The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE "SATURDAY REVIEW" ON HANDEL'S " MES-
SlAll."—Handel's extraordinary popularity through-
out the length and breadth of England—to which
may be added America, where his oratorios are
more frequently heard than in Germany, or, in
short, than in any country except our own—must
not be attributed to his having made Biblical heroes
sing martial songs, Biblical prophets utter prophecies
in sounding declamatory recitative, Biblical Israelites
shout paeans in solemn chorus,to the consternation of
Biblical Philistines. He might have done all this
and more, and still not have been, a century after
his death, what he now is to the English and Ame-
rican peoples. He did, in fact, accomplish more.
He described with graphic and appalling power the
miracles of " Exodus," and then, in the " Song of
Moses," recapitulated those miracles in hymns of
thanksgiving and praise that for sublimity have
never been approached. But " Israel in Egypt,"
matchless as it is, would not have made Handel
the Handel we revere. Musicians would have ex-
tolled him to the skies. Gluck, Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, would have said—" Behold our mas-
ter !" Mendelssohn would have written—" Israel"
is " the greatest and most lasting piece." And yet
the world, the Christian world at large, would not
have adopted Handel as has almost universally
adopted him. But, in addition to " Israel" and the
rest, -which, separate or combined, would have pro-
claimed him a colossus, Handel wrote " Messiah"—
or, as he first entitled it, " a sacred oratorio"—a
work which musicians may justly regard as the
greatest production of their art, but which has
also still higher pretensions. He wrote " Mes-
siah" when fortune for him had done her worst.
In 1739, he had produced " Saul," " Israel in
Egypt," the " Ode to St. Cecilia," and other great
pieces, not one of which materially helped him to
steer clear of overwhelming difficulties ; in the year
following he composed " L'Allegro ed it Penseroso,"
&c., but with no happier result. In the midst of
those labours he returned to Italian opera, which
had always proved his Nemesis, and just at this
period had brought him to the brink of ruin. Two
new operas, and an old one revived, were all failures
at the theatre under his management in Lincoln's
Inn-fields. The aristocracy, whom he had unwit-
tingly offended, were his uncompromising enemies.
His oratorios and cantatas, as well as his Italian
operas, were alike disregarded till, on the verge of
bankruptcy, he bethought him of a visit to Ireland,
which he had long contemplated, and which now he
argued might help to relieve his fallen fortunes.
Indomitable hero, no less than indomitable producer!
He would not go to the Irish—" that generous and
polite nation," which had long expressed an admi-
ration for his works—'without something new ; as if
nineteen-twentieths of the superb things he had
already produced would not have been as good as
new to a new country. So he composed " Messiah."
Where? How? All we can find is that he com-
posed it before he left England. Thus much we
learn from a letter to his friend, Charles Jennens
(Dublin, Dec. 29, 1741), who had, it appears, com-
piled, or more probably helped to compile, the words.
Jennens resided at Gopsall Hall, Leicestershire (this
surely should be as interesting a spot as Cannons,
or the house in Brook-street), and at Gopsall Hall
some insist that Messiah must have been written,
while others assert the contrary. All we care to