Thomas Britton belonged to that cla.s.s of men whom persons of limited views are accustomed to term _the lower orders_ of society, for he gained his daily bread by crying small coal, which he carried about the streets in a sack upon his shoulders. He lived near Clerkenwell Green, a quarter of the town with which fashionable people were scarcely acquainted before he made it ill.u.s.trious.
How it came to pa.s.s that he learnt to play upon the _viola de gamba_ is not known, but he played upon it, and he was so much of an artist, that he grouped around him a number of amateurs who were happy to perform concerted music under his direction.
Britton was the tenant of a stable which he divided horizontally by a floor--on the ground floor was his coal shop. The upper story formed a long and narrow room, and it was in this chamber that the first meetings in the nature of private concerts took place in England, and instrumental music was first played regularly. Here it was that from 1678 to 1714 (the period of his death), the itinerant small coal merchant weekly entertained the intelligent world of London at his musical soirees, always gratuitously. Among others, the d.u.c.h.ess of Queensbury, one of the most celebrated beauties of the Court, was very regular in her attendance.
Pepusch and Handel played the harpsichord and the organ there.
Hawkins mentions, as a proof of the great consideration which Britton acquired, that he was called "_Sir_;" and many persons, unable to believe that a man of that cla.s.s and of such a business could arrive by natural means to be called "Sir," took him for a magician, an atheist, and a Jesuit.
In 1715, Handel had produced at the theatre in the Haymarket, a new opera _Amadiji_. The _poem_ of Amadiji is signed, in right of his authorship, by the new manager of the theatre James Heidegger, commonly called the "_Swiss Count_." He was said to be the ugliest man of his time; Lord Chesterfield wagered that it was impossible to discover a human being so disgraced by nature. After having searched through the town, a hideous old woman was found, and it was agreed that Heidegger was handsomer. But as Heidegger was pluming himself upon his victory, Chesterfield required that he should put on the old woman"s bonnet.
Thus attired the Swiss Count appeared horribly ugly, and Chesterfield was unanimously declared the winner, amid thunders of applause.
Heidegger, who made so light of a joke at his own expense, dedicated the libretto of Amadis to the Earl of Burlington, at whose house, in Piccadilly, the music had been composed by Handel. When the King asked the Earl why he went so far to live, he replied that he was fond of solitude, and that he was certain that he had found a place where no one could come and build beside him. It is one hundred and forty seven years since he said this. Piccadilly, where the house of this solitary lord is to be found, is now, I need scarcely tell you, one of the most central and fashionable parts of London.
In 1717, Handel paid a flying visit to his native town. When he returned to London, in 1718, he found the Italian theatre closed, being unable to support itself; but the chapel of the Duke of Chandos was in a flourishing condition. The Duke of Chandos, formerly Paymaster-General of Queen Anne"s army, had built near the village of Edgeware a mansion called Cannons.
In "A journey through England," by Miss Spence, this mansion is thus described:--
"The palace of the Duke of Chandos was erected in the eighteenth century. This magnificent structure with its decorations and furniture cost 230,000. The pillars of the great hall were of marble, as were the steps of the princ.i.p.al staircase, each step consisting of one piece twenty-two feet long. The establishment of the household was not inferior to the splendour of the habitation. Notwithstanding the three successive shocks which his fortune received by his concern in the African Company and the Mississippi and South Sea speculations in 1718-19-20, the Duke lived in splendour at Cannons till his death in 1744, rather as the presumptive heir to a diadem than as one of Her Majesty"s subjects. So extraordinary indeed, was his style of living, that he was designated "_The Grand Duke_.""
Among other objects of luxury this duke had a chapel furnished like the churches of Italy. It was situate a short distance from the mansion, and we are told that he went there with true Christian humility, "attended by his Swiss Guards," ranged as the Yeoman of the Guard. Every Sunday the road from London to Edgeware was thronged with carriages of the members of the n.o.bility and gentry, who went to pray to G.o.d with his grace. Dr. Pepusch, one of the greatest musical celebrities of the time, was the first chapel master; but the Duke of Chandos, who loved ever to worship the Lord with the best of everything, made proposals to the ill.u.s.trious Handel, and persuaded him to take the place of Pepusch. The Musical Biography tells us that "Dr. Pepusch fully acquiesced in the opinion of Handel"s superior merit, and retired from his eminent and honourable situation without any expression whatever either of chagrin or disappointment."
The wise labour for their own sakes, for their own satisfaction, and in the midst of general indifference; but artists only work when they are excited by public attention. The most fruitful have need of external animation to become productive, and require immediate applause. Handel, having an orchestra and singers at his disposal, with the guests of a wealthy n.o.bleman for audience, set himself pa.s.sionately to work. It was at Cannons that he wrote the two Te Deums and the twelve famous Anthems, called the Chandos Anthems.
Of the splendid residence wherein the Duke of Chandos gave these magnificent "feasts of reason and flow of soul," nothing is now left but the chapel, which, as I said before, was constructed apart from the mansion. It is now the parish church of Edgeware. The most interesting relic is an organ, of moderate size, which stands behind the altar.
Upon this may be found a little bra.s.s plate, bearing this inscription:--
-------------------------------------- | | | HANDEL | | WAS ORGANIST OF THIS CHURCH | | FROM THE YEAR 1718 TO 1721, | | AND COMPOSED | | THE ORATORIO OF ESTHER | | ON THIS ORGAN | --------------------------------------
The mansion was sold in 1750, three years after the Duke"s death, for eleven thousand pounds. (It had cost, you recollect, two hundred and thirty thousand pounds.) Not a vestige of it is left; and, as the site is now in a state of cultivation, Pope"s prediction is realized:
"Another age shall see the golden ear Imbrown the slope and nod on the parterre.
Deep harvests bury all his pride has planned, And laughing Ceres rea.s.sume the land."
_Essay_--"_Of the Use of Riches_."
The magnificent Duke himself is now almost forgotten. A marble statue, which was erected to his memory in the crypt of the chapel, is now in the last state of dilapidation. The wind whistles through the broken windows of its funereal abode; and the plaster of the roof, detached from its skeleton of laths, powders his enormous wig, and soils the imperial robe that drapes his shoulders. But the spirit of the master of Cannons may console itself; for in the verses of the poets are monuments of infinitely greater durability than marble. And has not Pope sung:--
"True, some are open, and to all men known; Others so very close, they"re hid from none.
(So darkness strikes the sense no less than light;) Thus gracious Chandos is beloved at sight."
_Essay_--"_Of the Characters of Man_."
On either side of the statue stand two long figures, clothed, like it, in Roman costume. These are the first two wives of the Duke. But he married a third wife, who has not, however, been permitted to enter the sanctuary.
The story of this third marriage is worth telling you.
One day the Duke being on a journey, he saw, at the door of an inn at which the horses were changed, a groom beating a young servant girl with a horse-whip. Taking pity on the poor girl, the Duke went to interpose between them, when he was informed that the groom and the girl were married. This being the case, nothing could be said; for the law of England at that time permitted husbands to beat their wives to any excess short of death. The groom, who had noticed the movement of the Duke, came up and offered to sell him his wife, if he would buy her; and in order to save her from further punishment he did so. But when the bargain was concluded, the Duke did not know what to do with his new acquisition, and so he sent her to school. Soon after this the d.u.c.h.ess of Chandos died, and the Duke took it into his head that he would marry his purchase--so that eventually the poor servant girl, whom a groom had beaten by the road side before every pa.s.ser by, became d.u.c.h.ess of Chandos, and comported herself in her new rank with perfect dignity.
But to return to Handel and to Cannons. One day, as he was going there, he was overtaken by a shower in the midst of the village of Edgeware, and took shelter in the house of one Powell, who was a blacksmith as well as parish clerk of Whitchurch. After the usual salutations, Powell fell to work again at his forge, singing an old song the while. By an extraordinary phenomenon, the hammer, striking in time, drew from the anvil two harmonic sounds, which, being in accord with the melody, made a sort of continuous ba.s.s. Handel was struck by the incident, listened, remembered the air and its strange accompaniment, and, when he returned home, composed out of it a piece for the harpsichord. This is the piece which has been published separately a thousand times under the t.i.tle of _The Harmonious Blacksmith_. After an existence of upwards of a hundred and forty years, this piece is continually being reprinted, and it will be reprinted so long as the human race is sensible to music. Judge for yourselves, as it shall now be kindly played for you.
HARMONIOUS BLACKSMITH.
In the "London Daily Post" of the 19th August, 1738, there is the following paragraph:
"The entertainment at Vauxhall Gardens concluded with the Coronation Anthems of Mr. Handel, to the great pleasure of the company, and amidst a great concourse of people."
The Coronation Anthems here alluded to are those composed for the coronation of George II. He was too fond of music to be satisfied at his coronation with that of the court composer, whom an old law compelled him to have attached to the household, so he requested Handel to give his a.s.sistance, who wrote the four anthems which are called the Coronation Anthems. These were performed at Westminster, during the ceremony of the 11th October, 1727, after having been solemnly rehea.r.s.ed in the cathedral on the 6th, in the presence of a numerous a.s.semblage.
This work forms one of the most solid foundations of its author"s glory.
"Zadok the Priest" especially is an inspiration of prodigious grandeur--the chorus, "G.o.d Save the King" (not the National Anthem), is comparable in beauty to the "Hallelujah" chorus, in the "Messiah."
Most of you are familiar with these anthems; they are always performed at the Annual Meeting of Charity Children in St. Paul"s;[E] and who ever tires of listening to them? Grand music has this advantage over all the other productions of the artistic faculties of man, that people are never tired of it. It is like daily bread, an aliment always new, always wished for. The oftener you hear a fine piece of music, the greater pleasure you take in hearing it again. It charms you in proportion as you have familiarized yourself with it, therefore it is not to be feared that people will be tired of listening to the Coronation Anthems of Handel to the end of time.
I have given you a quotation from the princ.i.p.al daily paper of the period we are now speaking of; allow me to give you another. In the "Daily Post" of the 18th April, 1738, there is the following announcement:--
"We are informed, from very good authority, that there is now nearly finished a statue of the justly celebrated Mr. Handel, exquisitely done, by the ingenious Mr. Roubilliac, of St. Martin"s Lane Statuary, out of one entire block of white marble, which is to be placed in a grand _nich_, erected on purpose, in the great grove of Vauxhall Gardens (The great grove at Vauxhall Gardens!--Sic transit gloria mundi), at the sole expense of Mr. Tyers, undertaker of the entertainment there, who, in consideration of the real merit of that inimitable master, thought it proper that his effigy should preside there, where his harmony has so often charmed even the greatest crowds into the profoundest calm and most decent behaviour."
And in the following copy, that of the 2nd May, 1738, there is the following:--
"Last night Vauxhall was opened, and there was a considerable appearance of both s.e.xes. The several pieces of music played on that occasion had never been heard before in the gardens: the company expressed the greatest satisfaction at the marble statue of Mr. Handel."
Some of you may have seen this marble statue in the great grove at Vauxhall Gardens. I never have; but we may all see the self-same statue any day, in the great room at Exeter Hall.
Apropos of a statue--England has shown great grat.i.tude to Handel--Handel, a _foreigner_--has she shown anything like equal grat.i.tude to as great, if not a greater genius, and that genius _her own son_?
Who ever loved England more dearly than Shakespeare? His was not merely the love of a son for his mother, but it was as tender as that of a mother for her son. His works are full of delicious pa.s.sages, in which his patriotism becomes manifest. No corner of the globe has been sung by native poets as England has by Shakespeare. Many of you, I dare say, are familiar with that beautiful pa.s.sage in "Richard II." He is describing England, and he says--
"This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress, built by Nature for herself, Against infection and the hand of War; This happy breed of men--this little earth; This precious stone set in the silver sea."
Yes, Shakespeare so loved his country, that he divined by intuition the heart-anguish of those who have lost theirs. Romeo, when Friar Laurence tells him that he is banished from Verona, cries:--
"Ha! banishment? Be merciful; say _death_!
For exile hath more terror in his look; Much more than death: do not say "banishment."
_Friar._--Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
_Romeo._--There is no world outside Verona"s walls!
Hast thou no poison mixed To kill me? but "banished!" "banished!"
O Friar! the d.a.m.ned use that word in h.e.l.l!"
He who spoke thus was Shakespeare, and yet _his_ compatriots could not find the means of erecting a statue to him! Even at the present day in London, where you may find in every square a herd of dukes, to whom not even bronze can give celebrity, Shakespeare is nowhere to be found. His image remains shut up in Westminster Abbey, instead of being set upon a column whose height should dominate over the metropolis, as his genius dominates over the world.[F]
I must necessarily pa.s.s over much that is interesting in the life of Handel: recollect I have undertaken to give you only a "sketch," not a history. My sketch, however, would be incomplete did I overlook his greatest production, or his visit to "that generous and polite nation,"
as he was pleased to call Ireland, for which nation his masterpiece was composed, and in which it was first performed.