a place in the orchestra; by which means, instead of being a burthen he became a great relief to her.

In the 19th year of his age, Handel took a journey to Italy, where he was received with the greatest kindness by the grand duke of Tuscany. His serene highness was impatient to have something composed by so great a master; and notwithstanding the difference between the style of the Italian music and the German, he set an opera, which met with unbounded approbation. After staying about a year in Florence he went to Venice, where he composed his opera called " Aggrepina" which was performed 27 nights successively, with the most extravagant applause.

From Venice our musician proceeded to Rome, where he became acquainted with cardinal Ottoboni, and many other dignitaries of the church, by which means he was frequently attacked on account of his religion; but Handel declared, that he would live and die in the religion in which he had been educated, whether it was true or false. Here he composed an oratorio called "Resurrectione," and 150 cantoes, besides some sonatas and other music.

From Rome, Handel went to Naples; after which he paid a second visit to Florence; and at last having spent six years in Italy, set out for his native. country. In his way thither, he was introduced at the court of Hanover, where he was received in the most flattering manner by the elector, afterward George I. of Great-Britain. Soon after our musician having visited his mother, who was now extremely aged, and staid some time at the court of the elector Palatine, set out for England, where he arrived in 1710.

At that time, operas were a new entertainment in England, and conducted in a very absurd manner; but Handel soon put them on a much better footing. A few months after the peace of Utrecht in the year 1712, he composed a grand Te Deum and Jubilate VOL. III. No. 17. B

on the occasion, which were performed with uncommon success. He now found the nobility desirous that he should resume the direction of the opera house in the Hay-market, and the queen having conferred a pension on him of 888 dollars per annum, he suffered himself to be prevailed on to continue in England.

About the year 1715, a project was formed by the nobility for erecting a kind of academy at the Haymarket, with a view to secure to themselves a constant supply of operas to be composed by Handel, and performed under his direction. About two hun dred and fifty thousand dollars were subscribed for this purpose, and it was proposed to continue the undertaking for fourteen years. Handel went over to Dresden, in order to engage singers, and returned with Senesino and Duristanti. Buononcini and Attilio, who had for some time conducted the operas in London, had still a great party in their favour; but not equal to that of Handel; and therefore, in 1720, he obtained leave to perform his opera of Redamisto. The house was so crowded, that many fainted through excessive heat, and two guineas were offered by some for a seat in the gallery, after having in vain attempted to get one elsewhere. The contention, however, ran very high, between Handel's party and that of the two Italian masters; and it was at last determined that the rivals should be employed in making an opera, in which each should take a distinct act, and that he who by the general suffrage was allowed to have given the best proof of his abilities should be put in possession of the house. Upon trial, however, Handel's superiority was so conspicuous as to leave no room for doubt or dispute.

The Academy was now, therefore, firmly established, and Handel conducted it for nine years with great success; but at that time an irreconcileable enmity took place between Handel and Senesino. The nobility, for some time, became mediators be

tween them, and having failed in that good design, became parties in the quarrel. Handel resolved to dismiss Senesino, and the nobility seemed also resolved not to permit him to do so. The haughtiness of Handel's temper would not allow him to yield, and the affair ended in the total dissolution of the academy.

Handel now found that his abilities, great as they were, could not support him against the powerful opposition he met with. After the dismission of Senesino, his audience sensibly dwindled away; and the offended nobility raised a subscription against him to carry on operas in the play house in Lincoln's Inn fields. Handel bore up four years against this opposition; but though his musical abilities were greatly superior to those of his antagonists, the astonishing powers of the voice of Farinelli, whom the opposite party had engaged, determined the victory against him. At last Handel having spent all he was worth in a fruitless opposition, thought proper to desist. His disappointment had such an effect upon him, that he was, for some time, disordered in his understanding, and, at the same time, his right arm was rendered useless by a stroke of the palsy In this deplorable situation, it was thought proper that he should go to the baths at Aix la Chapelle; and from them he received such extraordinary and sudden relief, that his cure was looked upon by the nuns as miraculous.

Soon after his return to London in 1736, several attempts were made to reinstate him in Covent Gar-den; and nothing seemed wanting to retrieve his affairs, excepting such concessions on his part as his opponents had a right to expect. These concessions, however, he could not be prevailed upon to make; and that he might no longer be under obligations to act as he was directed by others, he refused to enter into any engagement upon subscription. About the year 1738, he introduced a new species of music,

called oratorios, which he thought better suited to the native gravity of an English audience. But as the subjects of these pieces were always taken from sacred history, it was by some thought to be a profanation to set them to music and perform them at a play house. In consequence of this prejudice, the oratorios met with very indifferent success; and in 1741, Mr. Handel found his affairs in such a bad situation, that he was obliged to quit England and go over to Dublin.

He was received in Ireland in a manner suitable to his great merit, and his performing his oratorio called the "Messiah," for the benefit of the city-prison, brought him into universal favor. In nine months time he had brought his affairs into a better situation; and on his return to England in 1742, he found the public much more favourably disposed. His oratorios were now performed with great applause, and his Messiah, which had before been but coolly received, became a most favourite performance. In 1743 he had a return of his paralytic disorder, and in 1751, became quite blind by a gutta serena in his eyes. This last misfortune, for some time, sunk him into the deepest despondency, but he, at last became reconciled to his situation.

During the latter part of his life, his mind was often disordered; yet it appears at times to have resumed its full vigor, and he composed several songs, choruses, &c. which from their dates, may be considered almost as the last sounds of his dying voice. On the 6th of April, 1759, his last oratorio was performed, at which he was present, and he died on the 14th of the same month. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where by his own order and at his own expence, a monument was erected to his memory.

With regard to the character of this most eminent musician, he is universally allowed to have been a great epicure. In his temper he was haughty and

supercilious. His pride, however, was uniform, as he was not by turns a tyrant and a slave. He appears to have had a most extravagant love for liberty and independence, insomuch that, for the sake of these, he would frequently do things the most prejudicial to his own interest. He was liberal, even when poor, and remembered his former friends when he was rich. His musical powers can, perhaps, be best exprest by Arbuthnot's reply to Pope, who seriously asked his opinion of him as a musician, "conceive," said he, "the highest you can of his abilities, and they are much beyond any thing you can

conceive."

HAMPDEN, (JOHN) a celebrated English patriot, famous for sustaining singly the weight of a royal prosecution, on his refusing to pay the ship-money, which Charles I. had imposed, in an arbitrary manner, on the subject, without the authority of parliament. He was born in the year 1594, and in 1626, obtained a seat in the house of commons, where, in consequence of his steady and uniform opposition, to the arbitrary proceedings of the king, he soon became one of the most popular men in the kingdom; and after having, for some time, been the leader of that party in parliament, who opposed the tyrannical usurpations of this despotic prince, he upon the commencement of the civil war, took up arms in the same glorious cause, and was present at the first action, which was fought in the vicinity of Oxford.

Mr. Hampden did not live, however, to see the termination of the contest; for, he was cut off early by a mortal wound, which he received in a skirmish with prince Rupert, June 18, 1643. Clarendon has given Hampden the character af a great rather than good man but, when the humiliating doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance, began to be advanced, he came to be a good man as well as a