heatre." One of the dons
writes of the performance as follows: "This is an innovation; but every
one paid his five shillings to try how a little fiddling would sit upon
him. And, notwithstanding the barbarous and inhuman combination of such
a parcel of unconscionable scamps, he [Handel] disposed of the most of
his tickets."

"Handel and his lousy crew," however, left Oxford with the prestige of
a magnificent victory. His third oratorio, "Athaliah," was received with
vast applause by a great audience. Some of his university admirers, who
appreciated academic honors more than the musician did, urged him to
accept the degree of Doctor of Music, for which he would have to pay a
small fee. The characteristic reply was a Parthian arrow: "Vat te tevil
I trow my money away for dat vich the blockhead vish'? I no vant!"

V.

In 1738 Handel was obliged to close the theatre and suspend payment.
He had made and spent during his operatic career the sum of L10,000
sterling, besides dissipating the sum of L50,000 subscribed by his noble
patrons. The rival house lasted but a few months longer, and the Duchess
of Marlborough and her friends, who ruled the opposition clique and
imported Bononcini, paid L12,000 for the pleasure of ruining Handel. His
failure as an operatic composer is due in part to the same causes
which constituted his success in oratorio and cantata. It is a little
significant to notice that, alike by the progress of his own genius and
by the force of conditions, he was forced out of the operatic field at
the very time when he strove to tighten his grip on it.

His free introduction of choral and instrumental music, his creation of
new forms and remodeling of old ones, his entire subordination of the
words in the story to a pure musical purpose, offended the singers and
retarded the action of the drama in the eyes of the audience; yet it was
by virtue of these unpopular characteristics that the public mind was
being moulded to understand and love the form of the oratorio.

From 1734 to 1738 Handel composed and produced a number of operatic
works, the principal ones of which were "Alcina," 1735; "Arminio," 1737;
and "Berenice," 1737. He also during these years wrote the magnificent
music to Dryden's "Alexander's Feast," and the great funeral anthem on
the occasion of Queen Caroline's death in the latter part of the year
1737.

We can hardly solve the tenacity of purpose with which Handel persevered
in the composi