frontispiece, drew some of the
pictures, and put figures into others; half a dozen are mine. They were
all redrawn in ink from sketches made on the spot, in oil, water-colour,
and pencil. There were also many illustrations of another kind--extracts
from Handel's music, each chosen because Butler thought it suitable to
the spirit of the scene he wished to bring before the reader. The
introduction concludes with these words: "I have chosen Italy as my
second country, and would dedicate this book to her as a thank-offering
for the happiness she has afforded me."

In the spring of 1883 he began to compose music, and in 1885 we published
together an album of minuets, gavottes, and fugues. This led to our
writing _Narcissus_, which is an Oratorio 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 som