men of Verona, and a portion of the opera of "Don John;" 1822 was more prolific and more successful, for in it were given "Montrose," "The Law of Java," with its universally-popular "Mynheer Vandunck," and "Maid Marian," which contains some of its author's deservedly most esteemed music. "Clari," with the air of "Home, Sweet Home," "The Beacon of Liberty" and "Cortez" were first given in 1823. In the ensuing February the opera of "Native Land" was produced for the reappearance of Sinclair, the tenor, after his absence in Italy. The comedy of "Charles II." was the last work that Bishop wrote, until after several years, for Covent Garden. His third engagement closed with the present season, and Elliston, who had undertaken the management of Drury Lane in a spirit of active opposition, unlike the, independent rivalry which had hitherto characterized the conduct of the two theatres, tempted him, by increased terms, to quit the scene of all his successes, and become a member of the adverse establishment. His change of locality made a most important change in the course of his career, so much so that one might almost assume he left his personal identity in Covent Garden theatre; certainly, he left there his individuality—that character in his music so decidedly English, yet so decidedly his own, which gives perennial interest to his previous productions and permanent standing to his name—and became alternately inoculated with the manner of Rossini, and Weber, and Rossini again, according as either was, for the time, paramount in popular esteem. He gave up also from this period his habit of extreme rapidity in composition, and thus lost the power; spending in future life as many weeks or months over inferior works as he had bestowed single nights upon the creation of his happiest efforts. The opera of "The Fall of Algiers" was the first fruit of his new appointment; it was succeeded by Sheridan Knowles' William Tell, "Angelina," "Edward the Black Prince," and "The Coronation of Charles X.," given in the summer of 1825. About this time "Faustus" was produced with better fortune than the pieces which had preceded it, in consequence, doubtless, of the taste for diablerie, that the success of "Der Freischütz" had rendered prevalent. The engagement of Weber to write Oberon for Covent Garden induced the rival management to set Bishop to work upon an opera that should oppose it; and impressed with the magnitude of the competition, he occupied more than a year in the extremely careful composition of "Aladdin," which was produced in June, 1826, some weeks after Weber's opera had appeared. This had the misfortune of being allied to an even worse constructed drama than "Oberon," without the advantage of the elegant writing which characterizes that libretto; and, lacking the individuality of Bishop, without having the merit of Weber, though all the resources of the theatre were brought to bear upon it, it met with no success. At the end of the season Bishop wrote the music for "The Knights of the Cross," which is, however, omitted whenever that drama is now represented, and the same is the case with what he composed for "Englishmen in India" the following year. A great effort was made, about this time, to restore Vauxhall Gardens to the fashionable esteem in which that now despised place of entertainment was originally held; and, besides the engagement of the principal Italian singers, and, various other attractive celebrities, the appointment of Bishop in 1830, as music-director, was intended to give an elevated character to the arrangements. In this capacity he wrote many songs, of which "My pretty Jane" is one of the best known of all his solo pieces. Respecting his first marriage there is nothing to notice, except his notorious infidelity; his second marriage, with Miss Anne Riviere, who had been a student in the Academy, took place about 1831, and the lady may have been, in some degree, indebted to the influence of his high standing for her introduction to the prominent position she quickly attained as a vocalist, which nothing but her own talent could enable her to hold. Mrs. Bishop sang at Vauxhall, and at the so-called oratorios during Lent at the theatres, of which her husband again undertook the speculation for some successive seasons; and she was, before long, engaged at all the most important concerts in and out of London. During the next years, bishop wrote for Covent Garden the operatic pieces of "Home, Sweet Home," the "Romance of a Day," and "Yelva;" for Drury Lane "The Tyrolese Peasant," and for the Haymarket "The Rencontre" and "Rural Felicity," the last in 1834. Of more pretension than either of these was the opera of "The Doom Kiss," produced at Drury Lane in 1832, and the music for Byron's "Manfred," given at Covent Garden in the autumn of 1834, which were both more remarkable for care than for genius. Our composer, as were several other resident musicians, was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society in 1833 to write a work for their concerts, and the sacred cantata of "The Seventh Day" was what he produced; but this too, instead of having been a labour of love, is rather a proof of the love of labour.
Bishop was engaged as conductor at Drury Lane in the season 1838-39, when the opera on the English stage had already assumed a totally different character from that which it bore at the time of his successes; no longer was it a speaking drama with episodical songs, glees, and choruses, but a continuous lyrical work in which the entire action was illustrated by music, and his quiet minute manner ill-fitted him to direct performances of such magnitude and complexity. His extravagant habits which, throughout his most fortunate days, caused him ceaseless embarrassment notwithstanding his very large income, made now a constant drain upon the earnings of his wife; and, as she had other causes of unhappiness in her home, it is matter of small wonder that she left him in July, 1839, to pursue her professional career in the chief cities of Europe, America, and Australia, from which places she has always remitted funds for the maintenance of her children. In 1839 a committee of gentlemen at Manchester gave a concert in the Theatre Royal, consisting entirely of Bishop's music, those admirable pieces from his early works that will always be counted among the riches of the art, though the dramas for which they were written have passed into oblivion; this performance the composer was invited to conduct, and its very large proceeds were presented to him as a substantial token of the artistic esteem in which he was held, and of which the concert was a most graceful expression. In this year, too, he received the degree of bachelor of music at Oxford, and his exercise was performed at the triennial commemoration, of which he was conductor. In the season of 1840-41, Bishop was engaged by Madame Vestris, as director at Covent Garden, when he wrote the "Fortunate Isles," to celebrate the queen's wedding; but could not produce the work until some weeks after the event. This was his last dramatic composition. In November, 1841, he was elected to the musical professorship, founded by General Reid, in the university of Edinburgh, which he resigned in December, 1843, without having delivered a single lecture, or fulfilled any of its functions beyond the periodical residence in the city, and the receipt of the salary. On the retirement of Mr. W. Knyvett in 1840, Bishop was, for three years occasionally, and in 1843, permanently, appointed conductor of the Ancient concerts, which office he held until the discontinuance of these performances in 1848. The distinction of knighthood was conferred upon him in 1842, and on the occasion, singularly significant to music, the military bands in attendance at the levee played only pieces selected from his works. On the death of Dr. Crotch in 1848, Bishop was appointed to the musical chair of Oxford, and, as with his predecessor during his latter years of administration, this office was with him almost a sinecure; he did nothing in his quality of professor, but examined the exercises for degrees, and write the ode for the earl of Derby's installation as chancellor in 1853, which was his last composition. On this occasion he received the degree of doctor of music, the ode being considered as his probational exercise. He officiated as chairman, at the Great Exhibition in 1851, of the musical jury, whose just reward of a first prize for Broadwood's pianofortes was, on account of private pique, set aside by a higher board of non-musicians, and he headed the jury's protest against this arbitrary decision. For many years Sir Henry gave frequent musical lectures at different institutions about the country, which, being of the most trivial character, should scarcely have proceeded from one who had been knighted by the queen's hand, who was the representative of the art in a learned university, and, most of all, whose own career had given the world the right to expect every thing from him to be in an artistic spirit. Besides the works that have been named, he wrote an oratorio, "The Fallen Angel," which has not been produced, and many detached pieces; he arranged several series of the national melodies to which Moore wrote poems, and also a number with Dr. Mackay's verses, to which his accompaniments are laboured, old-fashioned, cumbrous, and ineffective; he edited a collection of Handel's songs which extends to seven volumes, displaying great care throughout; and he collected the concerted pieces from his
