CHAPTER XII

Summary

Although Handel was born when his father was sixty years old, he was a man of very powerful constitution, and of great muscular vigour. His cotemporaries represent him as being endowed with a rare beauty of countenance. Burney thus describes him:– “The figure of Handel was large, and he was somewhat corpulent and unwieldy in his motions; but his countenance, which I remember as perfectly as that of any man I saw but yesterday, was full of fire and dignity, and such as impressed ideas of superiority and genius.” And in a subsequent paragraph – “Handel's general look was somewhat heavy and sour, but when he did smile, it was his sire the sun bursting out of a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good humour beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other.”

Nichols, in his Literary Anecdotes, records it as an expression of Burney, that “Handel's smile was like heaven.” Hawkins says:– ”He was in his person a large and very portly man. His gait, which was ever sauntering, was rather ungraceful, as it had in it somewhat of that rocking motion which distinguishes those whose legs are bowed. His features were finely marked, and the general cast of his countenance placid, bespeaking dignity attempered with benevolence, and every quality of the heart that has a tendency to beget confidence and insure esteem.”