blic, Handel composed the opera "Agrippina,"
which made a _furore_ among all the connoisseurs of the city.

So, having seen the summer in Florence and the carnival in Venice, he
must hurry on to be in time for the great Easter celebrations in Rome.
Here he lived under the patronage of Cardinal Otto-boni, one of the
wealthiest and most liberal of the Sacred College. The cardinal was
a modern representative of the ancient patrician. Living himself in
princely luxury, he endowed hospitals and surgeries for the public. He
distributed alms, patronized men of science and art, and entertained
the public with comedies, operas, oratorios, puppet-shows, and academic
disputes. Under the auspices of this patron, Handel composed three
operas and two oratorios. Even at this early period the young composer
was parting company with the strict old musical traditions, and his
works showed an extraordinary variety and strength of treatment.

From Rome he went to Naples, where he spent his second Italian summer,
and composed the original Italian "Aci e Galatea," which in its English
version, afterward written for the Duke of Chandos, has continued a
marked favorite with the musical world. Thence, after a lingering return
through the sunny land where he had been so warmly welcomed, and which
had taught him most effectually, in convincing him that his musical life
had nothing in common with the traditions of Italian musical art, he
returned to Germany, settling at the court of George of Brunswick,
Elector of Hanover, and afterward King of England. He received
commission in the course of a few months from the elector to visit
England, having been warmly invited thither by some English noblemen. On
his return to Hanover, at the end of six months, he found the dull and
pompous little court unspeakably tiresome after the bustle of London.
So it is not to be marveled at that he took the earliest opportunity of
returning to the land which he afterward adopted. At this period he was
not yet twenty-five years old, but already famous as a performer on the
organ and harpsichord, and as a composer of Italian operas.

When Queen Anne died and Handel's old patron became King of England,
Handel was forbidden to appear before him, as he had not forgotten the
musician's escapade; but his peace was at last made by a little ruse.
Handel had a friend at court, Baron Kilmansegge, from whom he learned
that the king was, on a certain day, going to take an excurs