hitting off men and
manners of the day; but, above all, to the exquisite beauty of its
melodies, which served to lay a glamour over what otherwise would have
undoubtedly been condemned as vulgar.

The success of the 'Beggar's Opera' completed the ruin of the Royal
Academy of Music, but Handel, undismayed by the failure of this great
scheme, and setting his enemies at defiance, went once more to Italy
to collect a new company of singers, for he was determined to carry on
the work himself with the fortune which his operas had brought him. On
his way home he paid a visit to Halle, where he found his aged mother
stricken by illness. She lingered until the following year (1730),
when she died at the age of eighty. For several years Handel struggled
to build up the fortunes of Italian opera in London, but the
persistent rivalry and opposition of his enemies, combined with the
decadence of musical taste on the part of the public, caused his
losses to accumulate, until, in 1737, he found himself, after repeated
failures, deeply in debt, and with his health broken down by overwork
and anxiety. The whole of his fortune of L10,000 had been swallowed up
in this disastrous enterprise, and it was a poor consolation for him
to know that his rivals failed in the same year with a loss of
L12,000. Not even at this juncture, however, would his indomitable
will submit to the force of circumstances. After a brief rest at Aix
la Chapelle, with a course of vapour baths, he returned to London
prepared to begin the battle afresh, and although he had lost to a
great extent the favour of the rich, his popularity was such that a
statue of himself was executed by public subscription, and erected in
Vauxhall Gardens, an honour which, as has been truly observed, had
been paid to no other composer during his lifetime.

It was only after several failures that Handel was at length convinced
that it was useless to attempt to re-awaken the interest of English
audiences in Italian opera, and yet, although he made no concealment
of his regret at the abandonment of a line of composition in which he
had so greatly excelled, it was with no diminished vigour or
determination that he now, at the age of fifty-five, turned his
attention to work of a serious character. And if we admit that Handel
excelled in operatic work, what shall we say of the oratorios which
formed the later creations of his genius? To many of us, perhaps, his
name is so intimately associat