CHAPTER I - 1685–1708

Summary

George Frideric Handel was born at Halle, on the Saale, in the Duchy of Magdeburg, Lower Saxony. One of his compatriots, a laborious compiler, such as Germany only produces, M. Karl Eduard Förstemann, has published his genealogy, at Leipsic, and he proves, by the registers of the Lutheran Church of Notre Dame de St. Laurent, at Halle, where the great musician was baptized, that his true German names are Georg Friedrich Händel, and that the family name is written in five different ways-Händel, Hendel, Händeler, Hendeler, and Hendtler; but most commonly Handel. A trace of this fluctuation of the family name may be found in the will of Handel himself, in which he leaves, £300 to his “cousin Christianna Susannah Handelin” In Italy he constantly signed his name Hendel; but from the commencement of his residence in England, down to the day of his death, he invariably signed, George Frideric Handel; and that, therefore, appears to be the orthography of his names which has the best right to be preserved. The English have been quite as ingenious as the Germans in discovering variations for this name ; for it has been written Kendall, Hendell, Handell, Handle, Hondel, and Haendel.

All the biographers—English, French, and German—agree in stating that he was born on the 24th of February, 1684. This also is the date which is carved upon his tomb in Westminster Abbey; but, nevertheless, it is erroneous.