e
produced a work which consisted almost entirely of these unpopular
peculiarities, the public treated him with respect, and actually sat
out three performances in one season! In addition to these two great
oratorios, our composer produced the beautiful music to Dryden's
"St. Caecilia Ode," and Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso."
Henceforth neither praise nor blame could turn Handel from his appointed
course. He was not yet popular with the musical _dilettanti_, but we
find no more catering to an absurd taste, no more writing of silly
operatic froth.

Our composer had always been very fond of the Irish, and, at the
invitation of the lord-lieutenant and prominent Dublin amateurs,
he crossed the channel in 1741. He was received with the greatest
enthusiasm, and his house became the resort of all the musical people in
the city of Dublin. One after another his principal works were produced
before admiring audiences in the new Music Hall in Fishamble Street. The
crush to hear the "Allegro" and "Penseroso" at the opening performances
was so great that the doors had to be closed. The papers declared there
never had been seen such a scene before in Dublin.

Handel gave twelve performances at very short intervals, comprising
all of his finest works. In these concerts the "Acis and Galatea" and
"Alexander's Feast" were the most admired; but the enthusiasm culminated
in the rendition of the "Messiah," produced for the first time on April
13, 1742. The performance was a beneficiary one in aid of poor and
distressed prisoners for debt in the Marshalsea in Dublin. So, by a
remarkable coincidence, the first performance of the "Messiah" literally
meant deliverance to the captives. The principal singers were Mrs.
Cibber (daughter-in-law of Colley Cibber, and afterward one of the
greatest actresses of her time), Mrs. Avoglio, and Mr. Dubourg. The
town was wild with excitement. Critics, poets, fine ladies, and men of
fashion tore rhetoric to tatters in their admiration. A clergyman so
far forgot his Bible in his rapture as to exclaim to Mrs. Cibber, at
the close of one of her airs, "Woman, for this be all thy sins forgiven
thee." The penny-a-liners wrote that "words were wanting to express the
exquisite delight," etc. And--supreme compliment of all, for Handel was
a cynical bachelor--the fine ladies consented to leave their hoops at
home for the second performance, that a couple of hundred or so extra
listeners might be accommodate