HANDEL 439 did not desert the composer in his trouble, although it refused to sustain the operatic en- ^rprise of Heidegger. At a concert given for the benefit of Mr. Handel," March 28, the let receipts were 800. At this period he fas engaged to compose music for Vauxhall lens, and the popularity of his music was that Tyers, the proprietor, erected to his lonor a marble statue by Roubiliac. Heideg- jr's operatic enterprise closed June 6, not to renewed ; and Handel gave his attention other studies, preparing several of his or- m concertos for publication, and composing oratorios "Saul" and "Israel in Egypt," rhich were completed before the close of Oc- >ber. These two immense works were pro- ced in the series of 13 oratorio performances the succeeding winter and spring, the for- r Jan. 16, the latter April 4, 1739. For his concerts in Lincoln's Inn fields during the m of 1739-'40 the new works were Dry- " St. Csecilia Ode " (not the " Alexan- ler's Feast"), and Milton's "L' Allegro" and l ll Penseroso." The season of 1740-'41 com- 14 performances, the new works being uneo (Hymen) and Deidamia, Italian operas rhich did not succeed. This closed his attempts produce opera. The public would support jither him nor any other person at that time giving opera in a foreign language. Dis- >uraged at length, he determined to accept long standing invitation from the lord lieu- jnant and other notables of Ireland and visit iblin. For performances there he composed new work to a text selected from the Bible, lis was the " Sacred Oratorio," now known the "Messiah." He reached Dublin Nov. 18, 1741, and began his first series of six con- 3rts Dec. 23. A sacred series of six began i'eb. 6, 1742, after which four supplemental jrformances were given, the second and fourth of which, April 13 and June 3, were first public productions of the immortal
- Messiah." The greatness of the work was
immediately appreciated, and its author en- joyed once more the pleasure of a triumphant iccess. After a stay of nine months in Ire- id, Handel returned to London crowned with iccess and honor. He seems now to have in- Inlged for a time in a period of rest and inac- vity; but in the spring of 1743 he gave a 3ries of twelve oratorio performances (the Messiah " occupying three, and a new work, Samson," eight), with great success. For lis season of 1744 the new works were the Dettingen Te Deum," " Semele," and "Jo- 3ph and his Brethren ;" for that of l744-'5, >r which he had taken the Haymarket theatre, Hercules," " Belshazzar," and a revival of Deborah." But the faction of the nobility, >ecially a set of titled women, who placed nesino higher than Handel, succeeded so ir in curtailing the list of his subscribers to render him unable to meet the great cpenses he had incurred in producing his rorks upon the large stage of the Haymarket, and on a scale of then unknown grandeur ; and in the spring of 1745, after the 16th of the 24 performances advertised, he was forced to close his doors and again suspend payment. During the spring of 1746 he gave only the eight performances which were due to the subscribers of the year before, with but one new work, the "Occasional Oratorio," which, so far from being a pasticcio, as is often rep- resented, contains in 37 pieces only six from older works. From this time onward Handel abandoned the plan of depending upon the subscriptions of the higher classes, throwing himself upon the generosity and musical taste of the general public. During the remainder of his life he gave every spring a series of 10 to 13 concerts, and with such success that he paid his debts to the uttermost farthing, and in little more than ten years accumulated 20,- 000. The new works of these latter years were: "Judas Maccabaeus," 1747, which he gave six times ; "Alexander, "1748; "Joshua," 1748; "Susannah," 1749; "Solomon," 1749 ; "Theodora," 1750; "Choice of Hercules," 1751 ; "Jephthah," 1752, the last of this stu- pendous series of dramatic oratorios. While at work on " Jephthah," which he began Jan. 15, 1751, and ended Aug. 30, his sight began to fail. Three operations were performed upon his eyes without success, and when the work was produced the next year, the grand old man was led into the orchestra blind. Thencefor- ward his pupil, John Christian Smith, aided him in conducting his oratorios, and acted as his amanuensis in the additions and changes which he still occasionally made in them. This was the case with the translation, with much added matter, of the II trionfo del tem- po e del disinganno of his youth, into the fine work, " The Triumph of Time and Truth." During the winter of l758-'9 his health failed again; but although he felt himself rapidly drawing near the close of his life of intense activity, he opened his usual series of orato- rios, March 2, with "Solomon," with "new additions and alterations." " Susannah," also with new additions and alterations, followed, "Samson" was given on the 14th, 16th, and 21st of the same month, and " Judas ( Macca- bseus" on the 23d and 28th; on March 30 and April 4 and 6, the "-Messiah." The per- formance on the 6th was the last at which the composer was present. On reaching his house he went to bed quite exhausted, and never rose from it On the 17th anniversary of his first performance of the "Messiah," a little before midnight, he breathed his last, seven weeks after completing his 74th year. He was buried in Westminster abbey, and his statue is conspicuous among the monuments of the " poets' corner " of that edifice. During the lifetime of the composer Pope called him the " giant Handel," an epithet the justice of which to this day every musician feels. His greatness was fully acknowledged by his con- temporary Bach, and by the greatest that
