ILIAS CHRISSOCHOIDIS A Handel relative in Britain?

This essay offers a scholarly NFLUENTIAL ARTISTS have more than a single life to endure. The first meditation on a biographical one is biological, so often expended in securing physical survival and oddity first reported in my doctoral thesis 'Early reception Iwell-being. Their creative life is, naturally, of real concern to us, as it of Handel's oratorios, spawns artworks of exceptional cultural strength. Based on the latter, a third IJ3Z—IJ84: narrative—studies- documents ' (Ann Arbor: UMI, and independent life emerges: the artist's image and reputation. Docu- 2004). It also forms a case mentary biography, textual criticism and reception history, respectively, are study of applying surgical focus on a minimal the scholarly activities associated with them. documentary surface. The However pedantic this scheme may appear, it has relevance for Handel result IS organic scholarship of open ends, wide implications studies, as in scholarly literature the first two lives of the composer tend to and joyful inquisitiveness; obscure his third one.' Handel died in 1759, hut for all practical reasons the qualities presently undervalued clock of his creative life had stopped in the early i75os.^ Up to that point, in academiayet indispensable for genuine humanistic he had been able to adjust his image through artistic means. In 1736, for research. I am thankful to instance, he confirmed his long-standing Orphean reputation with the Ellen T. Harris for her encouragement and support, celebrated setting of Alexander's feast. And by developing English oratorio, and to Karol Berger and he managed to shift cultural polarity from agent of Italian taste to hero who Thomas S. Grey for easing my transition to postdoctoral life. 'withstood the repeated Efforts oi Italian Forces'.^ The creative disarma- ment of Handel in 1752—53,'' however, meant that his image was assuming a life of its own. Let me offer an illustration. While English oratorio was gain- ing roots in an ever-expanding network of venues, Handel was physically 1. The following are the only declining.' His appearance as a demobilised artist in oratorio performances studies in English I know that address Handel's image: Ellen T. Harris: 'Handel's composition oi Jephtha on January 1752, in Donald Musical Expression (London, ghost: the composer's 13 Fehruary 1751. A month Burrows & Rosemary posthumous reputation in later Sir Edward Turner Dunhill, edd.: Music and the eighteenth century', in recorded that 'Nohle theatre in Handel's world: 4. The popular view Companion to contemporary Handel hath lost an eye': the family papers of James that Handel was still musical thought, edd. John Sir Edward Turner to Harris, ij32—ij8o (Oxford composing in the late 1750s Paynter et al. (London & Sanderson Miller, 14 March & New York, 2002), p.281. is exaggerated, to say the New York, 1992), vol.i, I75[i], in An eighteenth- Temporary improvement least: Anthony Hicks: 'The pp.208—25; Robert James century correspondence: being from eye surgery did little late additions to Handel's Merrett: 'England's the letters of [...] to Sanderson to reverse his plunge into oratorios and the role Orpheus: praise of Handel in Miller, Esq., of Radway, darkness, and in January of the younger Smith', in eighteenth-century poetry', edd. Lilian Dicldns & Mary 1753 'he press reported, Christopher Hogwood & \nMosaicio/2 (Spring Stanton (London, 1910), 'Mr. Handel has at length, Richard Luckett, edd.: Music 1987), pp.97-110; Suzanne p.165. The beginning of unhappily, quite lost his in eighteenth-century England: Aspden:' "Fam'd Handel the 1752 season found sight': [unidentified London essays in memory of Charles Breathing, tho' Transformed Handelians in despair: 'I am newspaper], 27 January 1753, Cudworth (Cambridge, 1983), to Stone": the composer as sorry to say that I believe this in Otto Erich Deutsch: pp.i47-

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caused a perceptual fissure like the one recorded by the Countess of 6. Her impressions are Shaftesbury on 13 March 1753: confirmed by C. Gilbert in a letter to Elizabeth Harris I went last Friday to Alexander's Feast, but it was such a melancholy pleasure as drew tears from 21 May [1753]: 'I paid of sorrow to see the great th'unhappy Handel dejected, wan and dark [original word choice: my devoir to him at the 'pale'] sitting by, not playing on the harpsichord, and to think how his light has been spent oratorio, and cou'd have by being overply'd in musicks cause. cry'd at the sight of him[.] He is fallen away, pale, Not unlike ruins that force the mind to reconstruct what is physically feeble, old, blind, in short every thing that cou'd most absent, the juxtaposition of energetic music and its debilitating creator pro- affect one, & his playing duced tension ('melancholy pleasure').'' To resolve it, the Countess invoked is the monument of a great a mental construction: the image of Handel sacrificing his sight 'in musicks genius, not at all a living one. There is not in the man soul cause'. Although various factors could have caused Handel's blindness,* she or spirit enough left to make chose one that portrays the composer as an artistic hero. For other devotees, it so. I was told, at the Total this affliction allowed the transfer of his image from the domain of myth- Eclipse in Samson, he cry'd like an infant. Thank God I ology (Handel as Orpheus, Amphion, etc.) to that of history (Handel com- did not see it', in Burrows & parable to Milton and Homer).' The point is that a biological defect, not an Dunhill, edd.: Handel's world, p.291. artistic achievement, was now the launching platform for Handel's image, which was gradually overshadowing physical and artistic life. We should be 7. The tension was powerful enough for Burney to recall it aware, then, that contemporary references to Handel, from the Avison- decades later in his 'Handel' Hayes debate to Langhorne 's Tears of Music, were addressing more often a article for Rees's Cyclopaedia: 'To see him, however, led to representation than an actual person.'" the organ, after this calamity Accepting the autonomy of Handel's image has significant consequences. [i.e. blindness], at upwards of seventy years of age, The traditional orientation of Handel studies to biography and textual criti- and then conducted towards cism turns Handel's death into their undisputable terminus ante quem and the audience to make his accustomed obeisance, confines reception history to an auxiliary function. Yet Handel's image not was a sight so truly afflicting only survived the composer but it also continued to evolve well after 1759, and deplorable to persons bearing significant responsibility for the 1784 Commemoration Festival. of sensibility, as greatly diminished their pleasure Without this understanding documents and incidents from the years fol- in hearing him perform', lowing his death will remain obscure or unappreciated. As a minimal effort in"Abraham Rees: The Cyclopaedia; Or, Universal to challenge the 1759 terminus, let us consider this hitherto unknown docu- Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, mentary evidence: and Literature (London, 1819), vol.17,'HANDEL', Diedl\ A few Days ago, at Brenchley in Kent, Charles Handell, Esq. a Relation of the great col.9. Musician Handell." 8. For a modern diagnosis DIED.] [...] A few days since ['Friday last'], at Brenchley, in Kent, Charles Handell, Esq. a of Handel's blindness, see relation of the great Musician Handell.'^ Donald L. Blanchard: 'George Handel and his blindness', in Documenta Handel's world, p.339; and writings by IVilliam Hayes 11. The St. James's Ophthalmologica 99 (1999), [William Coxe]: Anecdotes and Charles Avison, ed. Chronicle or, British pp.247—58, especially of George Frederick Handel, Pierre Dubois (Aldershot Evening-Post, no. 2348, pp.255—57.1' seems that And John Christopher Smith & Burlington, 2004); Saturday 2—Tuesday 5 March Handel's mother, too, had (London, 1799), p.25. J[ohn]. Langhorne: 1776, P-[3]- been blind by the end of her The Tears of Music. life: Deutsch: Handel, p.858. 10. The entire corpus of this A Poem, To the Memory 12. The Middlesex Journal, debate is available in Charles of Mr. Handel. With an Ode and Evening Advertiser, 9. Deutsch: Handel, p.742; Avison's Essay on Musical to the River Eden (London, no.1083, Saturday 2— Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: Expression with related 1760). Tuesday 5 March 1776, p.[3]. A few Days since ['Sunday last'] died at Brenchley in Kent, Charles Handell, Esq; a Rela- 13. The Public Advertiser, tion of the great Musician Handell.'' no. 14484, Tuesday 5 March •776,P-[3]- DIED] A few days since [no previous date is given] at Brenchley, in Kent, Charles Handell, 14. The Morning Post, and Esq; a relation of the great musician Handell.''' Daily Advertiser, no.1049, Wednesday 6 March 1776, [Died] A few days ago, at Brenchley, Kent, Charles Handel, Esq; related to the great Mr. p.[2]. Handel.'' 15. The London Evening- Post, no. 8419, Tuesday 5- The death notices appeared on 5—7 March 1776, in five London news- Thursday 7 March 1776, p.[.]. papers: The St. James's Chronicle, The Middlesex Journal, The Public Adver- tiser, The Morning Post, and The London Evening-Post. There is no infor- 16. Donald Burrows: Handel (New York, 1994), pp.4—5. mation about their source but, evidently, a lot of copying is involved here. For a 'life and work' approach they are curiosities barely deserving footnote 17. A significant number of German intellectuals recognition. Nothing scholarly useful about the composer and his music and artists resided in Britain seems to come out of them. A reception angle, however, can lead us to during this period: Garold N. Davis: German thought interesting possibilities. Given how little we know about Handel's personal and culture in England, life, even a possibility should be welcome. lyoo—iyyo (Chapel Hill, 1969), pp.64-80. With regard to musicians, one recalls E MAY START with the identity of the deceased. To my knowledge, the extraordinary Herschel Charles Handel[l] is a new entry in Handel scholarship. His name family and its contribution to Bath's musical life. Wdoes not appear in the composer's genealogical tree."^ He could 18. See Deutsch://an

born April 15,1758," the benefactor' of the Handel, Donald Burrows 20. Deutsch: Handel, p.854. explanation being that it was Foundling Hospital: acknowledges this topic 21. Deutsch: Handel, pp.691, often the custom in former Frederick Kielmansegge: but cautions that 'convincing 776,788-89. years to name a poor deserted Diary of a journey to England evidence on the subject is wee bairnie after one of the in the years iy6i—iy62, trans. lacking': Donald Burrows: 22. F. G. E.: 'among the Governors', in The Musical Countess Kielmansegg 'Handel, George Frideric', "tokens" still preserved at the Times vol.43 no.711 (May (London, New York & in HCG Matthew & Brian Hospital, of former children, i9O2),p.3io. Bombay, 1902), p.87. Harrison, edd.: Oxford is a large coin-like piece of dictionary of national metal bearing the inscription, 23. By 1761 Handel was 24. In the most recent biography (New York, 2004), "Maria Augusta Handel, ranked the third 'greatest biographical account of vol.25, p.38.

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should not be wild to imagine that a theatrical legend with known or reputed affairs^' could have fathered an illegitimate child by the name Gharles. A final possibility is that there was no actual relation between the two, and so Mr Gharles might have exploited the spelling inconsistencies of the period or just his actual, though uncommon in Britain, surname to partake of Han- delian glory. ^^ 25. See [Coxe]: Anecdotes, The above speculations are not as fruitless as they appear. Gharles pp.28—29; Donald Burrows: Handel[l] died in Brenchley, Kent, which is only six miles east from Tun- 'Handel and Hanover', in Peter Williams, ed.: Bach, bridge Wells,^'^ the renowned spa that Handel often visited during summer.^* Handel, Scarlatti tercentenary Discovered early in the 17th century by Lord North, the wells gained popu- essays (Cambridge, 1985), p.39. larity following royal visits there by Queen Henrietta Maria in 1630 and Gharles II and his Gourt in 1662. By the end of the century, some called them 26. The name 'Handel[l]' is extremely rare in Britain 'Aquae Vitae, or Waters of Life, because they restore men to Life, and make at this period (an evident them live twice'.^' The 1700s saw a tremendous growth of Tunbridge publicity advantage for the composer). My examination Wells,'° which attracted people of all classes and many foreigners as well.'' of up to a couple of hundred Its transformation into a fashionable summer resort was largely due to thousand pages in print has yielded only two Handels Richard 'Beau' Nash (1674-1761), who after a legendary tenure as Master of other than George Frideric. Geremonies in Bath took over a similar post here in 1735.'^ This was also the The first one, from May 1737, is a marriage notice: year of Handel's first recorded visit to Tunbridge Wells," a coincidence 'Married yesterday, at previously unnoticed in Handel literature. Oxford Chapel, Dan. Handell, Esq; to Miss Fane, have inquired about Mrs the name of Tunbridge 30. The earliest published a near relation to the Earl Elizabeth. water, are two small eulogy of Tunbridge Wells of Westmoreland': The Springs contiguous together, appears in Peter Causton: Grub-street Journal no.385, 27. A Description of about some foure miles Tunbridgialia: or, the Thursday 12 May 1737, Tunbridge- Wells, in Its Southward from the towne Pleasures of Tunbndge p.[2]; elsewhere, the names Present State; and the of Tunbridge in Kent, from (Tunbridge Wells, 1705). are given as'Daniel Handell, Amusements of the Company, which they haue their name, Esq and 'Miss Lane': in in the Time of the Season; and as being the nearest Towne 31. In 1749, Elizabeth The Gentleman's Magazine: of the Ancient and Present in Kent to them. They are Montagu wrote to her friend And Monthly Oracle (iTii), State of the most Remarkable seated in a valley compassed Anne Donellan, 'Tunbridge p.326. The second concerns Places, in the Environs: about with stony hills, so seems the parliament of the Comprehending a Circuit of barren, that there groweth world, where every country 55', who 'in June [1757] about Sixteen Miles round the nothing but heath vpon the and every rank has its was recommended as an Place (Tunbridge-Wells, same. lust there doe Kent representative', in Lewis out-patient to St. George's 1780), pp.112-13. Brenchley and Sussex meete, and Melville: Society at Royal Hospital': William was part of the same Deanry one may with lesse than Tunbridge Wells in the Bromfeild: An Account of and even 'has the same kind halfe a breath runne from eighteenth century and after the English Nightshades, of waters' as Tunbridge those Springs into Sussex', (London, 1912), p.194. and their Effects (London, Wells: [Stephen Whatley]: in Lodwick Rowzee: England's Gazetteer. Vol. III. 1757), p.19. Bromfeild had The Qveenes Welles. That 32. Philip Carter: 'Nash, Being a New Index Villaris, operated on Handel's eyes is, a treatise of the nature Richard', in Oxford or. Alphabetical Register in November 1752. Since he and vertues of Tunbridge dictionary..., vol.40, p.228. lived only blocks away from of the less noted Villages Water (London, 1632), the blind composer (the (London, 1751), no PP-34-35- 33. Handel's letter from dedication of his book is pagination. August 1734 does not signed 'Conduit-Street, 29. Pat. Madan: ^ establish that he visited Hanover-Square, Nov. 29, 28. According to the first A Phylosophical and Tunbridge Wells, as Deutsch 1757'), one wonders if he published account of the Medicinal Essay of the suggests (Handel, p. 3 69); see continued seeing Handel, wells, 'THe water commonly Waters of Tunbridge also Burrows: Handel, p.182, and if so, whether he would knowne here amongst vs by (London, 1687), p.3. n.45. Beginning with John Hawkins, scholars have assumed that health

34- John Hawkins: A General problems led the composer to Tunbridge.''' Its waters were highly recom- History of the Science and mended for palsy and nervous disorders, from which Handel supposedly Practice of Music (London, suffered.^' Yet his 1735 visit there predates the health crisis of April 1737 that 1776), V0I.5, p.326. caused the temporal paralysis of his right hand;'* and his subsequent use of 35. 'The nerves or sinewes, and the originall of them, other health resorts questions the benefits he received at Tunbridge.'^ An the braine, are strengthened examination of Handel's links with the spa indicates a strong social compo- by the vse of this water, nent in these visitations. and consequently it is good against the palsie, inclination Several known Handelians had ties to Tunbridge Wells and its sur- to an apoplexy, lethargie, and such like diseases of the rounding area. Sir "Wyndham Knatchbull, whose invitation to Handel in head', in Rowzee: Welles..., summer 1734 elicited the composer's first surviving letter in English,'* had p.45. his country seat outside Ashford, about 30 miles east from Tunbridge Wells 36. For descriptions of his (and on the same axis as Brenchley). Coincidence or not, Handel's earliest health crisis, identified as reference to Tunbridge, in 1735, appears in a letter to Charles Jennens, a fel- 'rhumatick palsie' by the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury, see low student of Knatchbull at Balliol, Oxford.'' Among visitors of the Wells Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: in summer 1734 was Bernard Granville, who had met Handel at his sister's Handel's world, p.26. music party a few months ago,''° and would become one of the composer's 37. In the 1740s, Handel closest friends.'*' John Upton, who first became acquainted with Handel in visited Scarborough, in Yorkshire: Burrows & the Wells,'*^ had ecclesiastical appointments in Rochester, Wateringbury and Dunhill, edd.: Handel's Aylesford,**' the last two being 12 and 18 miles away from Tunbridge, re- world, pp. 119, 216. In early June 1751, he and Smith [.•'Sr] spectively (at least one of his music-related letters was written in Tunbridge arrived at Bath (The Bath Wells'***). Aylesford was also the seat of Henneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Ayles- Journal, Monday 3 June 1751, p.44); and on the 13th of the ford, Baron of Guernsey and MP for Maidstone, Kent.**' An amateur violinist same month he is reported and distant relative of Charles Jennens, Guernsey would inherit the latter's back in London 'from extensive music collection.***^ Another Handelian, the barrister John Baker, Cheltenham Wells; where he had been to make use of visited the composer there in August—September 1758 ('I walked up by the Waters' {The General Handel's lodging about 2 miles').**^ And Sir George Amyand, a beneficiary Advertiser, Saturday 15 June 1751, p.[i]). Immediately after the end of the 1759 oratorio season Handel 'proposed letters and writings of George 41. Hugh McLean: 'Bernard (London, 2/1775), vol.i, setting out for Bath, to try Frideric Handel (London, Granville, Handel and the p.467. the Benefit of the Waters, •935)1 P-33J Deutsch: Handel, Rembrandts', in The Musical having been for some Time p.369. Ti/nei vol.126 no. 1712 46. Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: past in a bad State of Health': (October 1985), pp.593-94. Handel's world, p.iioo. For The Whitehall Evening-Post; 39. Ruth Smith: 'The the history and content of Or, London Intelligencer, achievements of Charles 42. John Upton to James this major collection, see Thursday 5-Saturday Jennens (1700—1773)', in Harris, i September 1737, in John H. Roberts: 'The Music & Letters 70 (1989), Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: Aylesford Collection', in 7 April 1759, P-b]- Although p. 164. Handel's world, p.36. Terence Best, ed.: Handel Tunbridge Wells was a collections and their history summer health resort, (Oxford, 1993), pp.39-85 Handel could still have 40. Mary Pendarves to 43. Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: (detailed list at pp.66-85). benefited from its waters Ann Granville, 12 April Handel's world, p. 1117. throughout the year, 1734, in Lady Llanover, especially because of its ed.: The Autobiography 44. Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: 47. John Baker's Diary, proximity to London. and Correspondence of Mary Handel's world, pp.292—93. 26 August, and 2 September Granville, Mrs. Delany 1758, in Philip C. Yorke, 38. Dated 27 August 1734: (London, 1861), vol.i, 45. Frederic Barlow: The ed.: The diary of John Baker Erich H. Muller, ed.: The pp.457-58. Complete English Peerage (London, 1931), pp.114, "6.

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and co-executor of Handel's will, died on 9 August 1766, in Tunbridge."** Possibly conflating the city with its namesake Wells, William C. Smith asked in 1953, 'Did [Amyand] have a house there where Handel was accustomed to 48. A New Baronetage of England (London, 1769), stay.''''" (He did have a seat in Carshalton, Surrey, 25 miles northwest from vol.1, p. 20. the Wells.'°) The question makes sense in light of Burney's assurance that 49. William C. Smith: 'More 'during the last years of his life, [Handel] constantly attended public prayers, Handeliana', in Music & twice a day, winter and summer, both in London and Tunbridge.''' The Wells Z.ette« 34 (1953), p.17. did have a sizeable chapel, used since 1678,'^ that offered daily services, and 50. An inscription to his Handel's name appears in its subscription list for 1755." This matches memory survives in the local church: Daniel Lysons: The William Coxe's report of an episodic visit of the composer and John Environs of London (London, Christopher Smith, Sr. to Tunbridge Wells 'about four years before Handel's 1796), vol.1, p.127. death.''"• A remarkable thread running through the biographies of the above 51. Charles Burney: An persons is James Harris." His half-sister Katherine was the wife of Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster- Knatchbull (in 1740 Handel sat for an ivory portrait at her request'^), and Abbey and the Pantheon [...] his son James, Jr. married Amyand's daughter;'^ Upton, Jennens and in Commemoration of Handel Guernsey were friends and correspondents of his. In addition, he colla- (London, 1785), p.34. borated with Jennens on Handel's setting of the Miltonian L'Allegro ed il 52. Alan Savidge: Royal Tunbridge Wells (Tunbridge Penseroso.''^ Wells, 1975), pp.44-48; Description..., pp.35—36. Handel's visits to Tunbridge were presumably much more than a medical imperative. A network of friends and acquaintances in the area promised 53. See Savidge: Tunbridge..., p.8o. companionship, moral support and probably musical activity.'' A contem- porary guide confirms that 'The coming to the Wells to drink the Waters 54. 'Smith senior left Handel in an abrupt manner, is a meer [sic\ Custom; [...] but Company and Diversion [...] is the main which so enraged him, that Business of the Place."^° Dining, for example, features in Upton's letter from he declared he would never see him again': [Coxe]: 1737 ('we dind together every day in the week')*^' and in an amusing story Anecdotes, p.48. about Thomas Morell, whom 'Handel used to carry [...] down with him to — 55. See Rosemary Dunhill: [almost certainly Tunbridge Wells, approximately 35 miles southeast from Handel and the Harris Circle London], where he entertained him."^^ That 'Handel had always a good ([Winchester], 1995), pp.i—2. 56. 'I have shown my respect 58. See their correspondence Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: waiter in his confidence, for him [i.e. Handel] lately[,] in Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: Handel's world, p.36. had it carried to her': meeting a very ingenious Handel's world, pp.82—89. Irma S. Lustig & Frederick man that cuts heads in ivory 62. 'Morell could not live A. Pottle, edd.: Boswell: for 2 guineas & he has done 59. It appears that Handel's without his wife. So he The applause of the jury: Handels very well for me[.] music was regularly had her conveyed down iyS2-iyS5 (New York He sat for it at my request[,] performed there as early and lodged in a garret, the etal., i98i),pp.7i-72; which is what he is very shy as 1722: Walter Eisen window of which looked also in Geoffrey Scott & off & I esteem a favour': & Margret Eisen, edd.: into the room where Handel Frederick A. Pottle, edd.: Katherine Knatchbull to Handel Handbuch, Band 4: and he dined. Handel had The journal of James Boswell, James Harris, 29 [May 1740], Dokumente {« Leben und always a good dinner; and as ij8i—iy83. Private Papers in Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: Schaffen (Kassel, Basel & he was blind, Morell used to of James Boswell from Handel's world, p.99. London, 1985), p. 108. make signs to his wife most Malahide Castle, vol.15 significantly, pointing to a ([USA], 1932), p.171; and 57. Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: 60. The Foreigner's Guide fowl or veal or whatever Ruth Smith: 'Thomas Morell Handel's world, pp.xxi, iioi; (London, 1730), p.200. dishes were upon the table, and his letter about Handel', see also their family trees that she might choose what \n Journal of the Royal at pp. 1124,1126; and Smith: 61. John Upton to James she liked, which she did by a Musical Association 127 'More Handeliana', p.17. Harris, i September 1737, in nod; and Morell, having a (2002), p.222. 63. Rowzee: Tunbridge, dinner' even at Tunbridge indicates that diet was not an issue during his visits pp.44-45. to the spa. A side effect of the waters, hitherto unknown to Handel scholars, 64. Deutsch: Handel, p.846. throws further light on this point. Lodwick Rowzee, author of the first Tun- 65. See Deutsch: Handel, bridge guide, reports that taking the waters may result in p.390; Judith Milhous: 'Opera finances in London, appetite provoked, yea in some but too much, as in my selfe for one; [JJC] For whensoever 1674—1738', in Journal of the I dranke either at the Spa or at Tunbridge, I was never able to fast with patience vntill American Musicological Society 37 (1984), p.590. In noon, but must needs offam latranti stomacho offerre, cast a bit to my barking stomack, March 1737, John Rich would before the rest of my company went to dinner. For this cause when I was at the Spa, a write of 'Severe Losses by Spanish Physition, who was come thither with the yong Prince Doria (who was then but the Opera's etc. carry'd by a youth) would not let him take the water aboue rwo or three dayes, when he saw such an Mr Handel and my Self at effect in him, fearing that he would receiue mere hurt by the excesse of his appetite, than Covt. Garden Theatre for benefit by the water. ' these three years last past': Andrew Saint: 'The three Covent Gardens', in The This might explain why Handel found little improvement in Tunbridge in Musical Times vol. 123 1737 (he had to move to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he stayed for several no.1678 (December 19S2), p.827. Robert D. Hume weeks)'^'' and would visit other British spas in later years. doubts that Handel's losses The social resources of Tunbridge must have been especially attractive to in 1734—35 could have been £9000, as Deutsch reports Handel in summer 1735. His first season at Covent Garden theatre ended in {Handel, p.390): 'Handel and considerable financial loss,*' as Farinelli had brought crowds to the rival opera management in London in the 1730s', in Music & opera company of Senesino. Furthermore, the 'strong [...] Disgust taken Letters 67 (1986), p.356. The against him' by members of the Nobility did not subside,*^* and both the king amount probably describes and the Prince of Wales withdrew their annual bounty from his enterprise (a the season's expenses, for total of £1250).''^ Finding himself isolated in London ('he is often alone'; 'he it is identical with the one reported in the Ipswich is rarely seen'),*"^ Handel welcomed an oratorio libretto by Charles Jennens, Gazette of 9 November 1734: explaining that he had no fixed plans for the following season and that he Deutsch: Handel, p.374. would study the manuscript in Tunbridge. The outstanding invitation from 66. The Old Whig: Or, Knatchbull together with Nash's appointment as Master of Ceremonies there The Consistent Protestant, Thursday 20 March 1735, could illuminate Handel's motivation for visiting the spa. Music was a pri- p.[2]. ority in the agenda of Nash,*' and the arrival of the 'King of Bath' galvanised 67. Carole Taylor: 'Handel social life in Tunbridge,^" which included many private concerts.'^' It is pos- and Frederick, Prince of sible that Handel was seeking to replenish his social capital (Royal Wales', in The Musical Times vol.125 no. 1692 (February 1984), p.91; Thomas i75o',iniV/(ij;c & Letters 11 subscribers by receipt': attracted 900 visitors, was McGeary: 'Handel, Prince ('990.P-384- [Oliver Goldsmith]: The Life the best for six years': Carter: Frederick, and the opera of of Richard Nash, of Bath, Esq 'Nash', p.228. the nobility reconsidered', in 69. 'His first care when made (London/Bath, 1762), p.29. Gottinger Hdndel-Beitrage 7 master of the ceremonies, 71. [25 August 1762] 'the best (i998),p.i77. or king of Bath, as it is called, 70. 'From 1735 until his musical performers of the was to promote a music death he spent Bath's close age, often come down hither 68. 'On I'admire: mais subscription, of one guinea season (July and August) from London, and form c'est de loin, car il est each, for a band which was as master at Tunbridge elegant concerts, for which souvent seul', in Le Pour to consist of six performers, Wells where, as before, he they are generally well paid': et Contre 6 no. 80 ([.'May] who were to receive a guinea introduced regulations on Samuel Derrick: Letters •735). PP-iO3-<'4; English a week each for their trouble. conduct, improved the written from Liverpoole \sic\, translation in Deutsch: He allowed also two guineas facilities, and brought in Chester, Corke, The Lake of Handel, p.390; Richard a week for lighting and new entertainments. Nash's Killarney Dublin, Tunbridge- G. King: 'Handel's travels sweeping the rooms, for presence had a rapid effect, Wells, and Bath (London, in the Netherlands in which he accounted to the and his second season, which 2/1769), vol.2, pp.55-56.

THE MUSICAL TIMES Spring 2ooy 55 56 A Handel relative in Britain ?

72. King: 'Netherlands', correspondence from this season indicates that he was receiving advice from p.384; King speculates that a new friend^^). Knatchbull could have been Handel's new friend (p.385). UNBRIDGE WELLS is, therefore, a point where the biographies of 73. 'Mr Handel is suprizingly \sic[ mended [;] he has been George Frideric and Charles Handel intersect. The composer might on horseback twice': 4th well have visited Brenchley: excursions in the surrounding area were Earl of Shaftesbury to James T a common pastime and Handel did ride on horseback.^' If Charles was in- Harris, 30 April 1737, in Burrows & Dunhill, edd.: deed a German relative of his, then another link between the two might have Handel's world, p.27. * been Sir George Amyand, whose hitherto unexplored biography includes 74. In 1718, Claudius is some interesting details. George was the son of Claudius Amyand, surgeon listed as surgeon in the to George I and George II,'"* a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Governor royal household under the jurisdiction of Lord of St George's Hospital.^' Handel could have known Claudius at the St Chamberlain, Thomas, Duke James's Court or through his mentor Dr John Arbuthnot, whose name of Newcastle, who would • serve as the first Governor of appears together with Amyand's in at least one member list of the Royal the Royal Academy of Music: Society.^'^ (Amyand's published report on a man who had swallowed iron [Guy Miege]: The Present articles might have intrigued Handel, whose father Georg had treated a simi- State of Great-Britain and Ireland (London, 4/1718), lar case in 1696.'''') Sir George Amyand, Claudius's eldest son, became a suc- p.349. A pioneer in treating cessful merchant who 'traded very largely to different parts, particularly to the smallpox, Claudius had inoculated 62 people in Hamburgh' and married the daughter of 'John-Abraham Kerten, an eminent London in 1721—23 alone: Hamburgh merchant.'^^ His contacts with northern Germany qualified him James Jurin: An Account of the Success of Inoculating the as executor of Handel's will, which designated substantial amounts for Small Pox in Great Britain relatives of the composer.'^' Amyand certainly interacted with the children of (London, 1724), p.9. His Georg Taust, Handel's deceased cousin.^° (A document from 10 October salary as King's Surgeon was £200: The True State of 1759, disputing the exact amount of their bequest, includes the name of a England (London, 1726), 'Charles Auguste Tritze', described as 'curateur' of Christiane Dorothea p.49. He would retain the position under George II Taust.^') As a posthumous representative of the composer, Amyand could (The State of the Court of have been a focal point for other Handel relatives in Germany. Great Britain, under his most Sacred Majesty King George Once we realise the extent and depth of Handel's ties to Tunbridge Wells, II. And his Illustrious Consort Queen Caroline (London, it will become easier to understand why Charles Handel[l] would have settled 1728), p.38), with a salary of in the area. The presence of several eminent Handelians and the considerable £396 by 1738: [Guy Miege]: musical activity at Tunbridge Wells promised an auspicious environment to The Present State of Great Britain, and Ireland (London, a relative of the composer. The vibrant sexual life at Tunbridge, celebrated 8/1738), p.204.

yj.A List of the Royal Society Michael Bevan: 'Bromfield, from the YearMDCC[...] to between London and ([London], 172S); A List of William', in Oxford the Year MDCCXX. Abridg'd, Hamburg see Davis: German the Governors and Contributors dictionary..., vol.7, p.8i6. and dispos 'd under General thought and culture, pp.81—92. to the Hospital, near Hyde- Heads (London, 1721), Park-Corner, The Third 76. John Chamberlayne: vol.i: II, pp.96-97; Deutsch: 80. Harris: 'Investor...', of April, iy34. William Magna Britannia Notitia: Or, Handel, p. 5. p.556. Bromfield, who operated The Present State of Great on Handel in 1752 (The Britain (London, 1726), Part 78. E. Kimber & R. Johnson: 81. Smith: 'More General Advertiser, Saturday II, p. 186. The Baronetage of England Handeliana', p.i8. 4 November 1752, p.[i]), (London, 1771), vol.3, P-2O3. had been a Governor of the 77. Benj[amin]. Motte: The 82. Savidge: Tunbridge..., same institution since 1743: Philosophical Transactions 79. For the strong affinities p.8o. in dozens of printed poems as much as disapproved by moralists like Samuel Richardson,*^ might also accommodate the possibility of a first-degree rela- tion between the two Handels. (Tunbridge curiosities included an illegiti- mate son of Sir Robert Walpole.^') Even if Gharles were an opportunist cashing on an actual or assumed relation to Handel, Tunbridge would have suited him particularly well. During summer, the spa attracted nobility and gentry, Britons and Gontinentals,*'' people already rich or willing to taste wealth through gambling.

HOEVER Gharles Handel[l], Esq. might have been, neither the death notices nor the discussion above establish any facts about Whim. This is hardly surprising. The London press transmitted astonishing amounts of information to the public, and newspaper content typically included unsolicited reports, letters, and announcements, let alone paid insertions.*' It was impossible for editors and publishers to check the accuracy of everything they printed (disclaimers like 'we hear', 'we have received advice', 'it is said' etc. abound in news stories at this time). Just days after the announcement of Gharles Handel[l]'s death, the London Chronicle 83. Description..., pp.5—6 had to retract a similar notice for a 'Mr. Atkinson'.**^ Thus, the newspaper [multiple paginations]; Savidge: Tunbridge...,^.^1. reports above are not sufficient to prove Gharles's demise. This ambivalence naturally produces tension in fact-oriented research (a Handel biographer or 84. In 1762, Samuel Derrick wrote: 'You are here with editor needs to know if certain data are true or not). Peer-pressure and the most elegant company in professional decorum in published scholarship often yield large wastebaskets Europe, on the easiest terms; and you need be at no loss for of data. Hundreds of references to Handel remain confined to academic a party of Whist or Quadrille cellars often because they do not fit narratives, or they cannot stand as with respectable personages, verifiable facts, or because editors consider them irrelevant/excessive to an at any price, from a shilling to a guinea a corner': argument. Derrick: Letters, vol.2, Students of Handel's biological and artistic life may have litde interest in PP-56-57- the notices I have reproduced in this essay. The case is not the same, however, 85. For a general discussion of London newspaper's for scholars exploring Handel's image. A reception angle embraces the full content in early Georgian spectrum of responses to the composer, positive and negative, actual and Britain, see Michael Harris: metaphoric, true and false. The wide scope and flexible methodology of this London newspapers in the age of Walpole: a study of the perspective welcomes potentialities as much as facts. Data ignored or origins of the modern English rejected in other scholarly contexts may help establish a field of plausibility press (London & Toronto, and shades of causality. The skilful and patient researcher can sift through such random configurations of data to locate moments and events otherwise 86. 'The article in Monday's papers of the death of Mr. undetected by 'focus scholarship'. This type of peripheral scholarly vision Atkinson, Warehouseman, allowed me to fish out the death notices of Gharles Handel[l], which, in turn, in Bishopsgate-street, is not true, he being in good led me to reexamine the composer's links with Tunbridge Wells and to health', in The London recover new information that may enrich biographical accounts of Handel. Chronicle 39 [no. 3003, Thursday 7—Saturday Disregarding the terminus of 1759 was critical for this enterprise. While 9 March] (1776), p.239. the biological and legal entity of George Frideric Handel ceased to exist in

THE MUSICAL TIMES Spring 2ooy 57 58 A Handel relative in Britain ?

that year, the mental image of the artist continued to evolve. Annual oratorio 87. See Chrissochoidis: seasons in London,^' charitable performances of Messiah throughout the 'Early reception', vol.i, kingdom,'^ a wide circulation of Handelian repertory in print, and the rise of pp.316—449; and Eva Zollner: English oratorio after Handel: music criticism kept it alive.*' The year 1776, in particular, saw the launching the London oratorio series of the 'Goncert of Antient Music' (a hothouse of Handelian cult),'° and the and its repertory, iy6o—i8oo (Marburg, 2002), pp.41—82. publication of two General Histories of music, by Burney (only the first volume) and Hawkins (for a contemporary reviewer, Handel was 'justly the 88. See Robert Manson Myers: Handel's Messiah: hero of this [latter] work''"). Music lovers, furthermore, anticipated the a touchstone of taste (New debut of the Linley family in Drury-Lane Theatre's oratorio season.''' York, 1948), pp.i6i—68. Ghronologically, the reported death of Gharles Handel[l] falls in the period 89. Handel's printed music between their performances of Acis and Galatea (23 February and 8 March) before 1800 amounts to over 1500 items: George J. and Alexander's feast (i and 15 March), Handel's most popular works.'' Buelow: A history of baroque Without the composer's image hovering in the air, Gharles Handel[l]'s music (Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2004), p.622, death would surely have passed unnoticed. Accepting this image in its n.32. According to Hawkins, continuous and evolving presence helps us cut a hole through the bio- 'The long residence of Handel in this country, graphical fence of 1759 ^"<^ bring into alignment Handel's life and post- the great number of his humous reputation. In so doing, we deepen our understanding of the Handel compositions, and the phenomenon in 18th-century Britain and begin to grasp the fairness of its frequent performance of them, enable us to form a claim on modernity.''' competent judgment of his abilities': Hawkins: History..., vol.5, p.282. See also my Ilias Chrissochoidis lectures in music at Stanford University and is presently 'Handel's reception and the Kanner Fellow in British Studies at the UCLA Center for lyth- and i8th-Century rise of music historiography in Britain', in Zdravko Studies. His dissertation on the early reception of Handel's oratorios traces the Blazekovic, ed.: Music's vicissitudes of the genre from iyj2 to iy84, probes crucial moments in its intellectual history: founders, reception, and assembles the largest collection of documents on Handel since followers &fads (New York, 2007) [forthcoming]. iS)S5.

90. William Weber: The rise of musical classics in offered performances of year: '["FRIDAY, report, on Aug.5', in The eighteenth-century England: Judas Maccabaeus, Samson, Yesterday Mr. Handell set Grub-street Journal no.399, a study in canon, ritual, and and Messiah. For a calendar out for the Bath for the Thursday 18 August 1737, ideology (Oxford, 1992), of the 1776 oratorio recovery of his health, he p. [2]. July and August pp.173-177, 205, 248. season see Zollner: English having been struck with a being close season at Bath oratorio..., p.224. dead palsy on one side. DA (if that city is meant by 91. The Gentleman's Magazine [i.e. The Daity Advertiser]', 'the Bath'), it is most likely 47(i777),P-274- 94. Handel's visit to in The Grub-street Journal that Handel's destination Tunbridge in summer 1737 no.398, Thursday u August was Tunbridge Wells from 92. For a comprehensive remains poorly documented. 1737, p.[2];'["MONDAY, the outset. The conflicting account of Linley, Jr, and The only contemporary Aug.i