four preachers chosen
from Oxford and Cambridge to officiate alternately at
Whitehall ; and he gave six thousand guineas for the
Bishop of Ely^s library, which he bestowed on the
University of Cambridge.

George I. appeared to have no affection for
his son or for his good wife, Caroline of Anspach,
but when he started on his last journey to Hanover,
he melted into tears on taking leave of them, say-
ing that he should never see them again, and he
was quite right, for he died suddenly at Osnaburg,
early in June, 1727. His successor, George H.,
was quite as friendly to Handel as his father had
been, and lost no time in confirming his various
appointments, and formally instituting him as Music
Master to his daughters. Handel had virtually been
this for some time, but the Princess had paid him
out of her private purse, and now the post assumed
a more official form. The musician's first duty was to
compose an anthem for the Coronation in Westminster
Abbey, which took place on October nth, 1727. In

Handel.

69

reality there were four separate ones, for after the Act
of Homage, there was a flourish of trumpets, and The
Kmg shall Rejoice, was sung. Zadok the Priest, now
the best known of these anthems, was performed after
the King had taken the Coronation Oath, and My
Heart is Inditing, at the end of the ceremony. There
was a fourth anthem. Let thy Deeds be Glorious, but
where it came in is not known.

It is said that some of the bishops incurred
Handel's wrath by sending him the words for these
anthems, whereupon he retorted, " I have read my
Bible very well, and shall choose for myself."

Handel of course was very much annoyed by the
fall of the Academy, but he had great faith in his own
powers, and was no doubt aware that the Directors of
the Company, though lovers of art, had been anything
but business men. He therefore secured the King's
Theatre, and entering^into partnership with Heidegger,
the former stage manager, he started once more for
Italy to engage singers. The good old Abbate
Steffani accompanied him, and they went from
city to city, everywhere welcomed and honoured,
and made choice of some admirable artists of both
sexes.

The troupe they got together included Antonio
Bernacchi, called in Italy the king of vocalists,
Annibale Pio Fabri, who was thought the best tenor
singer of the age, his wife, Signora Fabri, Signora
Strada, an admirable prima donna, with Merighi and

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Bertolli as contraltos, and Riemschneidcr of Hamburg
as a baritone.

All through his life, Handel put business first and
pleasure after ; and in this way arranged to go first
to Italy and engage his singers, and return by way of
Halle to see his mother and relations. Perhaps on this
occasion he afterwards wished he had gone to his old
home first, but he acted for the best, and no one can
do more. When he reached Venice, which was almost
the extreme point of his journey, he wrote the follow-
ing letter to Dr. Michaelsen : —

"Venice, March lUh, 1729.

" Sir, and most honoured Brother, — You will
find from the letter which I herewith send to my
mother, that I am honoured with the receipt of yours,
dated the i8th of last month.

"Permit me, in these few lines, to offer you my
best thanks, and to beg you kindly to send me
your welcome news from time to time, while I
am travelling in this country, since you cannot be
ignorant of the interest and satisfaction it affords
me. You have only to address your letters to
Mr. Joseph Smith, Banker, at Venice (as I have
already explained), and he will forward them to me, in
whatever part of Italy I may be staying. You may
well imagine, my most honoured brother, the satisfac-
tion with which I learn that you and your dear family
are in good health ; and I trust, with all my heart, that

Handel.

71

you may continue so. You will do me the justice to
believe that the thought of so soon embracing you
gives me real gratification, I assure you that this was
one of the chief motives which led me to undertake
this journey with so much pleasure. I hope my wishes
may be accomplished towards the month of July next.
In the meantime I wish you every prosperity ; and
making my best compliments to madame, your wife,
and embracing your dear family,

" I am, with devoted affection,

" Sir, and most honoured Brother,

"Your very humble and obedient servant,
"George Frideric Handel."

In reply to this letter Dr. Michaelsen wrote word
to his brother-in-law that the good old mother, Frau
Dorothea, was stricken with paralysis, but by the
time he had finished his business, and was able to go
to Halle, he found her so far recovered that she could
walk with her stick from room to room, though her
sight was quite gone. It must have been a trial to her
not to be able to see him, but perhaps the nature of
her illness and the pressure of seventy-nine years may
have left her only conscious of his presence and the
touch of his hand, and the tender care with which
he endeavoured to smooth her path during that short
visit.

While Handel was at Halle, John Sebastian Bach,

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who was very ill, wrote to beg him to go and see him
at Leipzig, but he felt it impossible to leave his
mother during the little time he had at his disposal,
and once more was obliged to forego the pleasure of
seeing his brother musician.

The new company reached London in the autumn
of 1729, and the Theatre was opened on the 2nd of
December, with the new opera of Lotario, written by
Handel for the occasion, probably with many inter-
ruptions, for the management of his enterprise gave
him much anxiety, and occupied a great deal of his
time. He was, however, encouraged when the season
closed in June by seeing the probability of a fair
amount of success. For the following season he
engaged Senesino for 1,400 guineas, and as he was a
very great favourite in London, this was a wise
proceeding.

In December, 173 1, Frau Dorothea died, when
nearly eighty years of age, and though her gifted son
had known that he was hardly likely to see her again,
the blow seems to have affected him deeply. Although
Dr. Michaelsen had married a second time, he always
did the duty of an affectionate son by the old lady,
and Handel was very grateful. In reply to the
letters announcing her death and burial in the family
vault, where her husband lay, he wrote to this kind
brother-in-law, the warmth of his true feelings show-
ing itself clearly over and above the stilted phrase-
ology of the day.

Handel.

73

"London, February^, 1731.
"Sir, AND MOST HONOURED BROTHER, — I have
duly received your honoured letter of the 6th of
January, and learned from it the care you have taken
to commit the remains of my late mother to the earth
conformably to her will. I cannot yet restrain my
tears. But it has pleased the Most High to enable
me to submit with Christian calmness to His holy
will. Your thoughtfulness will never pass from my
remembrance until, after this life, we are once more
united, which may the All Good God in His mercy
grant us.

" The innumerable obligations, under which my
honoured brother has laid me, by the continued
solicitude and care with which he has always
tended my late dear mother, cannot be acknow-
ledged with words alone, but with dutiful recogni-
tion.

" I hope my honoured brother received my last
letter, written in answer to his own of the 28th of
December, with the enclosure for Herr Consistorial
Rath Franck, and my cousin. Deacon Taust. I also
expect with impatience his honoured answer, includ-
ing notice of expenses incurred, and also the printed
funeral oration and verses. I am greatly obliged for
the poem last sent to me, and shall guard it as a
treasured memorial.

" Let me also in the last place condole most heartily
with my honoured brother and his wife, on the loss

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they have sustained in the death of their brother-in-
law. Their Christian calmness strengthens me much.
May the Most High grant to all of us our faithful
desires. To His Almighty keeping I recommend my
honoured brother, and all his amiable family, and
remain with earnest devotion, my honoured brother's
most humble and obedient servant,

"George Frideric Handel."

During the following year Handel worked away
at several operas, the best of which was called
Sosanne, one song in it being still well-known. It
was written for Signora Strada as Rend' il Sereno al
Ciglio, but we are acquainted with it as Lord,
Remember David, and have forgotten, or perhaps
never known that it once figured in an opera. It
was not, indeed, by his operas that the great mu-
sician's fame was to be handed down to future
generations, and troubles were coming upon him
in his theatrical connection which led to his pre-
paring other works, by which he is now chiefly
remembered.

On February 23rd, 1732, Handel was forty-seven,
and by way ot celebrating the anniversary, the
choristers of the Chapel Royal' and Westminster
Abbey gave a private performance of EstJier, his first
English oratorio, at the house of Mr. Bernard Gates,
who lived in James Street, Westminster. It was
acted as well as sung, and the young performers wore

Handel.

75

suitable dresses, and had the advantage of scenery
which Heidegger and Handel probably lent from the
Theatre. Those who had the privilege of being
invited enjoyed the performance so much that it was
twice repeated at the " Academy of Antient Musick,'-*
then held at the " Crown and Anchor/' in the Strand.
On one of these evenings Handel was present himself,
and was so delighted with the manner in which the
boys performed and sang their parts that he described
it in glowing terms to the Princess Royal. She very
naturally thought she should like to see and hear
Esther, and proposed that the boys should produce it
again at the Opera House. But even a Princess cannot
always have her own way, and she was overruled by
the Bishop of London, who considered he had a right
to dictate where and how the choristers should or
should not sing. If they must needs sing at the
Opera, he insisted that they should not be in
costume, and even though some one suggested
that they might qualify their dresses by holding
books in their hands, the Bishop was firm — the
boys might dress, sing, and act into the bargain at
a private house or concert room, but not on the
stage. This decision had more effect on Handel's
future fortunes than could possibly have been
imagined.

It now entered the head of a clever Londoner
that choristers were not the only people who could
sing, and that he might make some money out of

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the popular taste. The music of Esther had been
published long ago, so he got together a company
of singers and advertised that the oratorio would be
performed on April 20th at the great room in
Villar's Street, York Buildings, the tickets being five
shillings each. Handel could not sit down tamely
under this impertinent piracy of his work, so by the
advice of his friends and the support of the Royal
Family, he added several new melodies and songs
to Esther, had it carefully studied and rehearsed in
English by the whole of the Opera Company, and
announced that, " By His Majesty's command,"
Esther would be performed by a large number of
voices and instruments on the 2nd of May at the
King's Theatre in the Haymarket. In deference
to popular feeling Handel added the following
sentences to his advertisement and bills : —

" N.B. — There will be no acting on the stage, but
the house will be fitted up in a decent manner for the
audience. The Musick to be disposed after the manner
of the Coronation Service. Tickets to be delivered
at the usual prices."

When the long looked-for evening came, all the
Royal Family were present, and the house was
densely packed. Many who had tickets could not
get in, so the performance was repeated six times to
the great delight of the public. The success of
Esther induced Mr. Arne, the father of the cele-
brated composer, who was the lessee of what was

Handel.

77

called the " New " or the " Little " Theatre in the
Haymarket, almost opposite the King's Theatre, to
pirate Acts and Galatea. His distribution of parts
was curious. Galatea was undertaken by Miss Arne,
afterwards the wife of Colley Cibber ; Acts, by Mr,
Mountier, a promising young tenor ; Damon, by Mrs.
Mason ; and that of Polyphemus was given to a man
named Waltz, who had once been Handel's cook.
This was injurious as well as insulting ; but Handel
redoubled his efforts and produced it himself so
superbly, with scenery, but without action, and con-
tinually introducing new airs, that the interference
with his rights was dropped, and he became convinced
that the public preferred his great choral works to his
operas.

Still, he wrote another opera entitled Orlando,
which he brought out at the close of 1732, which con-
tained the last songs he ever wrote for Senesino,
perhaps not suspecting how soon that vocalist would
turn traitor. Buononcini, always Handel's rival, had
found a warm, but injudicious, patroness in the
Duchess of Marlborough, daughter of the first Duke,
who died without male heirs. This lady, who was
fabulously rich, ostentatiously showed her favour by
allowing him ;^5oo a year, taking him to live in
her own house in St. James's, giving concerts in
which no music but his was performed, and pushing
his interests wherever she could in opposition to
Handel's. Of course the Duchess had her friends

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and followers, and when Senesino shook of?" his
allegiance to Handel, he worked with Buononcini,
whose patrons established a rival Opera at the
Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and persuading
all the best singers of Handel and Heidegger's
company to join them, plunged the partners into
difficulties from which they were unable to extricate
themselves.

Handel had most likely brought this state of
things on himself by his hasty impetuous temper,
for though a kind-hearted man and generous enough
to acknowledge any real mistakes when he dis-
covered them, he had a very high-handed way of
dealing with his singers and musicians, which they,
of course, took offence at, and he was also fond
of saying sharp things, which were repeated from
mouth to mouth and lost nothing in the telling. The
way in which he behaved to Corelli in his youth
at Rome, and managed the refractory Cuzzoni in
London, show his temper, and many people resent
that kind of treatment as long as they live. Cuzzoni,
doubtless, did so, for she joined the new company,
and Signora Strada was the only one of Handel's
" stars " who remained faithful to him.

The rivalry between Handel and Buononcini
gave rise to an epigram written by a Mr. John
Byrom, the last two lines of which are better
known and have been more frequently quoted than
the others —

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79

" Some say, compared to Buononcini,
That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny ;
Others aver that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.
Strange all this difference should be
'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee."

Posterity has long ago discovered which of the two
musicians was the genius, and indeed Buononcini's
name would hardly be remembered now but for his
strife with Handel.

Annoyances and worries did not prevent Handel
from writing an oratorio for the Lent of 1733, which
was entitled Deborah. The King, Queen, and three
eldest Princesses were present at the first performance,
and the price of tickets was half a guinea even for
the gallery, and more in proportion for better places.
This was not at all liked, and prevented the oratorio
from being as warmly received as it deserved. In
a few months the Duchess of Marlborough died, and
Buononcini ruined himself completely by introducing
a madrigal as his own, which he had simply copied
from one by an Italian musician named Lotti. He
thought it would never be found out, but the
" Academy of Antient Musick " sifted the matter
thoroughly and discussed the imposture.

Dr. Greene, who was one of the most stiiring
members of that body, was very angry, and threw
up all connection with it, and" as there was then a
noted tavern near Temple Bar named after his
Satanic majesty, which contained a large room suit-

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able for concerts, he took it and gave several enter-
tainments.

Buononcini's departure did not, however, prevent
the " Opera of the Nobility," as it was called, from
opening at the end of December, and though Handel
introduced a splendid contralto singer named Carestini,
whose voice was considered the richest and best in
Europe, it was of little avail, for his contract with
Heidegger for the King's Theatre expired in July,
1734, when the rival company secured it for them-
selves, and, having engaged the magnificent soprano
singer, Farinelli, considered their triumph complete.

We do not know exactly when or how Handel
came to be on matrimonial thoughts intent during
his career in England, but it is said that he twice
contemplated taking a partner for life. In the first
instance the lady's mother made such violent oppo-
sition to the match that he at once withdrew, and
in the second the fair one herself insisted that if he
married her he must give up his profession. Music
was the very life of his soul, and as not even the
richest and sweetest of wives could have compensated
him for ceasing to follow where the " heavenly maid "
led, he gave up all idea of wedded happiness.

8i

CHAPTER VIII.

HANDEL AT COVENT GARDEN.

Handel was a fine, tall, portly man, and some say
that his countenance was placid and benign, while
others call it full of fire and dignity, though marred
by a sour, heavy expression. His portraits, how-
ever, of which there are many, show plenty of fire
and dignity, with a bright impetuous look, but there
is no trace of placidity or calm. He walked with
rather a rolling gait, and talked in a mixture of four
languages, German, French, Italian, and English,
though he could speak each correctly on occa-
sion. He had a great deal of wit and dry humour,
and enjoyed a joke immensely. It was the custom
of the day to season all speech very freely with
oaths, and Handel did it quite as much as any one
else, but it must not be forgotten that no more
importance was then attached to such language than
is now to the words " awful," " bother," and many
others which are very commonly used, though
the habit can no more be defended than the
worse and coarser ones that prevailed in Handel's
time.

By the time our musician reached middle age he
had acquired the reputation of being a very great
F

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oater, a peculiarity shared by many Germans, the
truth probably being that men whose frames are large
have by nature appetites to correspond.

Handel one day ordered dinner for three at an inn,
but as it was not served as quickly as he expected he
asked the reason why he was kept so long waiting.
The host replied that they were waiting for the other
two guests, " the company," to arrive. " Then bring
up the dinner presiissimo^' said Handel, " I am the
company."

A story that has often been told of him, and
not considered altogether to his credit, has probably
been misunderstood. Germans, although fond of their
national beer, which is very much lighter than the
ales usually brewed in England, prefer the light
wines of their own country to the strong port and
sherry which used to be the usual drink at dinners
in England. Of late years claret, Burgundy, hock,
and other continental wines, have to a great extent
superseded them, but in Handel's time it was not
so.

Lord Radnor once sent him a case of Burgundy,
which he very much enjoyed and kept to himself, partly
because it suited him, and partly because he knew
that his companions would not particularly care for
it. During the oratorio season he frequently asked
the principal performers to dine with him at his house
in Brook Street, and Mr. Brown, the leader of His
Majesty's band, was usually among the guests. They

Handel.

83

were quite accustomed to their host's leaving the table
and going into another roonn to write down any
musical ideas that struck him, and always begged him
not to consider them in the slightest, as the world
could not afford to lose any of his tuneful imaginings.
On one occasion the table was bountifully spread,
and there were Spanish wines in abundance. As the
meal went on Handel frequently exclaimed, " Oh,
I have the thought," and as frequently retired to an
adjoining room. This occurred oftener than seemed
quite natural, and at last some one was so curious
as to get up and peep through the keyhole. He then
saw that the host did not leave his friends for the
purpose of jotting down his ideas, but to sip some of
Lord Radnor's Burgundy, and as it was thought a
good joke by them all, the story was repeated and
exaggerated and made more of than was at all
necessary.

It was in December, 1734, that Handel took
Covent Garden Theatre, which had been built only
two years previously, on lease from Mr. Rich, and
here within about three years he produced six new
operas, besides reviving many of his earlier works,
and substituting oratorios during Lent. In the
second of these operas, Alcina, he wrote Verdi prati,
especially to show off the beauty of Carestini's voice.
The contralto, however, did not like it at first, and
positively refused to sing it. This roused the maestro's
temper, and he exclaimed, " You dog ! Don't I know
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better as yourself what is good for you to sing ? If
you will not sing all the songs what I give you, I will
not pay you ein stiver."

This reasoning brought Carestini to his senses, and
that very song proved one of his greatest successes, for
he never sang it without the warmest applause, and
it was invariably encored. In all these six operas
Signora Strada, who under Handel's tuition had
become a magnificent singer, was the prima donna, and
she equally distinguished herself in the oratorios. The
latter were so much admired that the Vice-Chancellor
of the University of Oxford on one occasion requested
Handel to bring his company down and perform them
in the local theatre, which he did with great pleasure,
giving Esther, Deborah, Acts and Galatea, and a new
one called Athaliah. Such a novel proceeding was
not approved of by many of the Oxford Dons, and a
great many unkind things were said of the Vice-
Chancellor for introducing it. Even Handel and
the singers were not spared, and very angry they
were in consequence. A doctor's degree was offered
to Handel, but he was not inclined to go to the
expense of the fees, which would have amounted' to
at least .^"loo. "Why," said he, "should I throw
my money away for that the blockhead wish, I
no want."

The famous Alexander s Feast also belongs to this
period, and is a work generally classed with the ora-
torios because it was merely Italian words and senti-

Handel.

85

merits adapted to the music of Atkaliah, and so
does a Serenata called Parnasso in Festa, performed
in honour of the marriage between the Prince of
Orange and Princess Royal.

The latter was first performed on the eve of the
wedding day, all the Royal Family being present, and
after the next day's ceremony the choir sang a magni-
ficent anthem by Handel with full orchestral accom-
paniment. How sorry he was to lose so constant a
friend as his young Royal pupil had always shown her-
self, may be better imagined than described ; and she,
knowing a good deal about the difficulties he had to
contend with, did not leave England without begging
Lord Herisey, who had a good deal of power and
influence, to take her former master's part whenever
he could.

Handel gained another Royal friend shortly after-
wards, when Frederick Prince of Wales married
Princess Augusta of Saxe Gotha, and wrote for their
wedding on the 27th of April, 1736, the anthem, Smg
unto God, ye Kingdoms of the Earth, which was per-
formed during the nuptial service in the Chapel
Royal. Part and parcel of the wedding festivities,
was the State visit of the whole Royal Family to
Covent Garden Theatre on the 12th of May, when
Atalanta was put on the stage with great splendour,
having been specially prepared and composed for
the occasion.

The rival opera completely broke down in June,

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1737, having lost ;£'i2,ooo, and thenceforth Handel
at Covent Garden reigned supreme.

Unfortunately the struggle with his opponents had
gone far towards ruining him, and, though he had
saved 10,000, it all went, and still there were debts
unpaid. He offered bills for what he could not pay at
the moment, and every one of his creditors accepted
them, except Signer del Po, Strada's husband. This
tried Handel terribly ; his health completely gave way.
An attack of paralysis compelled him to give up work
for a season, so he went to Aix-la-Chapelle, drank the
waters with great benefit during the summer and
autumn, and came back to London, partly restored,
in November.

A fortnight afterwards Queen Caroline died, to the
great grief of her husband, and all who knew her, un-
less it was her eldest son, Frederick, Prince of Wales,
who appeared to have no love for any one. She had
been very pretty in her youth, and to the last had
beautiful eyes, a sweet and pleasant voice, and grace-
ful delicate little hands.

It was she who laid out Kensington Gardens,
and Richmond Park, and made the ornamental
water in Hyde Park, called the Serpentine, which
was previously a number of ponds. The King
never interfered in any of these things, remarking
that he did not mind what she did with her own
money.

Queen Caroline had always been Handel's very

Handel.

«7

generous patron, and he felt her loss deeply, and
may be said to have set his feelings and those of
the whole nation to music, in the funeral anthem he
composed — The Ways of Sion do Mourn — the open-
ing part of which was founded on the hymn usually
sung at burials throughout Saxony. Of course, there
was a period of public mourning, and the theatres
were closed for that winter, much to the regret of
Heidegger, who had again leased the King's Theatre,
vacated by the downfall of the "Opera of the Nobility."
Handel, instead of taking Covent Garden, returned to
his old partner, and the scene of so many triumphs,
by producing his opera, of Faramando, on the 7th of
January, 1738, and in April his Serse came out, which
was a comic opera, quite a new venture for the serious
minded composer, and one which he never repeated.
The truth was that he was obliged to invent some
novelty to attract the public, and if possible to make
money, for his debts were still unpaid, and Signor del
Po pressed him cruelly, refusing to believe that all
would be paid in time, and threatening him with a
debtor's prison unless that particular sum of money
were at once forthcoming.

Handel's friends urged him to accept a benefit, and
though it went very much against the grain, he did so,
and a concert was organised at the King's Theatre
with the greatest success, the" house being crowded
from floor to roof with five hundred well known people
of rank and fashion on the stage. The profits

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amounted to about ^^1,500, so Del Po was paid, ana
Handel once more breathed freel)^

The next event in his life was such an honour as
seldom falls to an\' one's lot This was the erection
of the famous statue of Handel, by Roubiliac, a rising
young sculptor, who had been commissioned to do
it by the proprietor of the Vauxhall Gardens, where
Handel's music was almost nightly performed to large
audiences who paid verj- high prices for the pri\-ilege
of hearing it, at what was then a new and verj- fashion-
able resort

This statue remained at Vauxhall till 181 8, when
the gardens were sold, and it has since passed through
man}- hands.

But poor Heidegger could no longer struggle on
with the theatre, and being obUged to retire, Handel
once more engaged the little theatre in Lincoln's
Inn Fields, and there brought out his Ode for
Saint Cecilia s Day, written to Dr>'den's words, and
followed it up w-ith Alexander's Feast. Here also
his settings of Milton's L' Allegro and // Petiseroso,
with a third comjxjsition called // Moderate, were
first heard, and for this theatre his x&ry last opera
Deidamia was written. It was on the lOth of February,
1 74 1, that Handel finally bade farewell to the stage,
having composed fort}^ tvi-o operas in about thirty-five
}-ears, to say nothing of oratorios, anthems, concertos,
&C. &c

Handel now devoted himself entirely to sacred

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89

music with English words, and produced Said, in
which he appears to have satisfied himself better than
usual, and the Messiah, the words for both of which
were written by Mr. Jennens, a wealthy Leicestershire
magnate, who was a man of much taste and culture, and
the musician's warm friend. His London house was in
Great Ormond Street, where another Leicestershire
worthy, Zachary Macaulay, also lived when in town,
and as Handel still resided in Brook Street, they were
not very far apart.

While writing the Messiah Handel was quite lifted
out of himself by the sublimity of the theme. His
music often affected him deeply, and the valet, who
used to take up his morning chocolate, said he often
stood silently on one side while his master went on
writing rapidly, the tears rolling down his cheeks and
wetting the paper.

A friend who called, and was admitted, while
he was composing the music for He ivas Despised,
found him much affected and sobbing audibly ;
and when another friend asked him what feelings
prompted him to so sublime a composition, he
answered,

" I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and
the great God himself."

The Messiah was, it is generally believed, first
performed in Dublin, for in the autumn of 1 74 1
Handel, at the in\'itation of the Duke of Devonshire,
went over to Ireland, and the principal members of

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his company followed him. At Chester he was delayed
for several days by the weather, which prevented the
packets starting as they did then from Parkgate. It
was not to be supposed that he could get through this
time of weary waiting without trying to find some one
to sing his hastily-copied choruses, so he applied to
Mr. Baker, the organist of the cathedral, to know
whether there were any choristers who could sing at
sight. Mr. Baker mentioned several who were highly
thought of, especially a printer named Janson, noted
for his good bass voice and general knowledge of
music.

Chester was at that time a very musical place,
where there were weekly concerts and frequent public
performances, so considerable interest was taken in
the rehearsal at the Golden Falcon, where Handel was
staying. When all were assembled, the chorus. And
with His Stripes we are Healed, was tried, and Janson
began and failed, began again and failed so dreadfully
that Handel lost all patience, swore at him in several
languages, and at last, remembering that the man only
understood English, exclaimed, "You scoundrel! did
you not tell m.e you could sing at sight?" "Yes,
sir," replied Janson, " and so I can, but not at first
sight."

Handel reached Dublin on the i8th of November,
and took up his abode in Abbey Street, and as soon
as his singers arrived, arranged to give his " Musical
Entertainments" in the Music Hall, in Fishamble

Handel.

91

Street, then newly built. It held about 600 persons,
and the tickets were half a guinea each. Here
the Lord Lieutenant and his family came night
after night to listen to U Allegro, Esther, the Ode,
concertos, and all the organ music Handel chose to
play.

The Messiah was produced for the very first time
at this hall, on the 13th of April, for the benefit of three
charitable objects, the relief of the prisoners in the city
gaols, and the support of Mercer's Hospital and the
infirmary on the Inn's Quay ; and a notice was issued
requesting ladies to come without their hoops, and
gentlemen without their swords, as these omissions
would enable the stewards to find seats for seven in-
stead of six hundred persons.

When the new oratorio was performed it fairly took
Dublin by storm, the newspapers could not find words
in which to express the delight it gave, and every
one was charmed except the compiler of the words,
Mr. Jennens, who did not think Handel had done
himself or his subject justice.

Mrs. Gibber sang the touching air. He zvas De-
spised, so beautifully that Handel thenceforth v/rote
most of his contralto parts for her, and the band was
led by Dubourg, the violinist who, as a little boy, had
played his first solo in the " Small Coal Man's " loft,
and had retained Handel's friendship from that even-
ing. This did not prevent the master from having a
joke at his expense, for one night during that winter

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in Dublin, Dubourg had to play a solo part in a song,
and a few bars in which he was at liberty to use his
own fancy before coming to a final shake. He wan-
dered about in different keys for some minutes,
seeming uncertain of the original one, but when he
did find it, and reached the shake, Handel called
out in his hearty voice, loud enough to be heard
all over the hall, " You are welcome home, Mr.
Dubourg ! "

But all the same for this, which provoked a general
titter, Dubourg and Handel continued on excellent
terms, as was testified by the legacy left to the violinist
in the master's will.

It was on the 13th of August, 1742, that Handel
returned to England after spending nine happy and
successful months in Ireland. He also retained
pleasant memories of his sojourn there, and he left
behind him many warm admirers. He became espe-
cially friendly with one amateur musician, for whom
he wrote the lesson for the harpsichord we now
know under the title of Forest Music. Unhappily the
original MS. has been lost, though it has been re-
printed from copies. This is the only morceati
he is known to have composed during his visit to
Ireland.

So great was the sensation produced when the
Messiah was performed for the first time, on March
23rd, 1743, at Covent Garden, that when the " Halle-
lujah Chorus " was reached the King and all the

Handel.

93

audience rose at the same moment, and stood thrilled
with emotion till it was over, a custom which has
been continued ever since wherever it has been per-
formed.

A few days later Lord Kinnoull complimented
Handel on his last oratorio, calling it a " noble enter-
tainment for the town/^

" My lord," was the answer, " I should be sorry if
I only entertained them. I wish to make them
better."

The next oratorio was Samson, in which Let
the bright Seraphim was written for Signora
Avolio, and was very much liked by the public,
though Horace Walpole spoke unkindly and jeer-
ingly of it.

The last battle at which an English king com-
manded in person was the fight at Dettingen on June
27th, 1743, when George H. met and coped with the
French army, gaining so brilliant a victory that he
and his braves were received on their return home
with the most enthusiastic rejoicing. A day of
Public Thanksgiving was appointed, and Handel was
commissioned to compose a Te Deum and Anthem,
which were publicly rehearsed at the Chapel Royal,
Whitehall, two days before the Thanksgiving Service
at St. James's, when all the Royal Family were
there present.

This seems to have concluded the work of the
great composer for that year, and some characteristic

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stories are told of the rehearsals and performances
before royalty.

Queen Victoria would have delighted Handel,
because she is always punctual, but some of her
ancestors were sadly deficient in this respect. The
Prince and Princess of Wales were sometimes late
in making their appearance in the Music-room, and
then he grew very cross indeed. The Princess was
personally very kind and patient, and when she saw
that her maids of honour had talked and giggled
till Handel was almost beside himself with anger,
used to say to them, " Hush, hush, Handel is in a
passion ! "

Between Handel's naturally hasty and little con-
trolled temper, and the paralysis which attacked him
in middle age, his nerves were excessively irritable,
and he could not bear to hear his orchestra tuning
their instruments, so they always did it before he was
within earshot. One night when the Prince of Wales
was expected, and everything was to be in apple-pie
order, some mischievous person untuned the instru-
ments and put them back in their places as before.
As soon as H. R. H. arrived, Handel gave the signal
to begin, but the discord was so horrid that he started
up, overthrew a Double Bass, and seizing a Kettle-
drum threw it so vigorously at the head of the con-
ductor that his full-bottomed wig fell off with the
exertion. He did not stop to pick it up, but ad-
vanced to the front of the orchestra, too much choked

Handel.

95

with passion to speak. The audience could not help
laughing, and of course that made him worse ; but at
last the Prince went round, and with much difficulty-
persuaded him to put on his wig and resume his
seat.

This large white wig played quite an impor-
tant part at the oratorios. When all went well it
gave a sort of satisfied shake, but when it was quiet,
close observers knew that there was something
wrong. The next oratorios were Joseph and his
Brethren and BelsJiazzar, but they were insignifi-
cant compared with Judas Maccabeus, the drama of
which was written by Dr. Morell, a well known
Greek scholar and antiquary. This particularly
delighted the Jews of London, who were doubly
attracted by the music, of which they were such
admirable judges, and by the fact that the new
oratorio exalted one of their national heroes, and
they thronged Covent Garden night after night
during the Lent of 1747.

One of the most striking choruses in this work
is See the Conquering Hero comes. As soon as it was
written Handel played it over to a friend, and asked,
" How do you like it } "

" Not so well as most of your music," was the
reply.

" No more do I," said Handel ; " but you will live
to sec it a greater favourite with the people than
many of my finer things."

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And we, nearly a hundred and fifty years after-
wards, must acknowledge that he was right.

Jos/ma, the words for which were written by
Dr. Morell, was not a particularly successful oratorio,
and some of its music was transferred to Judas
Maccabeus after a time, but in after years Haydn
admired it immensely. Hearing the chorus, The
Nations Tremble, at one of the concerts of Antient
Musick, he told a friend that long as he had been
acquainted with music he never knew half its powers
till he heard that chorus, and he was perfectly certain
that only one inspired author ever did or ever would
pen such a sublime composition. How Handel would
have enjoyed his appreciation !

Dr. Morell was not always quite satisfied with the
music wedded to his words, and one day he said so, to
Handel's great disgust.

" What ! " he cried, " you teach me music The
music, sir, is good music. It is your words is bad.
Hear the passage again. There ! go you, make words
to that music."

A somewhat similar incident occurred with
another person. A singer named Gordon disap-
proved of Handel's manner of accompanying
him, and expressed himself so strongly, that they
came to very high words, and Gordon declared
that if Handel persisted in playing as he did,
he would jump on the harpsichord and break it to
pieces.

Handp-L.

97

" Oh, very well," said the musician, " let me know
when you will do that, and I will advertise it ; for I
am sure more people will come to sec you jump than
to hear you ' sing/

Handel made a good deal of money in Ireland,
but he soon lost it again in London, for though
nothing could hinder his great successes, there were
times when he did not offer the public any extra-
ordinary novelty, but trusted to the general goodness
of his music to fill Covent Garden, or any other
theatre. The remnants of the party who had once
supported the rival opera, were still very bitter against
him, and insisted on giving dances and card parties
on oratorio nights. The result was the frequent
emptiness of the Theatre, and once more Handel
became bankrupt, but as he was one of the kind of
men who never know when they are beaten he
went on again almost as full of heart and hope as
before.

The heat of party spirit was shown in all sorts of
ways, and it is said that one day Mr. John Freke, a well-
known surgeon, attached to St. Bartholomew's Hospi-
tal, asserted that Dr. Greene, the "organ blower," as
Handel styled him, was as great a composer as the
" dear Saxon." This was repeated to Hogarth, then
in the height of his fame, and who had probably come
to know Handel pretty intimately in connection with
the Foundling Hospital, to which he also was a
benefactor. He was very indignant, and exclaimed —
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" That fellow Freke is always shooting his balls at
random. Handel is a giant in music ; Greene, only a
light Florimel kind of composer/'

" Ah," said his informant, " but Frcke said you
were as good a portrait painter as Vandyke."

" There he was right," replied the artist, " and
so I am ; give me but my time and a good sub-
ject."

Hogarth was not the only artist who has been
obliged to paint every sitter that offered, and to do
it as quickly as possible to keep the pot boiling. His
opinion of himself need not be considered conceited,
and his recognition of a great man when he saw him,
proves that he himself was of the same stamp.

CHAPTER IX.

NATIONAL FESTIVITIES.

The victory at Dettingen did not end war at once,
for the nation had to wait five long years for the
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle to be signed, but when it
was done on the 7th of October, 1748, their re-
joicing knew no bounds. Handel as Composer to the
Court was called upon to prepare suitable music to
be played in the open air outside St. James's Palace
on April 27th, 1749, which was the day appointed for
a general holiday. The public were to be delighted

Handel.

99

with an extraordinary discharge of cannon, and dis-
play of fireworks in the Green Park, where a Doric
Temple with two wings was erected about 500 feet
from the Royal Library. First of all came the grand
overture for wind instruments composed by Handel,
which was a great success, and as soon as it was over,
a Royal salute from 10 1 pieces of brass ordnance
heralded the fireworks. Unfortunately at this junc-
ture the Doric Temple caught fire ; all the able-
bodied people in the crowd rushed to the rescue,
and it was with difficulty that the Royal Library
was saved, so the popular sight-seeing came to an
untimely end.

Rich and fashionable people, however, had the
opportunity of hearing Handel's music twice re-
hearsed at Vauxhall Gardens, on the second of which
occasions 12,000 persons, who had given 9s. 6d.
each for their tickets, were present, and London
Bridge was blocked up for three hours by the car-
riages. The servants in attendance were alone suffi-
cient to form a crowd, and a scuffle took place in
which several people were hurt.

The firework score is the only one in which Han-
del ever included the music for a serpent, a brass
instrument of remarkably soft, rich tone, very rarely
used, because so few people can play it in tune,
though it was invented in France as long ago as
1590.

It is said that Handel never saw or heard one till
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he came to England, and did not admire the playing
on the first that came under his notice —

"What be that ? he asked with an exclamation of
disapproval.

" A new instrument called the serpent," was the
reply.

"Oh, the serpent," retorted Handel, "aye, but it
not be the .serpent what tempted Eve."

The Firework music was performed for the second
time for the benefit of the Foundling Hospital, then
just established, and of which Handel was a warm-
hearted supporter. Captain Coram founded it in
1741, but it soon outgrew the building in Hatton
Garden where it was first opened, and the present
edifice was erected by subscription in Lamb's Con-
duit Fields. Handel offered the proceeds of the
Firework music towards the funds for finishing the
chapel, and in recognition of his liberality was at
once enrolled as one of the Governors and Guardians
of the Hospital.

The performance took place on the 27 th of May in
the chapel, and was on a larger scale than was at first
proposed ; as it included not only the firework over-
ture but the Anthem for the Peace, portions of the
oratorio of Solomon, and a selection of choruses, &c.,
suitable for the occasion, taken from many of Handel's
works. The Prince and Princess of Wales, with an
immense number of the nobility were present, and the
money raised by the sale of tickets brought in 500

Handel.

lOI

guineas, while the King sent in ;^2,ooo, and an anony-
mous donor ;^50.

The third part of the performance is now known
as the Foundling Hospital Anthem, and Handel
gave a score of it with seventeen pages written with
his own hand, and the remainder copied by his
friend and amanuensis, Christopher Smith, to the
Institution.

Handel now seemed to feel that the Hospital was
under his particular care, and had an organ built for it
by Parkes, which, though much altered and enlarged,
remains to the present time. It had originally three
manuals and twenty-one stops. This was Handel^s
gift to the institution, and he opened it on the ist of
May, 1750, with a performance of the Messiah, for the
benefit of the charity. There were then no galleries
in the chapel, but when the ladies came without hoops
and the gentlemen without swords a thousand could
be accommodated. This performance produced
another 500 guineas, and as not half the people who
wished to buy tickets could be supplied with them,
it was given again a fortnight afterwards and brought
in the same sum.

As long as Handel lived he gave the Messiah
once a year, for the funds of the Foundling Hospital,
and as the receipts rose in proportion to the accom-
modation, he thus added no less than £6,gi$ to its
revenues.

He also gave the Hospital a complete score of the

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Messiah, which he had been so prudent as not to
publish, in order to save himself from such piracies as
Arne's with Acis and Galatea, and other earlier pieces.
Of course he reserved the right of repeating the
Messiah whenever he chose for his own benefit, but
the Governors did not seem to think that Handel's
word and promise were enough, so they endeavoured
to secure their rights by Act of Parliament, and drew
up a petition accordingly. This made the composer
furious, " For what ? " he cried, with many exple-
tives. " Shall the Foundling put mine oratorio in
the Parliament ! Mine musick shall not go to the
Parliament ! "

During Handel's residence in England he saw
a gradual change going on in the musical world,
and often said, " When I first came hither I found
among the English many good players, but no
composers; but now they are all composers and no
players."

One of these small composers, a Rev. Mr. Felton,
published some organ concertos by subscription, as so
many things were published in those days, and finding
a fair amount of success thought he might as well try
a second set. He knew that if Handel would but put
his name on the list, it would help him greatly, and
as he did not know him personally, he requested Mr.
Brown, the leader of the King's Band, to ask this
favour for him.

Brown and Handel were on very good terms, so

Handel.

103

one morning, while the latter was being shaved,
Brown called, and very gently told him of the clergy-
man's ambition.

It should not cost Handel a farthing he said ; Mr
Felton would feel honoured if he would accept a copy ;
all he wanted was the great composer's name among
his list of subscribers.

Up jumped Handel in a rage, his face all covered
with lather, and came down on the astonished Brown
with most violent language, and adding — " A parson
make concertos ! Why he no make sermons ? "

An instance in which he acknowledged a mistake
very thoroughly is told by Dr. Burney. In Judas
Maccabeus there is a duet. From these Dread Scenes,
which Handel one day took in his pocket to the
house of Frasi, a famous singer of the day, who was
preparing to take part in it. Dr. Burney was there, so
Handel sat down to the harpsichord and himself sang
Frasi's part. The doctor looking over his shoulder,
hummed the second so much to Handel's pleasure
that he told him to sing it out. When he did
so there was something wrong, and Handel flew
into one of his passions. Burney waited a few
minutes, and when he was calmer, ventured to say
he thought there must be some mistake in the
score. Handel looked and found it really was so,
and had the good sense to say at once, " I beg
your pardon. I am a very odd dog. Master
Schmidt is to blame."

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An instance of large hearted benevolence was
shown by Handel when Cuzzoni came to England in
1748, broken in health and voice, and the mere wreck
of her former self. He actually allowed her to sing in
the Messiah at Covent Garden in spite of her past
behaviour to him, and her lack of power to render his
music with the proper effect and expression. It was
one of her last appearances, and she went back to
Florence to face a life of poverty. In her prosperous
days she had never saved a farthing, or made a
true friend, so she had to support herself by making
buttons, and only just kept above starvation point.

While Handel was so generously giving perfor-
mances for the benefit of the Foundling Hospital, and
crowds came to hear them, he was not so fortunate in
his own private venture at Covent Garden, where on
the i6th of March, 1750, he brought out his new
oratorio, Theodora, which is now little known by
name, though it contains the familiar and deathless
A ngels ever Bright and Fair, Vemis Laughing froin the
Skies, Lord to Thee each Night and Day, and He Saw
the Lovely Youth, which last Handel himself thought
a finer conception than even the Hallelujah Chorus
in the Messiah.

Strange to say, the public did not care for Theo-
dora, much to the vexation of its composer, though
he made the best of it, and when the house was
terribly empty, said, " Never mind, the music will
sound the better "

Haxdel.

105

The King went regularly, whether anybody else
did or no, but then he was a true lover of music, and
liked a good long evening of it. Lord Chesterfield
was met on one of these nights leaving Covent
Garden very early, so a friend asked if he was dis-
missed from attendance on his Royal master, or
whether there was no oratorio that evening. " Yes,"
answered Lord Chesterfield, " they are still perform-
ing ; but I thought it best to retire, lest I should
disturb the King in his privacy."

Handel himself declared that the Jews who had
crowded to Judas Maccabeus would not go to
Theodora because it was a Christian story, and
that the great ladies of the day would not go
because it was not sufficiently interesting to suit
them.

As there was so much room to spare he inti-
mated to his friends that he would give free
admission to members of the musical profession,
and two gentlemen who had the offer did not
accept it. Afterwards, when the Messiah was going
to be performed, and the latter asked for free tickets,
Handel exclaimed —

" Oh, your servant, meine Herren, you are —
dainty ! You would not go to Theodora ; there was
room enough to dance there, when that was per-
formed."

When the season was over Handel went on his
last visit to Halle, where he was warmly welcomed.

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and found that his god-daughter had grown up, and
had several step-brothers and sisters. On the road
between the Hague and Haarlem he met with an
accident, for his carriage was overturned, and he
was severely bruised and shaken. This, perhaps,
marks the time when infirmities began to grow upon
him ; for afterwards he did not compose so quickly,
and his writing began to waver. The next year
he went to Cheltenham to take the waters, and
found his sight failing, which depressed his spirits
terribly.

However, it was during 175 1 that he composed
Jephthah, his last great work, and by no means the
least beautiful of his oratorios. He did not write it
right off at once, but altered and re-composed a great
deal of it, which showed a great change in his habit
of working. JephtJmh has always been a great favour-
ite, and in its music the well-known Beard, Braham,
and Sims Reeves have won some of their best
laurels.

From this time the oratorio season began to be
more profitable. The petty jealousy and spite shown
to Handel by those who had in previous years taken
up Buononcini died out, and he began once more to
save money. This was no doubt a comfort to him
under the trial that was now threatening. The
symptoms of failing sight were those of the complaint
called giitta sercna, and when he consulted Mr.
Samuel Sharp, of Guy's Hospital, about the end of

Handel.

107

1 75 1, he was told that the best he could hope for
would be freedom from pain. In the sadness that
settled upon him after hearing the oculist's opinion
he feared he should never be able to conduct his
oratorios again, and sent for John Christopher Smith,
the son of his friend and secretary, whose musical
education he had so carefully provided for, asking
that he would come to him at once. Just at that
time Smith was travelling abroad with a gentleman
of large fortune, to whose affection and influence he
looked forward as of great future value. • But Handel
had been a second father to him, besides being his
own father's constant friend and helper, and he lost
no time in returning home. He undertook to play
the organ at Covent Garden with Handel sitting near
and giving hints as he went on. One evening when
Samson was performed, Beard, the great tenor, sang
with deep feeling, the lines,

*' Total eclipse — no sun, no moon,
All dark amidst the blaze of noon."

And the sight of the composer sitting by the organ
he loved, and unable to see the house where he had
known so many successes, was so pathetic that there
were few spectators without tears in their eyes. In
the following May, however, Handel had one or both
of his eyes operated on by Mr. Bramfield, surgeon
to the Princess of Wales, and the operation at first
appeared successful, but in a very short time his sight

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failed again, till in January, 1753, he was nearly, if
not quite, blind. His biographers, however, differ
as to whether he could or could not see a little.
It is certain that after the season at Covent
Garden when young Smith played for him, he
managed very well, playing his concertos, &c., from
memory, and if that failed him, improvising as he
went on.

He still enjoyed his various Royal pensions, and
his friends tried to persuade him to keep a carriage,
but all in vain ; he felt that his income was precarious,
and only consented to hire one when he required it.
At first he felt very nervous about playing the organ
at the oratorios, and told Mr. Sharp, the surgeon, that
he feared he should not be able to do it. Thereupon
Mr. Sharp recommended a blind musician as his
assistant, saying that his memory had never been
known to fail. Handel laughed heartily and ex-
claimed—

" Mr. Sharp, have you never read the Scriptures }
Do you not remember, if the blind lead the blind they
both fall into the ditch ? "

Handel was a great lover of pictures, and not only
went to see all that were exhibited and all the
collections within his reach, but was the owner of
some fine Rembrandts given him by Mr. Bernard
Granville, a Derbyshire gentleman, to whom he
returned them by a codicil to his will.

As old friends died out Handel became more and

Handel,

109

more solitary ; he did not care to make new ones, and
spent much of his time alone, or in the company of
the Smiths. He was sometimes to be seen at Court,
and also at Leicester House, where the Prince of
Wales lived, and he was very fond of Mrs. Cibber,
to whose house he liked to go on Sunday evenings.
There was a time when he had been severe upon her
for not knowing as much about music as he thought
she ought, but her sweet voice and sweeter temper,
and kind thoughtful ways had won his affection and
they were great friends.

It was she who once asked him what he thought
of Gluck as a composer, and received the answer,
" He knows no more of Contrapunto as mein cook,
Waltz."

At Mrs. Gibber's Handel met Quin, the actor,
who was very fond of music, and one day she per-
suaded him to play on the harpsichord that Quin
might hear. Handel played the overture to Siroe^
which ends with a kind of jig, and shortly after-
wards went away. The lady then asked Quin
whether he did not think the musician had a charm-
ing hand.

" A liand, madam ! you mistake ; it's a foot,'-" was
the reply.

" Pooh, pooh ! " retorted Mrs. Cibber ; " has he
not a fine finger 1 "

" Toes, by Jove ! madam ! "

The truth was that Handel's hands had become

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so fat that there were only dimples to be seen at the
knuckles, and his fingers were so curved and compact
that they were scarcely visible. This must sound
strange to those who think of the harpsichord only as
a smaller piano, but it was not so much intended for
execution as for effect, the keys being pressed softly
down like those of an organ.

The speech once made by Handel to Frasi, who
had not the least notion of applying herself to any-
thing, was very mild. She said she was going to learn
Thorough Bass so as to accompany herself, and
Handel held up his hands exclaiming, " Oh, what
may we not expect ! "

It was probably in Handel's later years, when he
spent so much time alone, that he got into a habit of
talking to himself He had been persuaded to take a
boy into his house who was supposed to be quite a
pattern of goodness and diligence, as well as to have
a great talent for music. Handel did not believe
in him, though others did, and it proved in the long
run that he was right, for the boy behaved very
ill, and ran away. One day the musician was walk-
ing by himself in St. James's Park, pacing slowly up
and down, when some one heard him say, " The
father was deceived, the mother was deceived, but I
was not deceived. He is ein scoundrel and good for
nothing."

Perhaps it was also when his sight failed that his
hearing grew keen, and he listened for music in all

Handel.

Ill

passing sounds. He once told Lady Luxborough that
the airs for many of his songs were suggested by the
street cries, for which London was then so famous.
And in a fragment of manuscript in the FitzwilHam
Museum at Cambridge there are the words, " Buoy
my matches, my matches buoy," with a few notes
and a memorandum, " John Shaw, near a brandy
shop St. Giles in Tyburn Road sells matches
about."

These few words show that Handel's quick ear
had caught the exact sound into which cockneys
distort such words as " I " and " buy " and
"try.''

About this time Handel often wiled away the
heavy hours by walking about Marylebone Gardens
with Mr. Fountayne, a clergyman of a very musical
turn of mind, who took pupils of good family at
high terms. It was almost one of the sights of Lon-
don to see these little fellows walk two by two to
Marylebone Church on Sundays, in gold laced velvet
coats of delicate colours, with their lace ruffles and
collars, cocked hats, silk stockings and buckled shoes.
And on week days they used to play about the gar-
dens while Mr. Fountayne and Handel strolled to
and fro, chatting, or sat down and heard the band
play orchestral music.

" Come, Mr. Fountayne," said Handel, one
summer evening, " let us listen to this piece, I want
know your opinion of it."

112

The World's Work^s.

So they sat down and listened attentively for a
while, and the old clergA,-man turning to his friend
observed —

" It is not worth listening to — it is veiy poor
stuff."

" You are right, ^Ir. Fountayne." answered
Handel ; " it is ver\- poor stuff. I thought so myself
when I had finished it."

The clerg\-man, who had not known ■nho the
piece was by before, began to ajxjlogise, but Handel
told him there was no need, for the music had been
hastilj- composed when he was much pressed for
time, and the criticism was " as correct as it was
honest"

A man who could so well distinguish between the
value of his own works would have felt the full \-alue
of the opinions of one or two musicians who lived and
flourished long after his death. It is related that
when Beethoven la\' dj-ing he pointed to Dr. Arnold's
edition of Handel's works and said. "Das ist das
waJirel* — " that is the truth ! "

Mozart, too, is reported to have declared that
" Handel understands effect better than any of
us. When he chooses he strikes like a thunder-
bolt"

Smaller men have said that he borrowed other
people's ideas, picked up pebbles and polished them
until they became precious stones, but never said
whose the pebbles originally were. Such speeches

Handel.

113

are very unjust, for Handel never hesitated to ac-
knowledge where any idea that he utilised came
from, as for instance the ancient Calabrian Pifa he
heard in Rome in his youth, and utilised in ex-
pressing the adoration of the shepherds in the
Messiah, and the London street cries as above
mentioned.

CHAPTER X.

NEARING THE END.

Although Jephthah was Handel's last oratorio, he
was not idle after its production, but with Smith's
co-operation kept on adding and altering, improving
and expanding many of his works. On Sundays he
was a regular and devout worshipper at St. George's,
Hanover Square, and all through the oratorio seasons
he was in his place every night, and as indefatigable
as ever. His old friend Schmidt, or Smith, was still
his treasurer, and they lived on the best of terms, till
one day when on pleasure bent, and perhaps also that
Handel might take the chalybeate waters, they went
down to Tunbridge together. No cloud had ever
come between them before, but "on that occasion they
quarrelled, no doubt about some trifle, and Smith
instead of waiting till the storm had blown over, left
H

114 The World's Workers.

Handel to his own devices and went off. However
passionate the musician may have been, this was
not ver>' kind considering that he was nearly, if not
quite, blind, and needed a companion for safety's
sake.

Handel was so hurt and angry at being thus
deserted that he declared he would never meet
Smith again, and though many tried to reconcile the
two old companions, it was all in vain. While in this
frame of mind Handel one day said to John Chris-
topher Smith, who had behaved like a son to him in
return for the affection and care shown him from
childhood, that he intended to put his name in his
will instead of his father^s. But tlie young man
with rare right feeling refused to hear of it, and
declared that if Handel persisted, he, too, would
leave him and never assist with the oratorios any
more.

" What will the world think," he asked, " if you
set aside my father and leave his legacy to me .''
They will suppose I tried, and succeeded in under-
mining him for my own advantage."

Perhaps Handel had not seen it before in that
light, and perhaps, too, he felt that he could not get
on at the oratorios without his young friend and
helper, so no more was said on the subject for a long
while. But about three weeks before Handel died
he asked Smith, junior, to receive the Sacrament with
him, and he, feeling almost equal affection for both

Handel.

his elders, asked him how he could think of com-
municating when he was not at peace with all the
world, and especially with the friend of his youth
who had been faithful to him through clouds and
sunshine for the last thirty years. This was more
than Handel's warm heart could resist, and he was
at once reconciled to the father whose son had so well
pleaded his cause.

Towards the close of Handel's life, the Prince of
Wales, the

"Fred, who was alive and is dead,"

of the rhymesters, left the dying-out party opposed
to the composer, and became one of his fervent ad-
mirers. His son, afterwards George HI., was then a
very small boy, but whenever Handel came to the red
house in Leicester Square, he used to listen to his
playing with such close attention and interest, that
one day the old man asked him if he liked the music.
The child answered so enthusiastically that Handel
cried, " A good boy, a good boy, you shall protect my
fame when I am dead."

And George HI. did always keep his early
admiration for Handel, and cherished his renown.
Many years after, when an old man at Windsor, he
asked Mrs. Wesley, the widow of the poet of Method-
ism, who, like so many Welshwomen, had been cele-
brated in youth for her beautiful voice, what she used
to sing.

H 2

ii6 The World's Workers.

" HandePs oratorio songs/' was the answer.

" Handel ! " exclaimed the King ; " there is nothing
to be compared to him."

One Sunday during the King's illness, when the
Queen and her daughters were very sad at heart, they
asked Charles Wesley, who was then in great favour
at Court, to play to them on the harpsichord, saying,
" We know Mr. Wesley is like His Majestj'^, partial to
Handel ! " and were very much touched, when the
sympathetic young man chose, "Comfort ye, comfort
ye, my people."

Quite early in 1758 Handel's large appetite
suddenly and completely forsook him, and he took it
as a sure token that his race was nearly run. No
plausible reasoning would he accept, nor indulge in
any false hopes. But he was not afraid of death, and
went quietly on with his duties to the last. The
oratorio season of 1759 began on March 2nd, and he
directed ten performances, the last being that of the
Messiah on the 6th of April. To all outsiders he
appeared as well as he had usually been for some
time, and night after night he used to take the receipts
home with him in his carriage. One night he told a
friend, who often paid him a visit in the treasury', that
the weight of the bag containing his gold and silver
would have been as likely to make him ill, as poor
Correggio's copper made him, if he had as far to
carry it. This, of course, was in allusion to his
increasing weakness.

Handel.

117

On April 6th he was as bright and energetic as
usual, but when the performance of the Messiah
was over he was taken with faintness, which he at
once felt was the beginning of the end. He was
taken home and put to bed, and never rose again,
though he lingered eight days, and was sensible to
the last. On the i ith.of April he added a fourth and
last codicil to his will, and signed it himself. His
medical attendant was Dr. Warren, who said that the
dying man had a great desire to depart on Good
Friday, " in hopes,""' to quote his own words, " of
meeting his good God, his sweet Lord and Saviour,
on the Day of His resurrection." This physician,
who was present when he breathed his last, says
that his wish was fulfilled, as he died just before
midnight on April 13th, 1759, the following Sunday
being Easter Day. It does not seem very impor-
tant, but there has been a great deal of discussion
as to whether he really departed then or a few hours
later.

The funeral took place at eight o^clock in the
evening of the following Friday, April 20th, in
the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. The
Dean, prebends, and all the choir took part in the
service, and at least three thousand persons were
present.

What a scene it must have' been, for the dark old
Abbey was very imperfectly lighted with its candles
and flambeaux, and the music must have been

Ii8 The World's Workers.

strangely thrilling as the High Priest of ]\Ielody was
laid to his last rest !

To Roubiliac was entrusted the carving of the
monument which may be seen to this day against
the western wall of the south transept, and for which
Handel had left £600 in his will.

This sculptor had many years before executed an
admirable statue of Handel, and a cast of the face
taken after death enabled him to bring the one on
the monument into very close resemblance with the
Handel with whom Londoners had of late years been
familiar.

In the upper part of the arch there is an angel
playing on a harp, and in the background an organ.
The composer stands up as if listening, with a pen
in his left hand, and his right resting on a score of
the Messiah, on which the first bars of / Know that
My Redeemer Livcth may be traced. Underneath
there is simply the name, with the dates of birth
and death, and a shield bearing the family coat-of-
arms.

We know but little of Handel's last hours, though
a letter from his friend and legatee, Mr. Smyth, of
New Bond Street, to Mr. Barnard Granville, was
published in IMr. Delany's autobiography and corres-
pondence about twenty years ago, which we give
entire—

" Dear Sir, — According to your request to me,
when you left London, that I would let you know

Handel.

119

when our good friend departed this hfe : on Saturday
last, at eight o'clock in the morn, died the great and
good Mr. Handel. He was sensible to the last
moment ; made a codicil to his will on Tuesday,
ordered to be buried privately in Westminster Abbey,
and a monument not to exceed £600 for him. I had
the pleasure to reconcile him to his old friends ; he
saw them and forgave them, and let all their legacies
stand ! In the codicil he left many legacies to his
friends ; and among the rest he left me £,6<x>, and
has left to you the two pictures you formerly gave
him. He took leave of all his friends on Friday
morning, and desired to see nobody but the doctor
and apothecary, and myself At seven o'clock
in the morning he took leave of me, and told me
we should meet again. As soon as I was gone, he
told his servant not to let me come to him any
more, for that he had now done with the world. He
died as he lived, a good Christian, with a true sense
of his duty to God and man, and in perfect charity
with all the world. If there is anything that I
can be of further service to you, please let me
know. I was to have set out for Bath to-morrow,
but must attend the funeral and shall then go next
week."

Some weeks before Handel's death his twelfth
performance of the Messiah, for the benefit of the
Foundling Hospital, had been announced for the 3rd

I20

The WoRLifs Workers.

of May. but as he had been in his grave nearly a fort-
night before the appointed date, the >x>unger Smith
directed and played it, and continued to do so everj'
year till 1761, during which time it brought in £\,Zl^
to the Hospital From the latter date till 1777, Mr,
J ohn Stanley, the blind organist, mentioned b}- Mr.
Sharp to Handel, undertook it, and the receipts
realised £2,0^2, so that adding these sums to those
produced during the composer's life, the Messiah was
the means of contributing considerably over ;^lo,CMX>
1 3 a most deserving charitj-.

About ten years after Handel's death, Mr. Stanley,
who lost his sight when onlj^ two years of age, told
Dr. Boyce, and some other friends, that he had alwa>'s
taken what Handel told him about his childish
love for music and what he actually pla>^ in early
years, with a great many grains of salt, and could
not credit it at all till he met with Uttle Charles
Wesle>% who at four years old was a musical prodigj'.
Those who remembered and loved Handel, such
as Mr. Gran^Ue Beard, the tenor singer, the Riches,
and others, took great interest in this boy, who
ultimately became a ver>' fine organist, as well as. a
favourite with George III. and the Prince R^ent, and
in due time taught Princess Charlotte ; but he had
no other gift, and it might almost be said no other
sense than music

How Handel was continually in the minds of his
friends, is shewn by their comments on this boy's

H AX DEL.

121

pla>nng. Mr. Kelway, a noted mustctan, then
organist at St. Meirtin's-in-the-fields, said —

" Handel's hands did not lie on the instrument
better then yours do."

" How Handel would have shaken his sides if he
could have heard him."

" I wish Handel were alive to hear him."

And Mr. Russell, a portrait painter, of some
eminence in his day, observed that if he had
been outside the door listening, not knowing that
Handel was dead, he should have believed that the
great meister himself was playing the well-known
music.

Handel's will, with its four codicils, was a ver\-
comprehensive one ; he left a considerable sum o:'
money to his god-daughter, the eldest child of his
late sister and Dr. Michaelsen of Halle, ^£"2,400 to
the elder Smith, his large harpsichcMrd, small chamber
oi^an, music books and a considerable sum <^ money
to the younger Smith, his great organ, then standing
at Covent Garden Theatre, to Mr. Rich, and two
pictures by Denner to Mr. Jennens.

Of course there were many more bequests to
friends and serv ants, for the maestro had saved about
^^20,000, and distributed it ver>- thoughtfully, but those
above-mentioned are the most generaJlj- interesting
items. He once wished to alter the arrangements
about his music-books, telling John Christopher Smith
that he should like to leave them to the University

122

The World's Workers.

of Oxford, and would compensate him by a legacy
of ^3,000. But the young man would not hear of it,
so Handel did not insist, or alter his will. Some
years afterwards, the King of Prussia offered Smith
;^2,ooo for them, but he refused it, and presented
all the MSS., Roubiliac's bust of Handel, and his
harpsichord, to George HI. The odd thing is,
that though the music is at Buckingham Palace,
and the bust at Windsor Castle, the harpsichord
is at the South Kensington Museum, and does
not appear ever to have been in the possession of
royalty.

Lady Rivers, who was John Christopher Smith's
daughter-in-law, had this harpsichord which was
made by Andreas Ruckers, at Antwerp, in 165 1, and
is a handsome double one, v/ith two rows of keys,
and a number of monkeys holding a concert inlaid
on the sounding board. When she died it was bought
by a Mr. Wickham, who again sold it to Mr. Hawtry,
a Canon of Winchester. Dr. Chard, the organist
at the Cathedral, was the owner of it after Mr.
Hawtry died, and it was ultimately bought by
a Mr. Hooper of that city, who sold it, and it
was eventually placed as a relic in the Kensington
Museum.

Some people have disputed the fact of this being
HandeFs harpsichord, because one of his biographers
mentions that from long u.se the keys of his " Rucker "
were worn and hollowed out like so many spoons, but

Handel.

123

a great authority on the subject declares that the
key-boards are comparatively modern, and not the
ones originally belonging to the harpsichord. One
wonders how any person can have been such a Goth
as to remove the keys worn by the touch of Handel's
fingers, but as the instrument has been through so
many hands, it is possible that some of its earlier
owners may have renewed the key-boards for con-
venience of practising, and if the old ones were
thus purposely removed and put aside in a lumber
room they may easily have been lost sight of alto-
gether.

Charles Wesley had an harpsichord by Burkat
Shudi, which was said to have belonged to Handel,
and he lived so much among people who remembered
the author of the Messiah, that the tradition was likely
to be true. This was bought by some private indi-
vidual after his death, and no one has ever taken the
trouble to trace it. It may perhaps have belonged to
Handel before his first bankruptcy, for it is thought
that when that misfortune came, he sold a good deal
of furniture, and never replaced it, as the effects at
the house in Brook Street were very poor and meagre.
They were purchased by John de Bourke, his man
servant, for ^48, and doubtless dropped to pieces long
ago.

One of Roubiliac's busts of Handel is at the
Foundling Hospital, and there are a great many of
his portraits in existence. A small one by Denner

124 The World's Workers.

was presented by Lady Rivers to the Sacred Har-
monic Society, a full length portrait by Hudson is
preserved at Gopsall, and the Queen has a copy of
it at Buckingham Palace. The Royal Society of
Musicians also has two by the same artist, and one
by Sir James Thornhill is in the Fitzwilliam Museum
at Cambridge. A portrait by Forstemann is also said
to be in existence at Halle, and, with various trinkets
once belonging to Handel, is owned by some descen-
dants of his niece Johanna Friderica Floerchen,
nee Michaelsen.

Either Handel was not much of a letter-writer,
or very few of his epistles have been preserved. As
most of the latter are in English, a language he did not
write very fluently, we may naturally suppose that there
must have been some considerable number in German
to his mother and other relations and friends, with all
of whom he was on affectionate terms ; but some
families hoard up old letters, and others do not, and
perhaps his brother-in-law and cousins were among
the latter. The few letters we know of are those
written to Halle, after his mother's death, the corres-
pondence with Mr. Jennens, which is now at Pack-
ington, the Earl of Aylesford's seat, and some letters
to Mr. Granville, now in the possession of Lady
Llanover.

The collection of MS. music at Buckingham
Palace is in eighty-seven folio volumes, and there are
also a great many of Smith's transcripts, and some

Handel.

25

early printed editions. The Fitzwilliam collection
consists of small but interesting fragments, and the
little there is in the British Museum is of the same
character.

There are two remarkable collections of Smith's
transcripts, one of which is in the Public Library at
Hamburg, to which it was sold at a low price by
Mr. Schoelcher, who bought it very cheaply from
a Bristol bookseller, who purchased it after Lady
Rivers' death.

The other one was probably sold by Smith him-
self to some one, from whom Dr. Ireland, Dean of
Westminster, purchased it. He gave it to a Mr.
Brownsmith, who left or sold it to Mr. Barrett
Lennard, of Hampstead. There are eighty-five
volumes in all, sixty-four of which are bound in calf,
and are kept in an old oak bookcase made on purpose
for them by an earlier owner.

A few personal relics of Handel are still in
existence. His watch, with the anvil and hammer,
supposed to have inspired the Harmonious Black-
smith, and other items, were offered for sale by
public auction in 1872, when the collect on of
the late Mr, Snoxell, of Charterhouse Square, was
brought to the hammer, but was bought in by the
executors.

A pitch-pipe which Handel always carried about
with him, and which he gave to Dr. Burney, belongs
to Mr. George Mence Smith, one of the coiTiinittee of

126 The World's Workers.

the Sacred Harmonic Society, who purchased it when
that body was broken up.

Handel's tuning fork, or one that he used a good
deal, belongs to the Rev. G. T. Driffield. He left it
behind him at the Foundling Hospital after the
famous first performance of the Messiah for that
charity in 175 1.

How the English nation delights to honour the
great composer who " set the Bible to music " has
been shown on many occasions since his death. In
1784 the centenary of his birth was celebrated by
grand performances of his works in Westminster
Abbey, and in the Pantheon, Oxford Street, then
recently built for somewhat the same purposes as the
Albert Hall is used for now. It was a year too early,
but when such a change as that from the "Old Style"
to the " New " one takes place during a man's life, his
contemporaries as well as succeeding generations
are apt to get their dates somewhat mixed and
confused.

George III. was present in Westminster Abbey,
and so much did he enjoy the Hallelujah Choms,
that by a wave of his hand he commanded it to be
repeated, and when the Amen Chorus came he did
the same. Very few people apparently care now for
the latter, as it comes at the end of the oratorio
when everybody wraps up and goes away, thus
disturbing those who wish to listen, and behaving
as though they themselves did not think it worth

Handel.

127

hearing. Justice is only done to it when it is
used as an isolated chorus in the middle of a
concert.

The organ was played by Dr. Joah Bates at this
Handel Commemoration in Westminster Abbey, and
he put in a great many more harmonies than were
written. The late Sir George Smart, then a little
Chapel Royal chorister, turned over the leaves for
him and appeared to be very much surprised. The
organist, reading this in his face, said, "You seem
curious to discover my authority for the chords I
have just been playing.-"

" Yes, sir," replied the boy, " for I don't see them
in the score."

" That is true/' rejoined Dr. Bates, " but Handel
used himself to supply the harmonies, just as I
have been doing, and I have often seen him do
it.''

This came with the weight of authority, and the
little chorister was more than satisfied.

In June, 1859, the centenary of Handel's death
was commemorated by a three days' Festival, at
which his works were performed on a very splendid
scale, and similar but not quite such elaborate
performances were held every three years up to 1883.
In 1885 the usual Festival was celebrated one year
earlier than usual, because of its being the two-
hundredth anniversary of the great composer's
birth.

128 The World's Workers.

Most emphatically may Handel be styled a
" World's Worker." His quickness in production was
from force of genius, perfect knowledge, and constant
industr)', and his masterpieces will endure and delight
the world to the end of time.

Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Saivage, London, E.C.

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