as a few hours too late. This was the
last chance of their meeting, for when Handel paid his next visit to
Germany Bach was dead.

Early in the following year the doors of the theatre in the Haymarket
were besieged by a huge crowd, anxious to secure seats for the
performance of Handel's new opera, 'Radamisto,' which was being
produced by the Royal Academy of Music. The applause was deafening,
and the success of the opera was assured. But Handel was not to be
left to enjoy his honours in peace; an opposition party had already
arisen, who were moved to do him evil partly from envy, and partly
because he had stirred them up to resentment by his dominancy and
self-will. From Hamburg came his old enemy, Buononcini, to try his
fortune with the new society, and it was not long ere the rival
composers were engaged with a third musician, whose name is uncertain
(though some state it to have been that of Handel's friend of his
Hamburg days--Ariosti), in the composition of a new opera. It was
arranged that this work should form a kind of competition, with the
object of determining whether Handel or Buononcini was the better
composer. Thus Handel wrote the third act, and Buononcini the second,
the first act being committed to the hands of the third musician,
whose claim to be regarded as a rival was very small in comparison
with the others. When the new work, 'Muzio Scaevola,' was performed
Handel's act was pronounced by the principal judges to be much
superior to that of Buononcini's; the latter's friends, however,
refused to accept a defeat, and being joined by others, the battle
waxed exceedingly hot. The newspapers took it up, and very soon
nothing else was talked about but the rival merits of the two
composers. Numerous verses were composed on either side, as well as
others which poked fun at both parties. Amongst the latter was an
epigram written by John Byrom, the Lancashire poet, which, without the
knowledge of the author, got into all the papers, and was considered
to hit off the situation more neatly than any which had gone before.
Thus it runs:

'Some say, compar'd to Buononcini,
That Mynheer Handel's but a Ninny;
Others aver, that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a Candle;
Strange all this Difference should be,
'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!'

That Handel showed scant consideration for those who differed from him
in regard to his works is proved by his treatment of the artists who