orio Buffo in the
Handelian manner--that is as nearly so as we could make it. It is a
mistake to suppose that all Handel's oratorios are upon sacred
subjects; some of them are secular. And not only so, but, whatever
the subject, Handel was never at a loss in treating anything that
came into his words by way of allusion or illustration. As Butler
puts it in one of his sonnets:

He who gave eyes to ears and showed in sound
All thoughts and things in earth or heaven above--
From fire and hailstones running along the ground
To Galatea grieving for her love--
He who could show to all unseeing eyes
Glad shepherds watching o'er their flocks by night,
Or Iphis angel-wafted to the skies,
Or Jordan standing as an heap upright--

And so on. But there is one subject which Handel never treated--I
mean the Money Market. Perhaps he avoided it intentionally; he was
twice bankrupt, and Mr. R. A. Streatfeild tells me that the British
Museum possesses a MS. letter from him giving instructions as to the
payment of the dividends on 500 pounds South Sea Stock. Let us hope
he sold out before the bubble burst; if so, he was more fortunate
than Butler, who was at this time of his life in great anxiety about
his own financial affairs. It seemed a pity that Dr. Morell had
never offered Handel some such words as these:

The steadfast funds maintain their wonted state
While all the other markets fluctuate.

Butler wondered whether Handel would have sent the steadfast funds
up above par and maintained them on an inverted pedal with all the
other markets fluctuating iniquitously round them like the sheep
that turn every one to his own way in the Messiah. He thought
something of the kind ought to have been done, and in the absence of
Handel and Dr. Morell we determined to write an oratorio that should
attempt to supply the want. In order to make our libretto as
plausible as possible, we adopted the dictum of Monsieur Jourdain's
Maitre a danser: "Lorsqu'on a des personnes a faire parler en
musique, il faut bien que, pour la vraisemblance, on donne dans la
bergerie." Narcissus is accordingly a shepherd in love with
Amaryllis; they come to London with other shepherds and lose their
money in imprudent speculations on the Stock Exchange. In the
second part the aunt and godmother of Narcissus, having died at an
advanced age worth one hundred thousand pounds, all of which she has
bequeathed to her nephew and godson, the obstacle to his un