On the 26th of February, 1752, Handel produced Jeptha, the last of his works. It was the song of the swan. The air, “Waft her, angels,” was invariably performed at the festivals, when these musical solemnities were composed of detached pieces. “In gentle murmurs” is a most graceful invention, and if “Farewell, ye limpid springs” were used in concerts, it would be as successful as the admirable “Before my eyes,” of Hobin des Bois. I do not hesitate to assert that there is no modern Italian quintett which is more melodious than that of “All that is in Hamor.” And how many other splendid things are there, without even mentioning the incomparable recitative, “Deeper and deeper!” It is scarcely to be believed that such beauties could be begotten in a head that had numbered sixty-seven winters. Cradock says that in June, 1774, the whole of Jeptha, the Utrecht Te Deum, Jubilate, and the Coronation Anthems, were sung at Leicester: “Lord Sandwich both days took the kettle-drums.” I have a handbook of this oratorio, which was printed for the “Gloucester Music Meeting” of 1772. Our fathers were much happier than we; for they could sometimes listen to these great works, which modern conductors (with the single exception of Mr. Surrnan) leave slumbering in their glory.

Of all the Arts, Music is that which brings the greatest consolation to the mind, when consolation is possible. The misfortunes of the times have compelled me to quit my native country for a season, and in my retirement in London I have found a great source of consolation in listening to the Oratorios of Handel, which I had already learnt to admire during three previous visits to England, and at home in the constant society of classical amateurs. Out of this grew a wish to possess all the works of that great man, to whom I felt so deeply indebted. In bringing these together, I found it necessary, to their proper arrangement, that I should make myself acquainted with the various authors who have made mention of Handel. These researches, commenced by me when alone and in the bitterness of exile, drew me on much further than I had anticipated, and produced results which seem to me capable of interesting both the connoisseurs of Handel and those who know nothing about him; for he was not only one of the first composers that the world ever saw, but he was also a man gifted with a great and noble character. It is in this belief that I offer to the reader this work, the fruit of three years spent in zealous and assiduous labour.

Although attached to the chapel of the Duke of Chandos, Handel threw himself, about the beginning of 1720, into an enterprise which suited the activity of his mind. A company of French comedians occupied the King's Theatre in the Haymarket, and no one seemed to be tempted to revive the Italian opera; when a few noblemen conceived the idea of doing so, and opened a private subscription, which amounted to £50,000. A committee of twenty directors was formed, which comprised many names of historical repute: the Dukes of Newcastle, Portland, and Queensbury; the Earls of Burlington, Stair, and Waldegrave ; Lords Bingley, Stanhope, &c. In 1726, the committee of direction selected for the year included the Dukes of Richmond and of Manchester; the Marquis of Carnarvon ; the Earls of Albemarle, Burlington, and Chesterfield; and the Lord Mayor of London, &c. George the First (himself a subscriber to the amount of £1000) permitted the society to assume the name of the Royal Academy of Music. The assistance of Handel was then sought for, and the consent of the Msecenas of Cannons was easily obtained. Handel undertook the task of collecting Italian singers from abroad, and he brought together a company, among whom may be distinguished Signora Durastanti. This songstress, who, as well as Senesino, was taken from the Dresden theatre, acquired great favour at Court. The Evening Post, on the 7th of March, 1721, reports:—” Last Thursday, his Majesty was pleased to stand godfather, and the Princess and Lady Bruce godmothers to a daughter of Mrs. Durastanti, chief singer in the Opera-house.

George Frideric Handel was born at Halle, on the Saale, in the Duchy of Magdeburg, Lower Saxony. One of his compatriots, a laborious compiler, such as Germany only produces, M. Karl Eduard Förstemann, has published his genealogy, at Leipsic, and he proves, by the registers of the Lutheran Church of Notre Dame de St. Laurent, at Halle, where the great musician was baptized, that his true German names are Georg Friedrich Händel, and that the family name is written in five different ways-Händel, Hendel, Händeler, Hendeler, and Hendtler; but most commonly Handel. A trace of this fluctuation of the family name may be found in the will of Handel himself, in which he leaves, £300 to his “cousin Christianna Susannah Handelin” In Italy he constantly signed his name Hendel; but from the commencement of his residence in England, down to the day of his death, he invariably signed, George Frideric Handel; and that, therefore, appears to be the orthography of his names which has the best right to be preserved. The English have been quite as ingenious as the Germans in discovering variations for this name ; for it has been written Kendall, Hendell, Handell, Handle, Hondel, and Haendel.

All the biographers—English, French, and German—agree in stating that he was born on the 24th of February, 1684. This also is the date which is carved upon his tomb in Westminster Abbey; but, nevertheless, it is erroneous.

“This is the piece which has been published separately a thousand times under the title of The Harmonious Blacksmith.”—See page 65.

Whilst this book was passing through the press, Mr. Robert Lonsdale has brought under my notice a document connected with the history of The Harmonious Blacksmith. In a volume entitled Echos du Temps passé, Recueil de Chansons, Noëls, etc., du 12meau 18meSiècle (4to), published at Paris (N.D.) by Mr. Wekerlin, there is a song by Clement Marot, “Plus ne suis ce que j'ai été,” of which the air is, note for note, the melody of The Harmonious Blacksmith. “This piece,” says the publisher, “of which the music is certainly posterior to the poetry, is to be found in the Choix de Chansons à commencer de Thibaui de Champagne, by Moncrif.”

In compliance with my request, my old and excellent friend M. Casimir Gide has obtained in this matter the following explanation from Mr. Wekerlin himself:—“The collection of Moncrif (one volume in 12mo, printed in 1757) is exceedingly rare. I only know two copies of it; one of which is at the library in the Rue Richelieu, and the other in a private collection. It is beyond a doubt that the theme of ‘ Plus ne suis’ is borrowed from the Pièces de Clavecin, by Handel, and that Moncrif committed a fault in not affixing the name of the author. Perhaps he was himself ignorant of it; for he was not very well acquainted with music.

In spite of Bononcini's fall his faction did not the less continue the war against Handel. On the 13th of June, 1733, as we have seen, they held a sort of coalition conference with Senesino. Their great adversary seems to have regarded the storm which was brewing around him with a cairn, untroubled eye; for, having finished Athalia on the 7th of June, he went tranquilly to introduce it at a Public Act of the University of Oxford.

What is called a Public Act is the ceremony which takes place every year, for conferring the degrees of the University after an examination. This lasts three or four days; the mornings of which are devoted to science and the evenings to pleasure. The Memoirs of Thomas Hearne. (a Master of Arts belonging to St. Edmund's Hall, one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford), published very recently, declare that Handel was directly invited by the Vice-Chancellor of this University :- o” 1733, July 5.–One Handell, a foreigner (who, they say, was born at Hanover), being desired to come to Oxford, to perform in musick at this Act, in which he hath great skill, is come down, the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Holmes) having requested him so to do, and, as an encouragement, to allow him the benefit of the Theater both before the Act begins and after it. Accordingly, he hath published papers for a performance to-day, at 5s. a ticket. This performance began a little after five o'clock in-the evening. This is an innovation. The players might be as well permitted to come and act.”

Handel now possessed £10,000, which he had saved out of the profits of his previous works. In spite of the indifference which the public had manifested, and of the enormous loss which had been incurred in the face of a subscription supported by the entire aristocracy, he made arrangements with Heidegger, the proprietor of the Haymarket Theatre, to bring out operas there, and in partnership, for three years; and he went to Italy to bring together a company. In passing through Hamburg on his way back, he engaged a basso, Godfred Reimschneider, first singer at the cathedral of that town; but he did not see his old friend Mattheson, who says, with the dryness of a man who does not wish to complain, “he made a journey to Dresden to seek for some singers, and I heard that he passed through Hamburg.” Handel preserved no affection for Mattheson, with whom he had been so intimate in his youth; but what was the reason of this does not appear.

The Daily Courant of the 2nd of July, 1729, announces his return to London in the following manner :— “Mr. Handel, who is just returned from Italy, has contracted with the following persons to perform in the Italian Opera :—Sig. Bernacchi, who is esteemed the best singer in Italy; Signora Merighi, a woman of a very fine presence, an excellent actress, and a very good singer, with a counter-tenor voice; Signora Strada, who hath a very fine treble voice, a person of singular merit; Sig.

The league which was banded against Handel was so powerful, that for three years his efforts to win fortune back were entirely thrown away. Even his finest English works did not escape this fatal destiny. In spite of his courage and activity, both of which were immense, and indefatigable as his genius, he could not retrieve himself from ruin. The position was a cruel one.

For a long time he had been wished for in Ireland. The Duke of Devonshire, the Lord Lieutenant (more generally called Viceroy at that time), had directly invited him to pay a visit to that country, and the Irish professed great admiration for him. The numerous musical societies of this country had already often performed his works. He might therefore expect to find there a public more enlightened, or at any rate more favourably disposed than that of London, and he resolved to make the journey.

Almost all the musical societies of Dublin, which were composed of amateurs, gave their entertainments for the furtherance of charitable objects. Handel put himself into communication with the most important of these, that “for the benefit and enlargement of poor distressed prisoners for debt in the several marshalseas of the city of Dublin,” and promised to give an oratorio for its benefit; the members, on their part, promising the assistance of their chorus and their orchestra. This society did good with real devotedness. Faulkner's Journal of the 14th to the 17th of March, 1740 (O.S.), says, that during the past year1 they “have already released 188 miserable persons of both sexes.

Although Handel was born when his father was sixty years old, he was a man of very powerful constitution, and of great muscular vigour. His cotemporaries represent him as being endowed with a rare beauty of countenance. Burney thus describes him:– “The figure of Handel was large, and he was somewhat corpulent and unwieldy in his motions; but his countenance, which I remember as perfectly as that of any man I saw but yesterday, was full of fire and dignity, and such as impressed ideas of superiority and genius.” And in a subsequent paragraph – “Handel's general look was somewhat heavy and sour, but when he did smile, it was his sire the sun bursting out of a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good humour beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other.”

Nichols, in his Literary Anecdotes, records it as an expression of Burney, that “Handel's smile was like heaven.” Hawkins says:– ”He was in his person a large and very portly man. His gait, which was ever sauntering, was rather ungraceful, as it had in it somewhat of that rocking motion which distinguishes those whose legs are bowed. His features were finely marked, and the general cast of his countenance placid, bespeaking dignity attempered with benevolence, and every quality of the heart that has a tendency to beget confidence and insure esteem.”