sick this Winter at Covent
Garden Theatre." One of the first works for these concerts was
"Alexander's Feast," completed, as stated above, Jan. 17, 1736. The poem
was prepared by Newburgh Hamilton, who says in his preface:--

"I determined not to take any unwarrantable liberty with the poem,
which has long done honor to the nation, and which no man can add to or
abridge in anything material without injuring it. I therefore confined
myself to a plain division of it into airs, recitatives or choruses,
looking upon the words in general so sacred as scarcely to violate one
in the order of its first place. How I have succeeded the world is to
judge, and whether I have preserved that beautiful description of the
passions, so exquisitely drawn, at the same time I strove to reduce
them to the present taste in sounds. I confess my principal view was,
not to lose this favorable opportunity of its being set to music by
that great master who has with pleasure undertaken the task, and who
only is capable of doing it justice; whose compositions have long shown
that they can conquer even the most obstinate partiality, and inspire
life into the most senseless words. If this entertainment can in the
least degree give satisfaction to the real judges of poetry or music, I
shall think myself happy in having promoted it; being persuaded that it
is next to an improbability to offer the world anything in those arts
more perfect than the united labors and utmost efforts of a Dryden and
a Handel."

In addition to the preface Hamilton appended a poem "To Mr. Handel on his
setting to Musick Mr. Dryden's Feast of Alexander," in which he
enthusiastically sings:--

"Two glowing sparks of that celestial flame
Which warms by mystick art this earthly frame,
United in one blaze of genial heat,
Produced this piece in sense and sounds complete.
The Sister Arts, as breathing from one soul,
With equal spirit animate the whole.
Had Dryden lived the welcome day to bless,
Which clothed his numbers in so fit a dress,
When his majestick poetry was crowned
With all your bright magnificence of sound,
How would his wonder and his transport rise,
Whilst famed Timotheus yields to you the prize!"

The work was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre, February 19, about
a month after it was written; the principal singers being Signora Strada,
Miss Young,[26] John Beard, and Mr. Erard. It met with rem