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 
 
6 
 
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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 
 
12 
 
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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 
 
14 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
1 6 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
i8 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 B 2 
 
20 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
22 
 
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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 
 
24 
 
 TiiF. World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
28 
 
 The W orld's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
30 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
 The W orld's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
42 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
 The Worlds Workers. 
 
 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 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
54 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
58 
 
 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 
 
62 
 
 The Worlds Workers. 
 
 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 
 
64 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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." 
 E 2 
 
68 
 
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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 
 
70 
 
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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, 
 
72 
 
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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 
 
74 
 
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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 
 
76 
 
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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 
 
78 
 
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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 — 
 
Handel. 
 
 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- 
 
8o The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
82 
 
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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 
 F 2 
 
84 
 
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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, 
 
86 
 
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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 
 
ss The Worlds Workers. 
 
 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 
 
Has DEL, 
 
 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 
 
90 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
92 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
94 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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." 
 
96 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 — 
 G 
 
98 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 " 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 
 G 2 
 
lOO The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
102 The World's Workers. 
 
 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." 
 
I04 The World i> Workers. 
 
 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. 
 
io6 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
io8 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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 
 
no 
 
 The World's Workers. 
 
 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. 
 
>rinceton Theological Semina^ Librarie: 
 
 1 1012 01207 0613 
 
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