lands, before his name as a great mufician had penctrated 
‘ parts of Europe, were fuch, that it is hopelefs now 
0 feek for ater information than his writings furnifh, con- 
cerning fo interefting a period. 
hefon was a vain aid pompous man, whofe firft with 
rence for his own abilities and importance. 
before his death, in 1764, at the age of eighty-three, “that 
he had printed as many books, on the fubject. of mufic, as 
he had lived years; and that he fhould leave to his 
“executors an = number, in eas for the ufe of 
eri 
the author of that book expeét rhe from him, in which 
it is affert = ag es emanate was eat finger, and only 
ployed vo In refutation of which he aflures 
he Ham- 
‘Hamburgh 1 174 
count of himfelf and s works, which occupies sagt pages, 
we have, as well as in his annotations on t Life, 
amore ample and fatisfaGtory account of Handel 's ee 
compofitions and wcgpernenl than we have been able to fin 
After telling us that . arrived at Hamburgh in the fum- 
bret of 1703, rich in genius and good difpofition : “ Here,”’ 
on, “ almoft his firit acquaintance was mytfel elf 
a a 
paeriailre’ to. bee. in 
was much devoted t to 
| ara frit he only played a ‘pion n the 
p ay vi viol opera 
orcheltra, and tes, as if he — not. see iors ; being 
vas inclined to dry humour. 
time h 
teed 
i though: the harmony was excellent, 
's which, however, he — foon 
at t 
the opera.” 
ficians lived much together | in a 
other ; in whic it sppesring chat they ex- 
gn age matter ot tag 
pofed nine long airs and cantatas ~ 
on the organ, and A 
3 “1 
“as, that in the Sent sos operashoufe favourabl 
happening ftiut og tenet les behind a 
HANDEL. 
opera. Matthefon in his remarks ‘on the Lifé. of “Handel, 
is particularly fevere on that part of it which contains an 
account of the quarrel which happened between him and 
that compofer, foon after the letter was tistan a 
the biographer not only iy lgeper geog rono- | 
logy, and hiftory, but of wilful 1 {seit ret of 
facts, in relating the i teitiaas of this breach between 
ms 
_ s writer, aa great. flf-complaifance and pedantry, - 
d to have been ent in finding, and 
andel, ‘ete he firlt 
myfelf, who had frequently heard him before, upon keyetl- - 
initruments 
peed to Matthefon’ s own confeffion, he acquired 
from Handel, 2. spied erie him at his father’s 
reconclel : 
Such is the account, which, long before the pens of © 
Handel, Sicchidiis himfelf publifhed, concerning the dif 
ference that bay appened between them during fiaeatidegene at. 
hamburg 
This adueiee hap; Tose the. sth of Deen, 1 
and, asa proof ak a 
us, that on the. 3 tke fame month, he prlomcber 
the young ie to the rehearfal of his firit opera of ~ 
“¢ Almiiray’. atthe theatre, and performed init the principal { 
-part ; and that, afterwards, they became greater friends than 
ever. opera, though rehearfed at the end of. 1704, 
was not publicly’ performed till, the begianing of 1705, when 
Ont 1 osth. rok February of the ¢ fame year, he ddaced 
his fecond one Neto,” which had like wile a very 
From to 1708, wher Handel, fet two other operas, 
Fi. art rk Bs he furnithed netting for the’ 
he eae {cholars, compofed harpfichord~ . 
na ALAS, ee r 
