and during the final chorus fireworks were let off on the stage (London Daily Post, 13 May 1736; Old Whig, 20 May). According to G. Döring ('Die Musik in Preussen im 18 ten Jahrhundert,' quoted in the Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte, i. 155) about this time Handel contributed choruses and airs to a cantata commissioned by the corporation of Elbing to celebrate (in 1737) the five hundredth anniversary of the foundation of that town. The libretto was written by one Seller, and part of the music by Hermann Balk. The cantata was performed, but all trace of it is lost.
The operatic productions of 1737, his last year at Covent Garden, were 'Arminio' (12 Jan.), 'Giustino' (16 Feb.), and 'Berenice' {18 May). During Lent performances were given of the Italian serenata 'II Trionfo del Tempo.' At the end of the season Handel was unable to pay his creditors, but all contented themselves with promissory notes except one, Del P6, the husband of the faithful Signora Strada. In due time all the debts were paid in full ; but the anxieties of his position aggravated the ill-health to which he had recently been subject.
Before April 1737 a stroke of paralysis crippled his right arm and affected his right side, and his intellect was slightly impaired (Mainwaring, pp. 121-2 ; Hawkins, v. 326). In the 'London Daily Post' for 30 April 1737 it was announced that 'Mr. Handel, who has been some time indisposed with the rheumatism, is in so fair a way of recovery that it is hoped he will be able to accompany the opera of "Justin" on Wednesday next, 4 May.' After the close of the season he went to Aix-la-Chapelle, and on 7 Nov. he returned, 'partly recovered in health ' (Lon- don Daily Post, quoted in Burney, Hist. iv. 418). Ten days afterwards Queen Caroline died, and the composer gave certain proof of his recovery by writing the splendid funeral anthem, 'The ways of Zion do mourn,' for her burial. It was completed 12 Dec.
Handel was at the same time engaged on a new opera, which was intended for a new company got together by Heidegger in the King's Theatre. One Pescetti led the performances and composed several new pieces, and Handel was offered the sum of 1,000l. for two operas and a pasticcio. These were 'Faramondo' (7 Jan. 1738), 'Alessandro Severe,' pasticcio (25 Feb.), and 'Serse' (15 April). A benefit was organised by Handel's many friends and admirers, in order to relieve him from the pressing claims of his importunate creditor, Del P6. The affair, which took place on 28 March 1738, was brilliantly successful, and the profits, which were variously estimated at 800l. and 1,500l. (Mainwaring), were amply sufficient for the purpose. The concert, called after the fashion of the day 'an oratorio,' was of a purely miscellaneous order, songs in English and Italian, and an organ concerto being given (Burney, sketch of the life of Handel in An Account of the . . . Commemoration of Handel, 1785, p. 24). From the 'London Daily Post' of 15 and 18 April 1738 we learn that the statue of Handel by Roubillac, which stood in Vauxhall Gardens until their demolition, was finished and erected in this year at the expense of Jonathan Tyers, the conductor of the entertainments.
Heidegger's attempt to organise operatic performances for the next soason failed, and Handel seems to have determined once more to try his fortune as a manager. He gave twelve weekly performances of non-dramatic pieces at the King's Theatre, January-April 1739, and a new opera, 'Jupiter in Argos,' was announced for production on 1 May 1739 at Lincoln's Inn Fields; but as the newspapers for the first week of May are not extant it is impossible to say whether the performance took place. The opera is a pasticcio made up from previous works by Handel. His final compositions for the stage were 'Imeneo' (produced at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, where a series of oratorios, &c.. was being given, 22 Nov. 1740), and 'Deidamia' (10 Jan. 1741). It is curious to find that the libretto of the last opera was the work of Paolo Rolli, who had previously been so bitterly hostile. Before his tenure of the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre came to an end, Handel's setting of Dryden's shorter 'Ode on St. Cecilia's Day' was given (22 Nov. 1739). On 20 March 1739 'Alexander's Feast' was performed at the King's Theatre in aid of the funds of the Royal Society of Musicians, when Handel himself played the organ. For the benefit of the same society he devoted thenceforth one performance each year, and always took his place at the organ. He also produced at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in 1739 two concertos written in that year. For 27 Feb. 1740 he set to music an arrangement from Milton's 'L'Allegro' and 'II Penseroso' made by a rich amateur, Charles Jennens, of Gopsall, Leicestershire, who added a third part, 'II Moderate.'
Handel was now devoting all his attention to those masterpieces in oratorio on which his enduring fame depends. The great series began with 'Saul,' about the words of which Jennens seems to have written to him as early as 28 July 1735. It was brought out on 16 Jan. 1739 at the King's Theatre. Four
