he royal children, and receiving an
additional pension of L200. In 1726 a private Act of Parliament was
passed, making George Frederick Handel a naturalized Englishman.

In the year 1720 a number of noblemen formed themselves into a company
for the purpose of reviving Italian opera in London, at the Haymarket
Theatre, and subscribed a capital of L50,000. The king himself
subscribed L1,000, and allowed the society to take the name of the
Royal Academy of Music, and at first everything seemed to promise the
most brilliant success. Handel was appointed director of the music.
Bononcini and Attilio Ariosti, his old acquaintances in Berlin, were
also attracted by this new operatic venture to London, and their
arrival was followed by a competition of a very novel character. The
libretto of a new opera, "Muzio Scaevola," was divided between the
three composers. Attilio was to put the first act to music, Bononcini
the second, and Handel the third. We need hardly wonder that the
victory is said to have rested with the last and youngest of the trio,
although at this time the cabals against him, which afterward were to
do him such grievous harm, had already commenced.

Handel still clung to the operatic speculation; and when he had to
leave the Haymarket Theatre, which was given up to another Italian
company with the famous Farinelli, from Lincoln's Inn Fields,
undauntedly he changed to the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, and there
commenced again. More operas were produced, with the one unvarying
tale of fiasco, and at last, in 1737, having lost the whole of his
hardly earned money, Handel was compelled to close the theatre, and,
worse than all, to suspend payment for a time. Happily he now turned
his thoughts to oratorio. "Saul" and "Israel in Egypt" were composed
in quick succession; the last gigantic work being written in the
almost incredibly short space of twenty-seven days. How great it is
everyone now knows, but, at the time the colossal choruses were
actually considered a great deal too heavy and monotonous; and Handel,
always quick in resource, at the second performance introduced a
number of operatic songs to make them go down better, and after the
third performance the piece was withdrawn altogether. Fortunately,
opinions have changed since then. These works were followed by his
fine setting of Dryden's "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day," and Milton's
"L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso;" but it cannot be said that his
pecuniary affa