For a long time Handel had been wished for in Ireland. The Duke of Devonshire, the Lord Lieutenant of the country at that period, had directly invited him to pay a visit to the island, and the Irish professed great admiration for him.
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 (freedom) of poor distressed prisoners for debt," and promised to give an oratorio for its benefit. For this society he composed the "Messiah," the masterpiece of this great master. Whoever has listened to his music will admit that its most distinctive character is the sublime. No one, without exception, neither Beethoven nor Mozart, has ever risen nearer to the grandeur of the ideal than Handel did, and he was never more sublime than in the "Messiah;" and, remembering this, read the dates which are inscribed with his own hand upon the ma.n.u.script:--
"Commenced 22nd August, 1741.
"End of 1st part, 28th August.
"End of 2nd, 6th September.
"End of 3rd, 12th September, 1741.
"Filled up on the 14th."
This Herculean work was therefore accomplished in twenty-three days; and Handel was then fifty-six years old!
It is a strange phenomenon: when men of genius are to die YOUNG, they complete their masterpieces at _once_. Mozart rendered up his soul at thirty-nine; Raphael painted "The School of Athens" at twenty-five, and "The Transfiguration" at thirty-seven; Paul Potter his "Bull" at twenty-two; Rossini composed "The Barber of Sevile" when he was twenty-three, "William Tell" at thirty-seven, and afterwards wrote no more. If these men had lived longer, it would have been impossible for them to surpa.s.s themselves.
Great artists, on the other hand, who are destined to have _long lives_ are _slow in production_, or rather they produce their best things in the _decline of life_. Handel, _e.g._, composed his greatest works, "The Funeral Anthem," "Israel," "The Messiah," "Samson," "The Dettingen Te Deum," and "Judas Macabbeus," _after he was fifty-two_ years old. Gluck had not composed one of his operas when he was fifty. Haydn was an old man of sixty-five when he produced the "Creation." Murillo became Murillo only at forty years of age. Poussin was seventy when he painted "The Deluge," which is the most poetically great of all his n.o.ble pictures. Michael Angelo counted more than sixty years when he encrusted his incomparable fresco, "The Last Judgment," upon the walls of the Sistine Chapel; and he was eighty-seven when he raised the cupola of St.
Peter"s to the heavens. And our own Milton was sixty-three when he wrote "Paradise Lost!"
But, to return--Handel set out on his journey and charitable mission, 4th August, 1741. It is to this journey Pope alludes in his "Dunciad:"--
"But soon, ah! soon, rebellion will commence, If music meanly borrows aid from sense; Strong in new arms, lo! giant Handel stands, Like bold Briareus, with his hundred hands, To stir, to rouse, to shake the soul he comes, And Jove"s own thunders follow Mars" drums."
He was stayed by contrary winds in the ancient and picturesque city of Chester. Dr. Burney says, "I was at the public school in Chester, and very well remember seeing him smoke a pipe over a dish of coffee at the Exchange coffee house; and, being extremely curious to see so extraordinary a man, I watched him narrowly as long as he remained in Chester, where he stayed on account of the wind being unfavourable for his embarking at Park Gate."
Wishing to employ this delay in trying over some pieces of his new oratorio--the Messiah, he sought for some one who could read music at sight, and a house painter named Janson was indicated to him as one of the best musicians attached to the Cathedral. A meeting took place, but poor Janson managed so badly, that the irascible composer became purple with anger, and after swearing, as was his wont, in four or five languages at a time, cried out, "You Schountrel! t.i.t you not tell me dat you could sing at soite?" "Yes sir," replied the good fellow, "but not at _first sight_." Handel upon this burst out laughing, and the rehearsal proceeded no further.
He arrived in Dublin on the 18th November, 1741. It was not till April following, however, that the Messiah was for the first time heard. In the Dublin papers of March 1742, the following advertis.e.m.e.nt appeared:--
"For the relief of the prisoners in the several gaols, and for the support of Mercer"s Hospital; on Monday, the 12th April, will be performed at the Music Hall, in Fishamble-street, Mr. Handel"s new grand Oratorio called the _Messiah_."
The performance having taken place, the newspapers vied with each other in commendation and praise. I give you an extract from one:--
"On Tuesday last, (the day I suppose was changed), Mr. Handel"s sacred grand Oratorio, the Messiah, was performed in the New Music Hall, in Fishamble-street. The best judges allowed it to be the most finished piece of music. Words are wanted to express the delight it afforded to the admiring crowded audience. The sublime, the grand and the tender, adapted to the most elevated, majestic, and moving words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished heart and ear. It is but justice to Mr.
Handel, that the world should know, he generously gave the money arising from this grand performance to be equally shared by the society for relieving prisoners, the Charitable Infirmary, and Mercer"s Hospital, for which they will ever gratefully remember his name.
This is high encomium, but the audience paid him higher still. When the chorus all struck up, "For the Lord G.o.d omnipotent reigneth," in the Hallelujah, they were so transported that they all together started up and remained standing till the chorus ended."
A few days after the performance of the Messiah, Handel waited on Lord Kinnoul, with whom he was particularly acquainted. His Lordship, as was natural, paid him some compliments on the n.o.ble _entertainment_ which he had lately given in the town. "My Lord, said Handel, I should be sorry if I _only entertained them_, I wish TO MAKE THEM BETTER."
The Messiah has remained the most popular of Oratorios. It is never announced in anything like a fitting manner without attracting the public. It invariably forms part of the programme at all the festivals, and the day on which it is performed is always the most productive. The Sacred Harmonic Societies particularly give it every year for the benefit of distressed musicians. Truly does it deserve the touching eulogy that "it has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and fostered the orphans."
But I must hasten to a conclusion. Before I conclude this sketch of Handel, I must introduce you to one more of his Oratorios, "L"Allegro."
This magnificent composition has been eulogized by an eminent poet,--a beautiful pigeon! and an old parson! I will briefly tell you the eulogy of each, for brief is the eulogy itself.
The Poet having heard the oratorio performed, wrote thus:--
"If e"er Arion"s music calm"d the floods And Orpheus ever drew the dancing woods!
Why do not British trees and forest throng To hear the sweeter notes of Handel"s song?
This does the falsehood of the fable prove-- Or seas and woods when Handel harps would move."
THE PIGEON.--"Let me wander not unseen," is considered one of Handel"s finest inspirations. Hawkins says, "Of the air, the late Mr. John Lockman relates the following story, a.s.suring his reader, that himself was an eye-witness to it," viz:--
"When at the house of Mr. Lee, a gentleman in Cheshire, whose daughter was a very fine performer on the harpsichord, he saw a pigeon which, whenever the young lady played this song, and _this only_, would fly from an adjacent dove-house to the window in the parlour where she sat, and listen to it with the most pleasing emotions, and the instant the song was over would fly away to her dove-house."[G]
THE PARSON, old Dr. Delaney, F.T.C.D. once heard at the opera a lady[H]
sing this song. He was so captivated and excited that he could not control himself, but standing up in front of his box exclaimed,
"Oh! woman, for this be all thy sins forgiven!"
Now I do not know whether there is a poet present, or a pigeon, but there is an old parson; and although I shall not give my lady friend absolution for the song, still I am sure she will merit approbation, and receive applause.
"LET ME WANDER NOT UNSEEN."
_Words by Milton. Music by Handel._
On the 21st January, 1751, Handel commenced "Jephtha," the last of his works. It was not finished till the 30th August following. It is the only work he ever took so long to complete. This can be easily accounted for. During its progress his eyesight became impaired; by the last pages of the MS. it appears only too plainly that his vision was no longer clear when he traced them: yet sick as he was, the intrepid old man arose once more when charity had need of him. He gave two performances of the "Messiah" for the Foundling Hospital, one on the 18th April, the other on the 16th May, 1751. The sum for the tickets delivered for the 18th April came to six hundred pounds; that for May, nine hundred and twenty-five guineas. The "London Magazine" of that month says there were eight hundred coaches and chairs. Handel presented this hospital with the copyright of the "Messiah." The performances alone during Handel"s life time enriched the hospital with thousands of pounds.
Handel submitted three times to a painful operation, the last time in 1752, but without effect. Blind he became, and was to remain as his mother had been in her old days.
Handel blind--Beethoven deaf!--Sad similitude!
This cruel misfortune afflicted him at first profoundly; but when he was compelled to recognise that the evil was without a remedy, his manly soul got the upper hand, he resigned himself to his fate, and resolved to continue his oratorio performances.
"Samson," one of his favourite oratorios, was in the programme of the season. In spite of all his moral energy, the author could not listen untroubled to the pathetic air of the sightless Hercules of the Hebrews, in which he gave utterance to his immense grief. "Total eclipse. No sun--no moon!" Then it was that they saw the grand old man, who was seated at the organ, grow pale and tremble; and when they led him forward to the audience, which was applauding, many persons present were so forcibly affected that they were moved even to tears.
And we may still be sharers in that emotion, as when we recall the circ.u.mstances of that scene, and remember that the verses were composed by Milton, who, you recollect, was himself blind.
"Total eclipse! No sun!--no moon!
All dark amidst the blaze of noon!
Oh! glorious light! No cheering ray To glad my eyes with welcome day.
Why thus deprived thy prime decree?
Sun, moon, and stars are dark to me."
On the 6th April, 1759, the "Messiah" was performed for the last time under the direction of the author.
After returning home from this performance, he went to bed, never to rise again. Seized with a mortal exhaustion, and feeling that his last hour was come, in the full plenitude of his reason, he gently rendered up his soul to die, _on the Anniversary of the first performance of the "Messiah_," Good Friday, 13th April, 1759, aged seventy-four years.
He was buried with all honour and respect in Westminster Abbey, the Pantheon of Great Britain. His remains were placed in what is called "the Poet"s Corner," wherein lie buried Shakspere, Milton, Dryden, Thompson, Sheridan, Gray. And he is in his place there; for who was ever more of a poet than Handel?--who deserved better than he to enter the Pantheon. They might have written upon his tomb the words which Antony spoke when he beheld the body of Caesar, "_This_ was a man."
Yes: this was a man who had done honour to music as much by the n.o.bility of his character as by the sublimity of his genius. He was one of the too few artists who uphold the dignity of art to the highest possible standard. He was the incarnation of honesty. The unswerving rigidity of his conduct captivates even those who do not take him for a model. He worked ceaselessly for the improvement of others without ever feeling weary. He was virtuous and pure, proud and intrepid. His love of good was as unconquerable as his will. He died at his post, working to the last hour of his life. He has left behind him a luminous track and a n.o.ble example.
A Handel, like a Homer or a Milton, a Shakspere or a Dante, is only once given to a nation. No man need ever expect to rival the genius of Handel, or approach his powers of expression; but all may emulate his love for his fellow-man--his sympathy for the distressed--his desire to promote the glory of his G.o.d. For these n.o.ble qualities I commend Handel to your consideration; and for these I hold him forth this evening as a man worthy of our imitation.