Hamburg the sum of two hundred ducats, and with this little fortune he set out accordingly in the summer of 1706, and went directly to Florence, where he arrived in July. He soon obtained an engagement to write an opera for the theatre. This was "Roderigo," the story of which being the same as that of his last German production, suggests the possibility of the work being an adaptation of the opera of "Florinda," with the hero's name substituted for that of the heroine as the title. In the course of the ensuing Lent he went to Rome timely to witness the pascal ceremonials in the pontifical city. Immediately he arrived, he wrote a "Dixit Dominus;" a "Laudate" soon after; a "Magnificat" for double choir and orchestra, and several other pieces of the same class while he remained there; and also the two oratorios, "Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Dissenganno" and "La Resurrezione;" but though he composed in Rome an opera called "Silla," it was never performed. He was the guest of the marquis de Ruspoli, and the courted companion of the greatest personages of the city. In July, 1708, Handel was in Naples, and busied himself with composition immediately on his arrival. He wrote in this city the serenata of "Aci, Galattea e Polifemo"—an entirely different work from that upon the same subject with English words he produced eleven years later. Handel removed to the city of the Adriatic during the carnival of 1709. There he wrote the opera of "Agrippina," which excited a furore among the Venetians. On the death of his sister in the autumn of 1709 he returned to Germany, and it may be supposed, after visiting Hamburg as well as Halle, went to Hanover. The elector, George of Brunswick, welcomed his return, and, probably at the instance of his mistress the Baroness Kilmansegge, appointed him kapellmeister, with a salary of 1500 crowns.
In the autumn of 1710 Handel set out for England. He was delayed some time at Düsseldorf by the elector palatine, who paid the highest honours to his genius. Thence he proceeded to Halle to visit his mother, who had become blind. After passing through Holland, the illustrious musician first set his foot in this country, the land of his future adoption, towards the close of 1710. He scarcely had arrived when he was engaged to compose a work for the Italian opera then established in London. Aaron Hill, a notable dramatic author, was the manager of the theatre, and himself wrote the libretto in English. "Rinaldo" was the work that initiated the fame of its immortal composer in England, and it was produced on Handel's baptismal day, the 24th of February, 1711, at the King's theatre in the Haymarket. Its reception surpassed the most sanguine expectations. Two pieces from "Rinaldo" are familiar at the present time; these are the beautiful air, "Lascia ch'ïo pianga," and the march (so popular at the time that it was commonly played by military bands as the Royal Guard's March for forty years), which has come down to us as the bass song, "Let us take the road," in the Beggars' Opera. The sale of this opera was so enormous that Walsh, who published it, made thereby a profit of £1500. The termination of Handel's congé compelled him to return to his engagement at Hanover. He was admitted to an audience of Queen Anne to take leave of her, and she dismissed him only after he had promised to revisit this country. On his way back he again rested at Halle to spend some time with his mother, and to see his old master; and during his stay he officiated as godfather to his niece. It is stated that when at Hanover he composed the thirteen chamber duets and twelve cantatas, printed by Arnold for the Princess Caroline, wife of the elector's son. Handel grew quickly impatient of the quietude of the little German court, and yearned for the activity and the triumphs of London. Resting but a few months in Hanover, he sought permission again to leave the duties of his office, and arrived here in 1712—so early as to compose his ode for Queen Anne's birthday, for performance on that occasion, the 6th of February. In the November following he produced the opera of "Il Pastor Fido;" and in January, 1713, that of "Teseo."
The peace of Utrecht was concluded, April 11, 1713, and it was appointed that a public thanksgiving should take place in St. Paul's cathedral on the 7th of July; to give special effect to which Handel, by command of the queen, was engaged to compose a Te Deum and Jubilate. The admiration these works excited was so general that the queen made them the occasion of granting their composer a pension from the privy purse of £200. Anne died, August, 1714, and the elector of Hanover succeeded to the throne as King George I. He was, and well might be, offended with Handel for deserting his court and the liberal appointment he had given him there. Handel accepted an invitation of the earl of Burlington, and he was retained as a guest by this nobleman until he next quitted England. Under his roof he wrote "Amadige," incorporating portions of the unproduced Roman opera of "Silla;" and this was performed with singular magnificence in May, 1715. On the 22nd of August following, the king held a public festival on the Thames, and the Baron, or more probably the Baroness Kilmansegge made this an occasion to reconcile him with Handel, who by her advice wrote the twenty-five pieces since celebrated as the water music. Such is the received tradition; there is reason to suppose, however, that the water music was written for another festival in July, 1717, when it was certainly played. It is said that the king, who was persuaded by the baroness to engage Handel as accompanyist on the occasion of Geminiani's appearing at court, granted him an additional pension of £200, with the pardon of his truantcy from Hanover. The next notice of Handel occurs in June, 1716, when he gave a performance at the opera "for the benefit of the musicians," this being the first occasion in which his kingly munificence to his fellow-artists is signalized. It seems probable that he went in the July of this year, in the retinue of George I., to Hanover. There are reasons as strong for believing that he returned with the king in the ensuing January, as for supposing that he remained with Prince Frederick in the electoral capital. It must have been while in Hanover that he wrote the oratorio of "Die Passion," and this he sent to his old antagonist Mattheson, for performance at Hamburg on Good Friday, 1717. Handel took advantage of being in Germany to visit his blind and now aged mother. Hearing of his being at Halle, Bach, who was then at Köthen, felt so eager a desire to meet his illustrious fellow-artist, that he walked the intervening distance of sixteen miles on purpose to see him; but he arrived in Halle on the very day when Handel had departed. Handel also passed through Anspach, and there encountered his old friend Schmidt, who was settled in his native town as a wool factor, was married, and had a son and two daughters. He came with the musician to England, and from the time of his arrival officiated as his treasurer, undertaking the entire financial arrangements of his public performances, and controlling all the business details of his affairs.
There is a very general tradition, but no documentary evidence to prove it, that Handel was engaged in 1718 by the duke of Chandos as master of the chapel, the single instance of this title being applied to a musician in England; and that he resided, in the fulfilment of the office, for three years or longer at Cannons, the seat of the duke at Stanmore Parva, or Whitchurch, about nine miles from London. What was the precise nature of Handel's engagement at Cannons is only matter of surmise; but it is certain that he wrote twelve anthems and two Te Deums, all with orchestral accompaniments, which are referred to this period.
The first series of performances given by the Royal Academy of Music commenced in April, 1720; and before the end of the month a new opera of Handel's was produced, as the crowning glory of the scheme. This was "Radamisto," the production of which was attended with the most extraordinary excitement. His next work was his first English oratorio, "Esther," which was originally performed at Cannons on the 22nd of August, 1720, and for which the duke is reported to have paid the composer one thousand pounds. Handel at this time was giving periodical lessons to the daughters of the prince of Wales. He composed for Princess Anne his first collection of "Suites de Piéces;" in one of which is the air, with variations, now known by the name of the Harmonious Blacksmith, which owes this title to Lintot, a musicseller of Bath about sixty years ago, who had been a blacksmith. The first piece he printed was this air, with variations, detached from the "Suite," to which it belongs; and, to bear testimony to his own origin, he bestowed on the piece the name which has been elaborately traced to a different source. The English serenata of "Acis and Galatea" was originally performed at Cannons in 1721.
The grand feature of the next season of the Academy was the opera of "Muzio Scevola," which concentrated the powers of Ariosti, Bononcini, and Handel. The two former had just been invited to England. Ariosti wrote the first act, Bononcini the second, and Handel the third, so that the relative merits of the three were brought into immediate comparison. Handel's next work, "Floridante," which was brought out in December, was the production of the Academy's third subscription series.
