HANDEL, QBOBOB FREDERICK. 



H.YXKA, WACLAW. 



and eoiMeiaai or having offmded hia patron, did not dare present 

 himsvlf at oourt Bat hi* friend Baron ftilmanaagge, havinR contrived 

 that b* should meet U> king, during a royal excursion on the Thames, 

 with a band of wind-instruments, plajing the charming ' Water-Music,' 

 written for the occasion, the oompoeer wai again received into favour, 

 and never afwr loat the royal protection. UU pension was iminedi- 

 aUly doubled ; and many jean after, when appointed to teach tho 

 prinoesse*, Queen Caroline, contort of George IL, added another 200(. 

 to the former grant* ; making altogether 6001. per annum, no email 

 income at that period. From 1715 to 1718 Handel was an inmate in 

 the houM of the Earl of Burlington, where he constantly met Pope, 

 whoee regard for the Oerman oompoaer i> manifeet from all he said 

 and wrote concerning him. During the eame period he produced three 

 operas, Amadia,' Teseo,' and ' II 1'aitor Fido, besides several detached 

 pleoea. In 1718 he undertook the direction of the Duke of Chandoa's 

 ohfptl at Cannons, for which he composed many fine anthems. He 

 there also produced most of his concertos, sonatas, lessons, and organ 

 fugue*; hia 'Acis and Galatea,' for which Gay furnished him with the 

 poetry ; and the oratorio of ' Esther.' 



The busiest, but not the most fortunate, period of Handel's life 

 now arrived. The English nobility formed a project for converting 

 the Italian theatre into an Academy of Music, a title borrowed from 

 the French, and engaged Handel as manager, with a condition that he 

 should supply a certain number of operas. In consequence, he went 

 to Dresden to engage singers, among whom was Senesino. His first 

 opera was ' Radamisto,' the success of which was unparalleled. But 

 Bononciui and Ariosti, before alluded to, had been attached in some 

 measure to the theatre ; and having powerful friends, opposed them- 

 selves to the German intruder, as they insolently called the great 

 composer. Hence those feuds, among the weak people of fashion, of 

 which the remembrance is perpetuated by Swift's well-known epigram. 

 To calm these it was proposed that an opera in three acts should be 

 produced, aiid that each of the contending composers should set one 

 act. The drama chosen was ' Muzio Scevola.' Handel's portion was 

 declared the best ; " but, strange to say, though each no doubt strained 

 his ability to the utmost in this struggle, not a single piece in the 

 whole opera is known in the present day !" Handel now, master of 

 the field, produced about fifteen new operas ; but that spirit of cabal 

 often caui-ed and always encouraged by the weak, that is the larger, 

 part of the ranks of fashion, compelled the great composer and able 

 manager to retire from the the.itre in 1726 with the loss of lO.OOOi, 

 and a constitution much damaged by incessant labour and constant 

 turmoil. A slight paralytic affection was the consequence, which 

 however the baths of Aix-la-Chapelle removed. He then made an 

 attempt to give operas at Covent Garden Theatre, but this proved 

 equally mortifying and unprofitable. However the vexations and 

 lotMs he encountered at the Italian Theatre ultimately led to the 

 advancement of bis fame and the repair of his fortune. He now 

 announced performances during the Lent season, in imitation of the 

 Concerto Spirituale, which he culled oratorios, and at Covent Garden 

 gave several, most of tbem composed for the occasion. Still the 

 receipt* at these did not indemnify him for the expenses he incurred: 

 even bis sublimest work, ' The Messiah,' was as ill attended aa received 

 in the capital of the empire, when first produced in 1741. 



These failures were imputed, and justly, to the hostility of the 

 nobility, who, notwiihstandiug the unvaried patronage of the royal 

 family, still pursued him with unabated rigour. From such persecution 

 he determined to seek refuge in Ireland, then noted for the gaiety and 

 splendour of its court a circumstance to which Pope alludes in a 

 well-known appeal to the Qoddesa of Dullness. 



" On his arrival in Dublin," rays Dr. Burney, in his 'Commemoration 

 of Handel,' " he, with equal judgment and humanity, began by per- 

 forming ' The Messiah ' for tho benefit of the city prison." He 

 remained in Ireland about nine mouths, and had every reason to be 

 aatuficd with his visit Returning to London in 1742, he renewed his 

 oratorios at Covent Garden Theatre, beginning with ' Samson.' From 

 this time success attended all his undertakings. Hi< last work drew 

 crowds to the house, and 'The Messiah ' was equally attractive. The 

 Utter was, during a long period, performed annually at the Foundling 

 d, and alone added 10,300i to the funds of that institution. 

 It is next to impossible to calculate what it has produced to other 

 charitiis; the amount must be prodigious, while it has been a nevcr- 

 oeuiug stream of prosperity to the musical profession, and of enjoy- 

 ment to the musical public. He continued his oratorios to nearly the 

 last day of his life,- deriving considerable pecuniary advantage from 

 them ; for though still opposed by most of the nobility, the king 

 (Ueorge II.) and the people actively supported him. 



Late in life Handel was afflicted with blindness ; ha nevertheless 

 continued to conduct bis oratorios, and, as usual, performed concertos 

 and other organ pieces between the act*. He oven composed, employ- 

 ing aa LU amanuensis Mr. John Christian Smith, and assisted at one of 

 his oratorios a weak only before his decease, which took place on a 

 Good Friday (according to Lin wish, it is wid), April 13th, 1769. He 

 was burii d in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, where a monument 

 by Houbilliac is erected to bis memory. A still more honourable 

 tribute was in the year 1784 paid to his memory, by giving a aeries of 

 performances in the great fane within which his remains were 

 interred. A century having elapsed from the time of hia birth, it was 



resolved that a ' Commemoration of Handel ' should take place. The 

 management was entrusted to the directors of the Ancient Concerts, 

 and eight of the most distinguished members of the musical profession. 

 The king, George HI., xealously patronised the undertaking, and nearly 

 all the upper classes of the kingdom seconded the royal views. The 

 receipts at five performances amounted to the sum of 12,7361., the 

 disbursements to rather more than 60001, ; of the profits, 1000/. was 

 given to the Westminster Hospital, and the remainder to the Society 

 for Decayed Musicians. It is pirhapa right to be added, tho inhabit- 

 ants of Halle, hia native town, are already making preparations for a 

 centenary festival to be held in honour of him there in 1859 (the 

 100th anniversary of hia death), the proceeds to bo applied to the 

 erection of a statue of him at Halle. 



Handel was great in every style : in sacred music, especially of the 

 choral kind, he not only throws at an immeasurable distance all who 

 preceded and followed him, but reaches that sublimity which, it is 

 now almost universally admitted, the art is so capable of attaining. 

 Till within the lost few years his works were unknown out of the 

 British Islet; now they are heard with admiration in every part of 

 Germany, in France, iu Russia, and in the United States. The glory 

 of Handel indeed, unlike that of many another great oompoaer, 

 appears still to increase with the lapse of time, and to be scarcely even 

 temporarily eclipsed by the perversities of fashion. 



It is worthy of remark, especially aa an evidence that the intellectual 

 powers do not necessarily decay in proportion to the diminution of 

 bodily activity, that most of Handel's greatest works were composed 

 when he was between fifty-four aud sixty-seven years of age. 

 ' Jephtbah ' was produced at the latest moment of that period. And 

 here we may in passing observe, that the finest offsprings of Haydu's 

 genius had their birth after he had become a sexagenarian. 



In the Queen's library are the original manuscripts of nearly all 

 Handel's works, filling 82 large folio volumes. These include 32 

 Italian operas, 23 oratorios, 8 volumes of anthems, 4 of cantatas, 3 of 

 Te Deuma, and a Jubilate, together with concertos, sonatas, >tc. Not 

 in the royal collection are 11 operas, harpsichord lessons, fugues, 

 organ concertos, water-music, &c. &c. Of the oratorios, ' Deborah ' was 

 first performed in 1733, 'Israel in Egypt' in 1738, 'Saul' in 1740, 

 'Messiah' in 1741, 'Samson' in 1742, 'Judas Maccaboms' in 1746, 

 'Joshua' in 1747, 'Solomon' in 1749, and ' Jephthah' in 1751. 



HANKA, WACLAW or WEXCESLAUS, a Bohemian poet and 

 antiquary, whose nauio is inseparably connected with gome of the 

 finest monuments of Bohemian literature, was born at the village of 

 Horenewes on the 10th of June 1791. Up to tho age of sixteen the 

 only education he received was that which he obtained at the parish 

 school in winter, and his chief occupation in summer was tending his 

 father's sheep. From some Polish and Servian soldiers who were 

 quartered on his father's farm he .learned their respective languages, 

 which are closely akin to the Bohemian, hia native tongue, to which 

 he early manifested a strong attachment. With the German he was 

 at that time so unacquainted that, when sent to the grammar-school 

 of Kouiggrutz, the teachers allowed him by special favour to draw up 

 his exercises in Bohemian, though German was the ordinary language 

 of the school. The object of his parents in sending him to study was 

 to protect him from the military conscription, which in Bohemia did 

 not extend to scholars ; but it was soon discovered that learning was 

 bis proper vocation. He afterwards studied philosophy at Prague, and 

 while at the university there, proposed and established a society for 

 the cultivation of the Bohemian language, which had unexpected 

 success. At Vienna, where he studied law, he even set on foot a 

 Bohemian periodical. His zeal iu the cause introduced him to the 

 acquaintance of Dobrowsky [DoimowsKrJ, who had then been for 

 thirty years the most active aud distinguished cultivator of Bohemian 

 literature, and who became Honka's warm friend, instructor, and 

 patron. On tho foundation of tho Bohemian Museum, at the former 

 palace of Count Stemberg, in the Hradschin of Prague, about 1817, 

 llauka was appointed its librarian, apparently at Dobrowsky'a recom- 

 mendation. Nearly at the same time probably took place his earliest 

 appearance as a poet, in a first volume of vcr*es under the title of 

 ' liankowy Pjsne,' to which a second boa never been added, though a 

 second edition of the first was published iu 1819. In 1817 ho com- 

 menced tho issue of the ' Starobyla Skladanie,' a collection of early 

 Bohemian literature, especially poetry, chiefly derived from unpublished 

 manuscripts. The aeries extended altogether to eight small volume, 

 and was not completed till 1824. The contents, which comprisii 

 among other things a narrative poem on the subject of King Arthur, 

 are of little interest except to the Bohemian antiquary ; but in the 

 course of collecting; the materials for this work a manuscript of a most 

 remarkable character cauio to light iu a very singular manner. On the 

 16th of September 1817 Hanka went to the church-tower at the little 

 town of Kraiodvor, or Kbnigiuhof, to see a bundle of arrows which he 

 was told hod lain in the uuder-vault of the tower from the time of 

 Ziska, the Hussite chieftain of the 15th century, who had plundered 

 the town. While walking about the vault he informs us that his foot 

 struck against something, which on taking up he found to be a bundle 

 of parchment document*, and which a further examination show, d to 

 consist of a number of poems in the Bohemian language. In a fow 

 days ho sent to the authorities of the town a transcript of some of tha 

 poems; they in recompense presented him with the original uiuuu- 



