The hire of the hall on such occasions
would form a handsome addition to the proceeds of their own concerts.

It was to these funds that the proceeds of the first performance of
the _Messiah_ were devoted, in connection with those of Mercer's
Hospital, an old and still eminent school of surgery--and the Royal
Infirmary, which still exists in Jervis Street as a place for the
immediate reception of persons meeting with sudden accidents. The
performance was duly advertised in _Faulkner's Journal_, with the
additional announcement, that 'many ladies and gentlemen who are
well-wishers to this noble and grand charity, for which this oratorio
was composed, request it as a favour that the ladies who honour this
performance with their presence would be pleased to come without
hoops, as it will greatly increase the charity by making room for more
company.' In another advertisement it is added, that 'the gentlemen
are desired to come without their swords.'

On the ensuing Saturday, the following account was given of this
memorable festival: 'On Tuesday last (April 13, 1742), Mr Handel's
sacred grand oratorio, the _Messiah_, was performed in the New Musick
Hall in Fishamble Street; the best judges allowed it to be the most
finished piece of musick. Words are wanting to express the exquisite
delight it afforded to the admiring, crowded audience. The sublime,
the grand, and the tender, adapted to the most elevated, majestick,
and moving words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished heart
and ear. It is but just to Mr Handel, that the world should know he
generously gave the money arising from this grand performance to be
equally shared by the Society for Relieving Prisoners, the Charitable
Infirmary, and Mercer's Hospital, for which they will ever gratefully
remember his name; and that the gentlemen of the two choirs, Mr
Dubourg, Mrs Avolio, and Mrs Cibber, who all performed their parts to
admiration, acted also on the same disinterested principle, satisfied
with the deserved applause of the publick, and the conscious pleasure
of promoting such useful and extensive charity. There were above 700
people in the room, and the sum collected for that noble and pious
charity amounted to about L.400, out of which L.127 goes to each of
the three great and pious charities.'

Handel remained five months longer in the Irish metropolis, during
which period it is recorded that 'he diverted the thoughts of the
people from every other pur