Rome as the guest of the Marchese di Ruspoli, the leader of the celebrated Arcadian academy. There, on 11 April, he wrote an oratorio, 'La Resurrezione,' in which we meet with the first prominent instance of his characteristic freedom in borrowing from his own previous works. One of the airs occurring both in 'Agrippina' and the oratorio appears also in Alessandro Scarlatti's 'Pyrrhus,' given in London in December of the same year (1708) ; but it seems certain that it was introduced into Scarlatti's opera by the influence of some English amateurs who had seen 'Agrippina' in Venice. For the Roman academy of Cardinal Ottoboni Handel wrote an oratorio to a libretto by Cardinal Panfili, 'II Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno,' which was subsequently transformed into the English oratorio, 'The Triumph of Time and Truth,' performed 1757. The difficulties of the overture were so great that Corelli, who played first violin, could not conquer them, and Handel had to write another introduction. At the cardinal's request he was induced to enter into an amicable contest with Domenico Scarlatti, whom he had met in Venice, and whose father, the illustrious Alessandro Scarlatti, was then in Rome. Domenico was adjudged to be the better player of the harpsichord, but Handel carried off the palm in organ-playing ; the two remained close friends, and each retained in after life the greatest admiration for the other's talents. In Naples, where Handel stayed from July 1708 until the autumn of the following year, he wrote the serenata, 'Aci, Galatea e Polifemo,' which has only the subject in common with the better known English work of a later period. Several cantatas and songs belonging to the Italian period were probably written at Naples, where Handel had ample leisure. Returning to Rome, probably for Christmas 1709 (since he almost certainly heard there the 'Pifferari,' upon whose traditional melody he founded the pastoral symphony in the 'Messiah'), he once again made his way, by Florence, to Venice, at the time of the carnival of 1710.
At the instigation of the Baron Kielmannsegge and the Abbate Steffani, he altered his original intention of proceeding straight to England, and went with them to Hanover, where he received from the elector the title of kapellmeister. After visiting his mother (Mainwaring, p. 73), who was now living alone at Halle (the elder daughter, Dorothea Sophia, having married Michael Dieterich Michaelsen of Halle on 26 Sept. 1708, and the younger, Johanna Christiana, having died on 16 July 1709), he went to Düsseldorf, where he received another service of plate from the elector palatine, whom he had met in Italy, and who would have gladly retained him in his own service had he been free.
Handel arrived in London near the end of 1710, but he then had no idea of remaining in England permanently. He was soon engaged by Aaron Hill, the director of the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket, to write an opera, and the libretto of 'Rinaldo' was written from a sketch by Hill by Giacomo-Rossi, who could not write the words fast enough for the composer. The opera was produced on Saturday, 24 Feb. 1711, and was mounted with a magnificence at that time unheard of. The composer exhibited his skill on the harpsichord in the obbligato part of one of the songs. The success was signal. Steele's and Addison's attacks on the new development of Italian opera in the 'Tatler' and 'Spectator' availed nothing against fashionable taste, and 'Rinaldo' was played at the Queen's Theatre until the end of the season (2 June). It was revived frequently in the next few years, and was given in 1715 at Hamburg, and in 1718 at Naples. During the season of 1711 the composer made many friends among English musicians, and appeared at many of the famous concerts given by the 'musical small-coal man,' Thomas Britton [q. v.] In the summer he returned to Hanover, and on 23 Nov. he stood godfather to his sister's child, Johanna Frederica Michaelsen, at Halle. Twelve of the 'chamber duets,' a group of nine German songs, and the six oboe concertos are assigned to the date of this journey; the songs may, however, have been written on a later visit to Hanover, and the concertos may, as is usually stated, have been composed at Canons. Towards the end of 1712 the composer obtained leave from the elector to visit England again, on the understanding that he should return within a reasonable time (ib. p. 85).
On his return to London Handel's 'Pastor Fido' was given, on Saturday, 22 Nov., for the opening of Hill's season (Spectator, 22 Nov. 1712). The words of this pastoral opera were also by Rossi; the performers were Pellegrini, Urbani, Leveridge, Signora Schiavonetti, Margherita de 1'Epine, and Mrs. Barbier ; but the composer seems to have been hampered by the paucity of great singers at the time in England (Nicolini had left in the summer). Handel's next opera, 'Teseo' (words by N. Haym), was produced on Saturday, 10 Jan. 1713. F. Colman, afterwards consul at Leghorn, who kept a register of the operatic performances in London at this time (Add. MS. 11258), says that the manager, Owen Mac Swiney, ran away after a few performances of the opera, leaving dresses
