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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
These extracts on music from the correspondence between Charles Jennens (1700–73) and Edward Holdsworth (1684–1746) reflect the authors' shared interests and (prohibited) political views. Though commonly known as the librettist of Messiah, Jennens was also a collector of music and art, and as such capitalized on Holdworth's travels as a tutor of young gentlemen on the Grand Tour. Many of the letters detail musical commissions and their fulfilment by a willing Holdsworth. In return, Jennens acted as Holdsworth's financial advisor, editorial consultant and publication adviser. Other discussions centre around the public and personal rating of singers and operas, in London and abroad, and include discussions of Handel's fortunes, his borrowing of music from Jennens's collection and his health. Mentions of personnel are not restricted to musicians but also encompass members of Jennens's family and of his and Holdsworth's social circles, many of whom were supporters of Handel.
1 GB-Lfom, accession no. 2702. The Gerald Coke Handel Collection is now housed in the Foundling Museum, London (Lfom).
2 Anthony Hicks, ‘Auction of Handeliana’, Musical Times, 114 (1973), 892.
3 Ibid.
4 For example, Otto Erich Deutsch's monumental Handel: A Documentary Biography (London, 1955), in which only one of the Jennens–Holdsworth letters is quoted. The current AHRC-funded project, ‘G.F.Handel: The Collected Documents’ (based at the Open University) aims to produce the fullest collection to date of documents relating to the composer, but the transcribers have chosen to reprint from the letters only those passages pertaining specifically to Handel.
5 John Nichols, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester (Leicester, 1811), iv, part 2, 859. One of the sons, Robert, committed suicide in 1728, an event that must have had a profound effect on the devout Christian, Jennens jnr. Ruth Smith, ‘The Achievements of Charles Jennens (1700–1773)’, Music & Letters, 70 (1989), 181.
6 Jacobitism was a political movement that arose after James II (James VII of Scotland) was deposed in 1688. James was replaced by William II (William III of Orange) and his wife, James's daughter Mary II. Jacobites sought the restoration of James II and the Catholic Stuart line of succession. James II died in exile in 1701. His son, James Francis Edward (1688–1766), lived in exile in France (under the protection of his cousin Louis XIV) and was known as the Old Pretender. There were several Jacobite uprisings between 1688 and 1746, the most important of which occurred in 1715 and 1745. The 1745 campaign was led by Charles Edward Stuart (The ‘Young Pretender’, 1720–88) but its culmination in defeat at the Battle of Culloden ended realistic hope of the restoration of the Stuart throne.
7 The ‘Protestant Succession’ is a term applied to the claim on the throne made by William and Mary after the Catholic King, James II was deposed in 1688. Oaths of allegiance to the monarch were required from those who wished to hold any political or ecclesiastical offices.
8 Smith, ‘Achievements’, 176.
9 Ibid., 169. For Jennens's theological library holdings, see Tassilo Erhardt, Händels Messiah: Text, Musik, Theologie (Bad Reichenhall, 2008). For his collection of music manuscripts, see John H. Roberts, ‘The Aylesford Collection’, in Terence Best, ed., Handel Collections and their History (Oxford, 1993), 39–85.
10 Brenda Sumner, ‘Charles Jennens’ Piano and Music Room’, Handel Institute Newsletter, 22/2 (2011), 1–3. See n. 67.
11 For an exposition of Jennens's construction of the libretto, see Ruth Smith ‘Biblical Heroes in Jennens's and Handel's Saul’, Händel-Jahrbuch, 52 (2006), 89–102. Also Anthony Hicks, ‘Handel, Jennens and Saul: Aspects of a Collaboration’, in Nigel Fortune, ed., Music and Theatre: Essays in Honour of Winton Dean, 203–27 (Cambridge, 1987).
12 See Smith, ‘Achievements’, 188.
13 Mainly from a rival Shakespeare editor, George Steevens. See below.
14 Smith, ‘Achievements’, 171.
15 Ibid., 166.
16 See Smith, ‘Achievements’, 166–9, for further details.
17 Ibid., 163.
18 Christine Ferdinand, An Accidental Masterpiece: Magdalen College's New Building and the People who Built It (Oxford, 2010), 7. The two men's careers at Magdalen overlapped. Butler matriculated at Magdalen in 1702 and became a full fellow at the college in 1710.
19 Ferdinand, Masterpiece, 34.
20 D. K. Money, ‘Holdsworth, Edward (1684–1746)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13498 [Accessed 13 August 2011].
21 Ferdinand, Masterpiece, 13.
22 Smith, ‘Achievements’, 174. In a postscript, Holdsworth writes: ‘I have brought a Drawing of a person for whom you have a great respect which I have left at y[ou]r Uncle C[otton's] for you.’ See n. 219.
23 Sir Horatio Mann claimed that Holdsworth was ‘known to debauch the sentiments of the young English’, presumably by indoctrinating them with his Jacobite views (Ferdinand, Masterpiece, 15).
24 Letter of 26 August 1735. Ferdinand, Masterpiece, 17.
25 Letter of 4 May 1742.
26 See letter of 20 December 1730.
27 Published London, 1742.
28 Edward Holdsworth, ed., R. R., A Dissertation upon eight verses in the second book of Virgil's Georgics in which that author is vindicated, from several mistakes, which all his Commentators and Translators have imputed to him, either directly or consequentially (London, 1749), ix.
29 Smith, ‘Achievements’, 166.
30 See letter of 28 October 1743.
31 Smith, ‘Achievements’, 170.
32 See Smith, ‘Achievements’, 176–9 for further details. The statue and cenotaph are now situated in the garden of Belgrave Hall, Leicester.
33 Although it could possibly have been his father's name.
34 Roberts, ‘Aylesford Collection’, 40.
35 John H. Roberts, ‘Handel and Charles Jennens's Italian Opera Manuscripts’, in Nigel Fortune ed., Music and Theatre: Essays in Honour of Winton Dean (Cambridge, 1987), 161.
36 See Roberts, ‘Aylesford Collection’, 41–2 for more detail.
37 See Hicks, ‘Handel, Jennens and Saul’ for more detail.
38 Ruth Smith, ‘Jennens, Charles (1700/01–1773)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14745 [Accessed 14 August 2011].
39 Letter of 17 January 1742/3.
40 Letter of 21 February 1742/3.
41 Letter to Holdsworth, 7 May 1744.
42 Letter to Holdsworth, 19 February 1746.
43 According to a diary entry by George Harris, dated 19 May 1756. Donald Burrows and Rosemary Dunhill, Music and Theatre in Handel's World: The Family Papers of James Harris (1732–1780) (Oxford and New York, 2002), 314.
44 John Nichols, Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer, F.S.A. and of many of His Learned Friends (London, 1782), 442–4n.
45 2nd edn. London, 1812–15, iii, 120–23 n. Cited in Smith, ‘Achievements’, 162.
46 Smith, ‘Achievements’, 162.
47 Erich H. Müller, The Letter and Writings of George Frideric Handel (London, 1935).
48 Deutsch, Documentary Biography, 8.
49 Winton Dean, ‘Charles Jennens's Marginalia to Mainwaring's Life of Handel’, Music & Letters, 53 (1972), 160–4.
50 Autograph Letters of George Frideric Handel and Charles Jennens, The Property of Earl Howe, C.B.E. Christie, Manson and Woods illustrated sale catalogue, London, 1973.
51 Michael Talbot, ‘Some Overlooked Mss in Manchester’, The Musical Times, 115/1581 (Nov. 1974), 942–4.
52 Detailed in Talbot's 1976 edition and 1978 article, ‘Vivaldi's “Manchester” Sonatas’, PRMA, 104 (1977–8), 20–9.
53 Michael Talbot, ‘Charles Jennens and Antonio Vivaldi’, in Leo Olschki and Francesco Degrada, eds, Vivaldi Veneziano Europeo (Florence, 1980), 67–75.
54 Published as The Manchester Concerto Partbooks (New York, 1989).
55 Reinhard Strohm, ‘Scarlattiana at Yale’, in Leo Olschki, Nino Pirrotta and Agostino Ziino, eds, Händel e gli Scarlatti a Roma (Florence, 1985), 113–52.
56 See letter of 17 Jan. 1742/3.
57 Roberts, ‘Aylesford Collection’.
58 Smith, ‘Achievements’.
59 Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris.
60 Francesca Cuzzoni (1696–1778). Principal soprano for the Royal Academy of Music in London between 1723 and 1728. She sang for the Opera of the Nobility in 1734–6 and briefly returned to London in 1750–1.
61 Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli (1705–82). Italian castrato who sang for the Opera of the Nobility in London between October 1734 and June 1737, before moving to the Spanish court. Thomas McGeary, ‘Farinelli's Progress to Albion: The Recruitment and Reception of Opera's “Blazing Star”’, British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 28 (2005), 339–60.
62 Antonio Maria Bernacchi (1685–1756). Italian castrato, he enjoyed success as a soloist and, later, teacher in Italy. He sang in the Haymarket Theatre Company in 1716–7 and was the leading man in the Handel-Heidegger operas of 1729–30. Donald Burrows, Handel (Oxford, 2012), 580.
63 Sir James Hallet of Edgeware. His grandson, James Herbert, was a pupil of Holdsworth. See letter of 17 April 1732. See nn. 81 and 90.
64 Leonardo Vinci (c.1696–1730). Succeeded Alessandro Scarlatti as organist of the Royal Chapel in Naples; he was most influential for his well-received operas. According to Burney, Vinci was ‘the first opera composer who…without degrading his art, rendered it the friend, though not the slave, to poetry by simplifying and polishing melody and calling the attention of the audience chiefly to the voice-part, by disentangling it from fugue, complication, and laboured contrivance.’ Kurt Sven Markstrom, The Operas of Leonardo Vinci, Napoletano (New York, 2007), xvi. The work referred to here is Artaserse, premiered in Rome on 4 February 1730. Handel's pasticcio of Artaserse – as Arbace – was one of several pasticcio versions of Vinci's operas that he produced in London in the 1730s. For details see Roberts, ‘Italian Opera Manuscripts’, 165–71, and ‘Handel and Vinci's “Didone abbandonata”: Revisions and Borrowings’, Music & Letters, 68/2 (1987), 141–50. Jennens's score of Artaserse is now in the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music (Vault M1500.V777A, 3 vols., stock nos. 527, 525 and 502), (Roberts, ‘Italian Opera Manuscripts’, 162). See n. 74.
65 Francesco Bernardi, known as Senesino (d. 1759). Italian castrato and leading man in every production by the Royal Academy in London from the autumn of 1720 until its dissolution in 1728, he sang again in London in 1730–6, initially for the Handel-Heidegger company at the Haymarket before moving to the Opera of the Nobility from 1733. His career continued to flourish upon his return to Italy in 1736. John Mainwaring, Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel (London, 1760), 100–1, 107–9; John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, 5 vols. (London, 1776), v, 306–7; Burrows, Handel, 595–6.
66 For Senesino's recruitment, see Owen Swiny's letter from 18 July 1730: Posthumous Letters, from Various Celebrated Men; addressed to Francis Colman, and George Colman, the Elder (London, 1820), 21–5. The first public announcement of his engagement appears in The Daily Post, no. 3414, Friday 28 August 1730, [1].
67 James Herbert of Tythrop (c.1713–40), a committed Jacobite and Holdsworth's pupil at this date. Holdsworth's comment supports Sumner's suggestion that Jennens held musical evenings for fellow local amateurs at Gopsall (Sumner, ‘Piano and Music Room’, 3). See n. 190.
68 Reputed to be in a small tunnel situated in the Parco Virgiliano in the Piedigrotta district of Naples. Jennens and Holdsworth were both avid classicists, and Jennens erected a monument to his friend (18 years after his death in 1746) in which was incorporated a copy of the pyramid at Virgil's tomb, as represented by a contemporary drawing (Smith, ‘Achievements’, 176).
69 The only specific work mentioned by Holdsworth as being copied in Rome prior to this letter is Vinci's Artaserse (see letter of 24 August 1730, n.60).
70 The opera at Bologna was probably Farnace, a setting by Giovanni Porta of Antonio Maria Lucchini's libretto, at the Teatro Malvezzi. Luigi Verdi, ‘Farinelli in Bologna’, British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 28 (2005), 411–20. From Holdsworth's comments in his letter of 11 July 1731, the opera did not appear to live up to expectations. Bernacchi also sang at Bologna that year.
71 Faustina Hasse, née Bordoni (1697–1781). Venetian soprano whose career flourished in Italy, Germany and Vienna before she moved to London where she sang between 1726–8. Renowned for her personal and professional rivalry with Cuzzoni, with whom she had also worked in Venice in 1718–9. Faustina married the German composer Johann Adolf Hasse in 1730. Charles Burney, A General History of Music, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period, 4 vols. (London, 1776–89), iv, 308–9; Burrows, Handel, 584.
72 Vittoria Tesi (1700–75). Italian contralto with a consistent singing career on the continent followed by success as a teacher. Nicknamed ‘La Fiorentina’ and ‘La Moretta’. Burney praises her expressivity and stage presence.
73 Carlo Scalzi (fl.1718–38). Italian castrato renowned for his high tessitura. Popular on the continent, he made little impact on London's audiences as second man for the 1733–4 season at the King's Theatre (Burrows, Handel, 595).
74 Giovanni Carestini (c.1704–c.1760). Italian castrato (soprano, then alto) whose operatic debut was in Rome in 1721, alongside his teacher Bernacchi. He succeeded Senesino as leading man for Handel's company in 1733–5, returning to London in 1739–40 to sing at the Little Theatre, Haymarket. Burney praises his skills both as an actor and musician (Burrows, Handel, 582).
75 According to a report in the Monthly Chronicle for April 1731 (vol. 4, p. 77), the earthquake ‘lasted full three Minutes’, forcing people out of their homes; Foggia, ‘a City in Apuglia, about 100 Milles off, was two thirds demolish'd, and near 2000 Persons buried under the Ruins’.
76 Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1732), inventor of the piano. Jennens purchased one of his instruments (see nn. 82, 83, 85 and 88), believed to be a piano but referred to variously as an ‘harpsicord’ or ‘pianoforte harpsichord’ (See Sumner, ‘Piano and Music Room’, for a fuller explanation).
77 A joke intended to reference Holdsworth's perceived opinion of himself as a musical philistine.
78 Cajo Fabricio, Johann Adolf Hasse's only opera for Rome, was premiered on 12 January 1732. Roberts points out that pencilled markings in Handel's hand throughout the Aylesford scores of both Cajo Fabricio and Vinci's Artaserse reveal them to have been used by the composer for his pasticcio versions of the two works: Caio Fabbricio in December 1733 and Arbace in January 1734. Passing through the hands of dealers Hunt and Reeves, Cajo Fabricio is now owned by the Newberry Library, Chicago (MS VM 1500 H35c, stock no. 534), (Roberts, ‘Italian Opera Manuscripts’, 162). See n. 60.
79 Roberts has identified the three Alessandro Scarlatti operas from the Sotheby sale catalogue as Dafni (Naples, 1700), Griselda (Rome, 1721) and Marco Attilio Regolo (Rome, 1719). Roberts places the copying dates between 1719 and 1724. Dafni (GB–Cfm MS Mus. 227) was the only opera of the three copied in its entirety and Roberts believes Holdsworth to have bought the manuscripts second hand, in their present vellum bindings. Marco Attilio Regolo was also acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum (GB–Cfm MS Mus. 228) while the manuscript containing Griselda – and eight arias and three duets by other composers – was sold by Barclay Squire to the Library of Congress (US–Wc M1500.S28G5) (Roberts, ‘Italian Opera Manuscripts’, 160–3). Handel borrowed from all three and Roberts lists the principal relationships in ‘Italian Opera Manuscripts’, 193–201.
80 The ‘Airs of Porpora’ may be a reference to a manuscript now in New Haven, Yale School of Music (US–NH Misc. MS 75). Included in this manuscript are arias by Porpora from Mitridate (1730) and Siface (1730) in addition to those by Vinci (Alessandro nell'Indie, 1729, and Artaserse, 1730), G. M. Costanzi (L'Amor generoso, 1727) and A. Scarlatti (Arminio, 1722). Strohm has examined the manuscript in detail and identifies the scribes and paper as of Roman provenance. All of the arias (and the single overture) in the manuscript are from operas performed at the Teatro Capranica in Rome, 1722–30, with the exception of Vinci's operas Alessandro nell'Indie and Artaserse, which premiered at the Teatro delle Dame in Rome, at the beginning and end of the1730 Carnival season respectively. Strohm has also traced the volume back to the Aylesford collection by an inscription written on a related volume (US–NH Misc. MS 78, also at Yale) by the dealer Reeves (Strohm, ‘Scarlattiana’, 140–1, 148). See nn. 94 and 179.
81 See nn. 63 and 90.
82 See letter of 24 August 1731. Cristofori was by this time dead, and so the instrument was either one that he had already made or was made instead by one of his pupils, an unnamed Del Mela or Giovanni Ferrini (Sumner, ‘Piano and Music Room’, 3). See nn. 76, 83, 85 and 88.
83 See nn. 76, 82, 85 and 88.
84 Willoughby Bertie (1692–1760) of Wytham Abbey, Berkshire. He attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford and became an MP in 1715. He spent the years 1722–7 in Italy (Florence, Rome and Naples), for health reasons. In 1727 he married Anna Collins. They had three sons and seven daughters. John Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701–1800 (London, 1997), 86.
85 The ‘book of Sonatas’ was almost certainly that of Lodovico (Maria) Giustini's 12 Sonate da cimbalo di piano e forte detto volgarmente di martelletti op.1 (Florence, 1732, facs.), the earliest known works for the piano. Jean Grundy Fanelli, ‘Giustini, Lodovico’, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online (Oxford), www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/11239 [Accessed 12 September 2013]. Jennens owned a copy of the 1732 edition. Paul Everett, ‘A Roman Concerto Repertory: Ottoboni's “What Not”?’ Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 110 (1983–4), 64. Holdsworth's letter of 8 November 1733 makes it clear that Jennens purchased his piano in 1732. A letter from Thomas Harris to his brother James, of 17 May 1740, mentions Handel playing Jennens's fortepiano: ‘Handel is soon going to Aix la Chapelle, having lately found a weakness in his hand, but he was in good spirits yesterday and played finely on the piano-forte’ (Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 98). See nn. 76, 82, 83 and 88.
86 Anna Peruzzi (fl.1728–56). Italian soprano who made her début at the carnival of 1728 in Bologna. Nicknamed ‘La Parruchierra’ (‘wig dresser’), she was prima donna in several leading houses before joining Farinelli's company in Spain in 1739.
87 Victor Amadeus II of Savoy (1666–1732), who was married to Anne Marie d'Orleans, a niece of Louis XIV.
88 See nn. 76, 82, 83 and 85.
89 Neil Brown (1660–1740) was a Scottish merchant and consul in Venice from 1716–40. Though Scottish by birth, he showed no sympathy to the Jacobite cause when, in May 1737, he created a diplomatic storm during a visit to the city by Charles Stuart, the young Pretender, by requesting that he be expelled from the city (Ingamells, Travellers in Italy, 139).
90 See nn. 63 and 81.
91 Farinelli had been a target for London's opera for some years and was finally contracted by the Opera of the Nobility in May 1734 (McGeary, ‘Farinelli's Progress to Albion’).
92 Antonia Margherita Merighi (fl.1714–40). Highly successful Italian contralto whose operatic career can be traced from Florence in 1714 to Mantua, Bologna, Naples, Parma, Turin, Modena and London. She was engaged by Handel for two seasons, 1729–31 (The Daily Courant, no. 8650, Wednesday 2 July 1729, [2]; Burrows, Handel, 590) and returned to London in 1736–38 where she created roles in Handel's Faramondo and Serse. Her name appears last in two operas at Munich in 1740.
93 Many of the manuscripts in the Flower Collection are on Venetian paper, including five arias in the miscellany GB-Mp MS Q520 Vu51. Paul J. Everett, The Manchester Concerto Partbooks (New York, 1989), i, 13. Seven items in the Flower collection can be traced back to Milan but these appear in the ‘Manchester Concerto Partbooks’ and so probably arrived in Jennens's possession with the rest of the Ottoboni material in 1742 (see n. 142).
94 Probably the ‘Airs of Porpora and others’ mentioned in Holdsworth's letter of 17 April 1732. See nn. 80 and 179.
95 Godrey Meynell. According to State Papers, Meynell was a ‘travelling Englishman’ who gave a grand dinner in Rome on 23 November 1731. (Ingamells, Travellers in Italy, 657).
96 Talbot explains Holdsworth's rather sarcastic use of the word ‘friend’ as meaning that Jennens was an admirer (Talbot, ‘Jennens and Vivaldi’, 71). Other sources reinforce Holdsworth's portrayal of Vivaldi as a vain man with a high sense of his commercial worth, as evidenced by the extortionate price of a guinea per concerto (Talbot, ‘Jennens and Vivaldi’, 72). Holdsworth's refusal to buy Vivaldi's concerti at that price was vindicated several years later when he acquired 36 of the composer's concerti as part of the Ottoboni collection, at a bargain price (see n. 142, Talbot, ‘Jennens and Vivaldi’, 75). Holdsworth's comments at the end of the paragraph in this letter are further explained in his letter of 16 July 1733.
97 By this date, the Amsterdam publisher Le Cène had published all three volumes of Tartini's concertos (Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 14). It is unclear how many of the concerti Jennens ended up with, but Roberts has traced two, in A and F (GB–Cfm MU.MS656B), and Everett identifies a further two, in E and e. Roberts, ‘Aylesford Collection’, 81; Everett, ‘A Roman Concerto Repertory: Ottoboni's “What Not”?’, 76–7.
98 The author has been unable to trace the existence of any works by Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695–1764) in the Aylesford Collection, but the work referred to here is probably his L'arte del violino: XII concerti…con XXIV capricci ad libitum, Op. 3 (for 2 violins, viola, violoncello and bassi), published by Le Cène in 1733.
99 Michel-Charles Le Cène (1684–1743) married the eldest daughter of the Dutch publisher Estienne Roger. He set up his own (non-music) business and eventually bought the Roger business in 1723. The Roger firm published the second editions of Vivaldi's Opp. 1 and 2, and thereafter the first editions of all but two of Vivaldi's works.
100 Vivaldi had only published Opp. 1–12, and so must have counted twice those collections published in two volumes, as Holdsworth suggests in his letter of 16 July 1733 (Talbot, ‘Jennens and Vivaldi’, 72).
101 The Downes were gentlemen farmers of Otterbourne Farm. Holdsworth spent most his time there between his tours of 1733–9, possibly to oversee the Magdalen building project.
102 The Daily Advertiser was founded in 1730 and was one of several papers that carried theatrical advertisements, until its closure in 1798. The London Evening Post was a Tory newspaper, founded in 1727. Notices of Handel's performances at the King's Theatre were published exclusively in the Daily Journal during the 1733/34 season.
103 Jennens's and Holdsworth's pet name for Handel.
104 A pun based on the reality that Handel's fortunes relied upon the presence of the gentry in town. A letter from Mrs Pendarves (12 April 1734) that describes Handel as being ‘in the best humour in the world’ suggests that Handel did not suffer as Holdsworth predicted he might (Burrows, Handel, 230).
105 Thomas Hecht (1672?–1734). Magdalen College's organist and mentor of Jennens.
106 Jennens and Holdsworth attended Balliol College, Oxford, Jennens enrolling at the age of 15 in February 1716 (Smith, ‘Achievements’, 163).
107 Edward Thompson, organist at Salisbury from 1718 (possibly until 1746).
108 William Holmes (5 April 1689–4 April 1748) was president of St John's College, Oxford, from 1728 until his death in 1748. He was Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford between 1732 and 1735, and in 1734 he became one of the King's Chaplains. Loyal to the Hanoverians, he appears to have admired Handel's music. As Vice-Chancellor he reinstituted the ceremony of ‘the act’ and invited Handel to play before and after the ceremony. He also allowed Handel to stage several public concerts in the Sheldonian Theatre. William Hunt, ‘Holmes, William (1689–1748)’, rev. John D. Haigh, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford, 2004); online ed., ed. Lawrence Goldman (Oxford, 2011), www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13604 [Accessed 10 September 2013].
109 John Horton I (c.1708–79). Became Mayor of Bath for 1771–2. Resident in Bath from c.1729.
110 Holdsworth's concern was justified, for a newspaper report from 2 June 1733, reports that Handel had informed Senesino that he ‘had no farther Occasion for his Service’ (The Country Journal: Or, The Craftsman, no. 361, Saturday 2 June 1733, [2]; repr. (from the Bee), Walter Eisen and Margaret Eisen, eds., Händel-Handbuch (HHB), Band 4: Dokumente zu Leben und Schaffen (Kassel, 1985), 215. Senesino, however, had been in contact with the Opera of the Nobility since January 1733 and subsequently joined them for the 1734–5 season, along with the rest of Handel's leading Italian singers, with the exception of Strada. Thomas McGeary, ‘Handel, Prince Frederick, and the Opera of the Nobility Reconsidered’, Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, 7 (1998), 156–78; Burrows, Handel, 226.
111 Another factor for this extension must have been the arrival of Anne, Princess of Orange, and Handel's former student and patroness. The London Evening Post, no. 1033, Tuesday 2–Thursday 4 July 1734, [2]; Friedrich Chrysander, G. F. Händel. Band 2 (Leipzig, 1860), 363.
112 As the letter suggests, Handel's revival of Il pastor fido (with arias added for Carestini and some choruses transferred from Parnasso in festa) was a success. Coupled with the similarly successful Arianna, this enabled Handel to complete the season, though with a reputed loss of £3000, at the King's Theatre despite the substantial opposition from the Opera of the Nobility. British Library, Add. Ms. 27733, ff. 114v–115r; repr. Carole Mia Taylor, ‘Italian Operagoing in London, 1700–1745′, Ph.D. dissertation (Syracuse University, 1991), 205; Burrows, Handel, 231.
113 The modern day town of Thame in Oxfordshire.
114 Walter Powell. Well-known Oxford counter-tenor and member of Christ Church, Magdalen (where he had been a chorister) and St John's College choirs. Esquire Bedell of Divinity since 1732. H. Diack Johnstone, ‘Handel at Oxford in 1733′, Early Music, 31 (2003), 251. See nn. 147, 150 and 243.
115 After making the customary appearance at court to sing for the royal family, Farinelli made his debut with the Opera of the Nobility on 29 October, as Arbace in Hasse's Artaserse. Such was his success that the opera ran to 28 performances. Thomas McGeary, ‘Farinelli and the English: “One God” or the Devil?’ Revue LISA/LISA e-journal, II/3 (2004).
116 A similar view had been aired early that month: ‘It is universally allow'd, that if Mr. Handell was to compose and perform, and Signor Farinelli to sing, the whole World could not match them.’ The London Evening Post, no. 1085, Thursday 31 October – Saturday 2 November 1734, [1].
117 Celeste Gismondi. Italian soprano, successful in Naples 1725–32, before marrying an Englishman by the name of Mr Hempson, with whom she moved to London where she sang for Handel in 1732–3 before defecting to the Opera of the Nobility. She died on 11 March ‘after a lingering Illness’ (Read's Weekly Journal, Or, British-Gazetteer, no. 519, Saturday 15 March 1735, [3]; HHB, 251).
118 A letter in the Old Whig: or, The Consistent Protestant of 20 March 1735 claims that ‘besides the numerous Presents of considerable Sums made him by the Nobility, Foreign Ministers, and Others (which amounted to some Thousand Pounds,) he [Farinelli] had an Audience at his Benefit larger than was ever seen in an English Theatre’ (HHB, 251). Prévost's Le Pour et Contre of 1735 further describes the public appreciation of Farinelli: ‘this man is idolized, adored: it is a consuming passion’ (HHB, 255).
119 Premiered on 16 April, Alcina was indeed successful, running to 18 performances. Holdsworth's comment refers to the early part of Handel's season. According to a published report, ‘Handel […] has this Winter sometimes performed to an almost empty Pitt. He has lately reviv'd his fine Oratorio of Esther [….] But so strong is the Disgust taken against him, that even this has been far from bringing him crowded Audiences; tho’ there were no other publick Entertainments on those Evenings. His Loss is computed for these two Seasons at a great Sum’. The Old Whig: Or, The Consistent Protestant, no. 2, Thursday 20 March 1734–5, [2].
120 Both Queen Square and Ormond Street (Jennens's later address in London) were in an area inhabited by many Nonjurors, some of them very prominent figures. Jennens even stored the book collection of a leading Nonjuring clergyman, Dr Robert Gordon, in the house at Queen Square (Smith, ‘Achievements’, 174).
121 Francesco Maria Veracini (1690–1768). Adriano in Siria was his first opera and ran for 20 performances, beginning on 22 November 1735 (25 November was in fact the second performance; Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 15). Adriano in Siria was performed by the Opera of the Nobility, for which the composer led the orchestra from the violin. John Walter Hill, ‘Veracini, Francesco Maria’, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/29178 [Accessed 27 June 2012]. Jennens acquired a manuscript copy of the opera, which is now part of the Flower collection at Manchester (GB–Mp MS F520 V161).
122 Jennens's collection is known to have included three operas by Porpora (Ariadne, Il Mitridate and Polifemo) and two by Vinci: Didone abbandonata and Artaserse (mentioned above) (Roberts, ‘Italian Opera Manuscripts’, 160 and 188).
123 Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli (1699/1700–73). Italian violinist-composer, based in London from at least 1720, when he became leader of the orchestra at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. From 1728 he forged a successful career as a freelance violinist and composer before becoming a wine merchant. Michael Talbot, ‘From Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli to John Stephen Carbonell: A Violinist turned Vintner in Handel's London’, Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, 14 (2012), 265–99.
124 ‘If it is not true, then it is well-invented.’
125 This refers to a charity set up in 1655 by a group of clergymen and merchants in the City of London. All were sons of clergymen at a time when many clergy families had been left destitute by Cromwell's widespread persecution of the clergy. The charity's first fund-raising event, on 8 November 1655, took the form of a dinner and service at St Paul's Cathedral; music still plays a part in the charity's annual service. Performed at the 1736 feast (19 February) were Handel's Utrecht Jubilate (HWV 279) and one of the Coronation Anthems as well as a Te Deum by Maurice Greene (HHB, 260). Handel's Alexander's Feast (libretto adapted by Newburgh Hamilton from Dryden's ode) was premiered on the same night at Covent Garden Theatre.
126 This is rather a misleading comment, arising from the publication of an anti-Dryden pamphlet in which the author suggested that Dryden encouraged Creech to translate Horace in the belief that Creech would fail in the task and thus be exposed. In fact, Dryden did encourage Creech but with the honourable intention of encouraging his friend in his talents. L. Alvin Baker, ‘A Vindication of Creech's Horace and Dryden's Good Name’, Notes and Queries, 55/3 (2008), 303.
127 Giacchino Conti (‘Gizziello’, 1714–61). Italian soprano castrato. He made his debut in Rome in 1730, and went on to sing at Naples, Vienna, Genoa and Venice. Handel engaged him for the 1736–7 and 1737–8 seasons and took advantage of his exceptionally large range, extending to c’’’. His London debut was on 5 May in a revival of Ariodante, in which The London Daily Post (6 May 1736) described him as being ‘one of the best performers in this Kingdom’ (HHB, 264). His career continued successfully on the continent.
128 Handel undertook a short opera season in May–June 1736, starting on 5 May with Ariodante followed by the premiere of Atalanta on 12 May. His next full season (beginning in November 1736) contained three other new operas: Arminio (12 January), Giustino (16 February) and Berenice (18 May). Though the number of performances of each was modest, they were interspersed with revivals of other operas and oratorios, the overall success of which allowed Handel to capitalise on the decline in popularity of the Opera of the Nobility (Burrows, Handel, 250–3).
129 The Prince of Wales married the Princess of Saxe-Gotha in the Chapel Royal on 27 April 1736.
130 A reference to Jennens's Nonjuring status.
131 The new opera was Atalanta (op. cit.) but Handel failed to complete it in time and so Ariodante was revived instead. Jennens is listed among the subscribers to Walsh's edition of the score (HHB, 266).
132 Conti was 22, not 19, in 1736. See nn. 171, 196 and 205.
133 In a letter to fellow Handelian James Harris, the 4th Earl of Shaftesbury confirmed this view: ‘The new singer Conti…is all things consider'd the best singer I ever Heard & they say in the world[;] he will improve still very much for he is but nineteen years old is very handsome[,] a good actor & very genteel[.]…He has sung nothing of Handel's yet but the last duet in Ariodante…’ (8 May, 1736, Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 17).
134 Domenico Annibali (c.1705–c.1779). Italian castrato employed by the Saxon court at Dresden for most of his life but given frequent periods of leave that enabled him to sing for operas in Rome (1730, 1732 and 1739), Vienna (1731) and London (1736–7). Burney does not credit him with much ability but he appears to have impressed Handel, for whom he sang at Covent Garden Theatre. Mrs Pendarves believed him to have ‘the best part of Senesino's voice and Carestini's, with a prodigious fine taste and good action!’ (Letter to Ann Granville, 27 November 1736: HHB, 271).
135 Probably a reference to depression, a condition from which Jennens is known to have a suffered. The viscera situated in this area (liver, gall bladder, spleen etc.) ‘were formerly supposed to be the seat of melancholy and vapours’ (‘hyp, n.’. OED Online [Accessed 9 June 2011].
136 See n. 135.
137 Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (1711–71) was an ardent Handelian. The family seat is St Giles House, near Wimbourne St Giles in Dorset. Shaftesbury and Jennens were part of a circle of acquaintance that included other Handelians (and relatives of Shaftesbury), James Harris and Wyndham Knatchbull (with whom Jennens had attended Balliol).
138 James Harris (1709–80). A nephew of the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Harris was, like Jennens and Holdsworth, a keen classicist. He organised and directed concerts and festivals at Salisbury for nearly 50 years, many of them involving music by Handel (Burrows and Dunhill, Familiy Papers of James Harris, v). He had two brothers, William (1714–77) and Thomas (1712–85). It is unclear which of them is referred to here.
139 The ‘zealous Handelists’ may have been referring not only to the success of Handel's 1736–7 season but also to the gradual collapse in the same season of the rival company, the Opera of the Nobility. Handel's 1736–7 season was exceptionally ambitious and included three new operas: Arminio (12 January), Giustino (16 February) and Berenice (18 May). In addition, his benefit in late March was as successful and profitable as that of Farinelli in 1735.
140 Holdsworth's comment contradicts the views of the ‘zealous Handelists’ (see letter of 8 January 1737). Indeed, Jennens is quoted in the letter of 8 January as having predicted ‘a successful winter’ for Handel. Holdsworth's comments in the letter of 27 January 1737 may therefore reflect a new – and unfounded – negativity on the part of Jennens, for although Handel had not achieved outstanding success by this point in the 1736–7 season, he was still faring better than he had in the previous season.
141 Hurlothrumbo is the title of a nonsense play written by Samuel Johnson (1691–1773), a dancing master from Cheshire. It was published and ran for 30 nights at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket in April 1729.
142 A reference to the directors of the rival opera company, the Opera of the Nobility. John West, 7th Baron De La Warr (1693–1766) was principally responsible for the organization and management of the new company. A letter from West to the Duke of Richmond, dated 16 June 1733, outlines the plans for the company: “There is A Spirit got up against the Dominion of Mr Handel, A Subscription carry'd on, and Directors chosen, who have contracted with Senisino, and have sent for Cuzzoni, and Farrinelli, it is hoped he will come as soon as the Carneval of Venice is over, if not sooner…Porpora is also sent for…” (McGeary, ‘Opera of the Nobility Reconsidered’, 157). The Directors were: John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland (1696–1779); William, 2nd Earl Cowper (1709–64); Charles, 2nd Baron of Cadogan (1685–1776); Thomas Coke, Baron Lovel (1697–1759), later Viscount and Earl of Leicester; Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1701–50); John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford (1710–71); John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair (1672–1747); James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Limerick (1694–1758); Allen, 1st Baron Bathurst (1684–1775), later Earl; Sir John Buckworth, 2nd Baronet (1704–59). Thomas McGeary, The Politics of Opera in Handel's Britain (Cambridge, 2013), 268–9.
143 An oblique reference to Alexander Pope's satirical poem Dunciad (1728), an attack on the literary establishment of the times. Pope would eventually defend Handel against his enemies in the fourth book of the poem, published in 1744. Like Jennens, Pope was a Jacobite sympathizer.
144 Handel experienced some difficulties in early 1737 that eventually led to a collapse in his health in Spring of that year. Ilias Chrissochoidis, ‘Handel Recovering: Fresh Light on His Affairs in 1737’, Eighteenth-Century Music, 5 (2008), 237–44.
145 Holdsworth is suggesting that if left to their own devices, the stupidity of Handel's detractors (‘Dissenters’) would naturally undermine their fortunes.
146 Alexander's Feast was published in the second week of March 1738 by Handel, with John Walsh acting as an agent (HHB, 291). George Pitt (1721–1803) was a pupil of Holdsworth's and acquainted with Jennens. He appears to have encouraged his friends and acquaintances in Oxford to subscribe to Alexander's Feast.
147 See nn. 114, 150 and 243.
148 Handel's opera was Faramondo, which premiered on 3 January and ran for eight nights. The reference to Jennens's work is almost certainly the oratorio Saul, which Handel had received in July 1735 and would set in summer 1738 (HHB, 292).
149 Though uncertain, Holdsworth may have been referring to various events that defined the 1730s as a fairly tumultuous decade in political terms. The escalation of popular disturbances was such that it prompted the King to remark in his speech closing the session of 1737: ‘defiance of all authority, contempt of magistracy, and even resistance of the laws, are become too general’. Langford, A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727–1783 (Oxford, 1989), 44. Several of these events concerned the London Theatres, from the wrecking of Drury Lane Theatre (by footmen) to the Licensing Act of 1737, which gave the Lord Chamberlain power to approve all plays. Added to this was a constant insecurity about possible Jacobite activity, which inspired Walpole to maintain agents and spies whose information led to many false alarms. Furthermore, the deterioration of Britain's relationship with Spain (which led to the War of Jenkin's Ear in 1739) was already apparent by March of 1738. See n. 189.
150 A reference to Handel's Alexander's Feast. See nn. 114, 147 and 243.
151 The Prince and the Princess of Wales visited Bath in October 1738 but were unlikely to have visited in May as the future George III was born in London on 24 May. S.D Major, Notabilia of Bath: A Handbook to the City & District (rev. edn. Bath, 1879, 6. Royal patronage of Bath can be traced back to Princess Amelia, second daughter of George II, who first drew attention to the city in 1728 and ‘by frequenting the Bath…has given it an immortal Character…and Persons of Quality as well as others have follow'd so noble a Pattern’. John Quinton, A Treatise of Warm Bath Water…Volume II (Oxford, 1734), 85.
152 The author has been unable to discover the identity of the Preacher.
153 Fart.
154 Jennens's aunt, Jane Burdett, was married to Sir John Cotton, of Connington, Huntingdonshire (Smith, ‘Achievements’, 162–3).
155 The public mourning period for Queen Caroline (who died on 20 November 1737) delayed the start of Handel's season at Covent Garden until January 1738 (the King's Theatre Haymarket produced three performances during October–November). Beginning with Faramondo, on 3 January 1738, Handel's cast consisted of: Gaetano Majorano Caffarelli (1710–83), castrato; Maria Antonio Marchesini (La Lucchesina, fl.1736–9), mezzo soprano; Margherita Chimenti (La Droghierina, fl.1733–46), mezzo soprano; Merighi, contralto (see letter of 13 February 1733); Elisabeth Duparc (La Francescina, d.1773), soprano; Antonio Montagnana (fl.1730–50), bass; Antonio Lottini (fl.1717–65), bass.
156 Though undated, this letter probably dates from the commencement of Holdsworth's final Grand Tour of 1739–45 (Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 16). Holdsworth was faithful to Jennens's orders as always and subsequent letters detail his purchase of operas by Latilla and Jommelli (see nn. 178, 188 and 211), none of which Jennens enjoyed (see letter of 4 February 1741/2).
157 Edward Knatchbull, brother of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull Wyndham, became 7th Baronet Knatchbull on his nephew's death in 1763. See n. 287.
158 Part of the saying ‘It is not the lot of every man to go [to Corinth].’
159 Alexander's Feast (Dryden, arranged by Newburgh Hamilton; HWV 75) and Ode for St Cecilia's Day (Dryden; HWV 76). First performed on Thursday 22 November. Also performed were two of the Twelve Grand Concertos (Op. 6, HWV 319–330). The second performance was on 27 November.
160 Charles (Sackville), Earl of Middlesex and subsequently 2nd Duke of Dorset (1711–69). He had returned to London on 5 January after an extensive residence in Italy. The London Daily Post, and General Advertiser, Friday 5 January 1739, [1], where he had acquired a reputation as producer of musical entertainments. His adoption of a payment system whereby ‘each person, without distinction, was charged a half-guinea, and the gallery was closed’ backfired: ‘even though the gallery was reopened at its old price of five shillings, almost no one is booking subscriptions’. Lowell Lindgren, ‘Musicians and Librettists in the Correspondence of Gio. Giacomo Zamboni (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Rawlinson Letters 116–138)’, RMA Research Chronicle, 24 (1991), 175. His career as opera manager was controversial (see Carole Taylor, ‘From Losses to Lawsuit: Patronage of the Italian Opera in London by Lord Middlesex, 1739–45′, Music & Letters, 68 (1987), 1–25.
161 Libretto by Metastasio (original title: ‘L'Endimione). Music by Giovanni Battista Pescetti (c.1704–66), a pupil of Antonio Lotti (Burney, General History, iv, 430). In the spring of 1739, Pescetti had served as composer in the short-lived effort to mount Italian opera in competition to Handel's oratorio season. The fourth performance of his serenata Angelica e Medoro on 4 April clashed with the second performance of Israel in Egypt. Ilias Chrissochoidis, ‘“True Merit always Envy rais'd”: The Advice to Mr. Handel (1739) and Israel in Egypt's early Reception’, The Musical Times, 150/1906 (Spring 2009), 71. In early November, newspapers reported that Middlesex ‘hir'd the Theatre in the Hay Market, for Concerts during the Winter’ (The Country Journal: Or, The Craftsman, no. 695, Saturday 3 November 1739, [2]). The fact that both competitors limited their season to concerts created wide disappointment among opera lovers, as Richard West's statement ‘No opera, no nothing’ attests. W. S. Lewis, George L. Lam, and Charles H. Bennett, eds., Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Thomas Gray, Richard West and Thomas Ashton (New Haven and London, 1948), 197.
162 Real name Lucia Panichi, known as ‘La Muscovita’. Mistress of Lord Middlesex, whom she had followed to London in January 1739, she performed the lead role in Pescetti's Angelica e Medoro, whose failure was attributed to the ‘singers, who are insufferable’ (Lindgren, ‘Zamboni’, 172). According to Giambattista Gastaldi, she was ‘called the Muscovite because her father or mother has been in Muscovy. […] But the great name which she bears is not worth much, for, like all devils, she sings out of tune’ (Lindgren, ‘Zamboni’, 173). Horace Walpole concurred, describing her thus: ‘Muscovita is not a pretty woman, and she does sing ill’ (HHB, 337).
163 Giovanni Carestini (1704–c.1760) replaced Senesino as Handel's leading man from 1733–5. However, his later performances upon returning to London in 1739–40 (to sing at the Little Theatre, Haymarket for Lord Middlesex's company), were judged to be inferior (Burrows, Handel, 444).
164 Burney mentions Clementi's arrival in London on 23 November 1739 to sing at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket. Philip K. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnam and Edward A. Langhans, eds, A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800 (Carbondale, 1973), iii, 321.
165 Former.
166 Emanuele (Gioacchino Cesare Rincón) d'Astorga (1680–?1757). Italian composer of Spanish descent, much of whose life still remains obscure. Hawkins calls him ‘a celebrated composer [who] excelled altogether in vocal composition; his cantatas in particular are by the Italians esteemed above all others’ (Hawkins, General History, v, 212). See nn. 172, 187, 212, 214 and 236.
167 Holdsworth's portrait was painted by the son of a Jacobite friend of Holdsworth, James Russel (c.1720–63), an artist and antiquarian based in Rome. Jennens helped Russel's father financially and Russel acted as an agent for Jennens's Italian art-collecting interests (Smith, ‘Achievements’, 169).
168 The visit was announced by Thomas Harris to his brother James in Salisbury on 17 May: ‘[Jennens and Lord Guernsey] have resolved on paying you a visitt [sic] this next week […] Their design is to dine with you on Thursday next’ (Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 98). Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford (1715–77). Styled Lord Guernsey between 1719 and 1757. MP for Leicestershire 1739–41 and Maidstone 1741–7 and 1754–7. Son of Jennens's cousin Mary (and grandson of Sir Clement Fisher). Jennens was godfather to Guernsey's son and left the 3rd Earl his personal collection of MS and printed music. (Smith, ‘Achievements’, 163–4). Albury was the seat of the Earl of Aylesford. For Mr Harris see n. 138.
169 Lady Aylesford was Jennens's cousin, Mary. According to Burrows and Dunhill, ‘Guernsey left Salisbury soon afterwards, and reached his mother the day before she died’ (Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 99).
170 A reference to the operas performed during Carnival: Jommelli's Astianatte and Giuseppe Scarlatti's Dario at the Teatro di Torre Argentina, and Andrea Bernasconi's Demofoonte and Giovanni Battista Lampugnani's Semiramide riconosciuta at the Teatro delle Dame. The last two were on librettos by Pietro Metastasio and featured Conti as Timante and Mirteo, respectively. Claudio Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800: catalogo analitico con 16 indici (Cuneo, 1993).
171 See nn. 132, 196 and 205.
172 Barclay Squire acquired two volumes – formerly belonging to Jennens – of works by d'Astorga. Both are now in the British Library. One volume contains 42 cantatas (GB-Lbl Add. MS 39765), and the other contains 20 duets and cantatas (GB-Lbl Add. MS 39766, Roberts, ‘Aylesford Collection’, 66). The ‘other compositions’ referred to here are probably a cantata and the Stabat Mater, both in sheets, which Holdsworth refers to in his letter of 1 November 1741. The cantata was probably bound at a later date with other loose sheets, in a volume with cantatas by A. Scarlatti and A. Stradella (lot 280, sold in 1918, Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 18). The whereabouts of this volume, and that containing the Stabat Mater, is hitherto unknown. See nn. 166, 187, 212, 214 and 236.
173 This might have been Horatio Mann (1796–86), who ‘kept open house for all British visitors’ to Florence, where he had been posted as British Resident in April 1740 and would serve in this position until his death. Opera gossip features in his correspondence with Horace Walpole around this time (8 October, 2 and 5 November, 24 December 1741): W. S. Lewis, Warren Hunting Smith, and George L. Lam, eds., Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann (New Haven and London, 1954), i, 165–6, 183–6, 190–1, 249–56.
174 Benedetto Giacomo Marcello (1686–1739). See nn. 188, 213, 251 and 272 for Holdsworth's acquisition of works by Marcello. Jennens owned works by two composers called Bencini: Pietro Paolo Bencini (c.1670–1755) and Giuseppe Bencini (fl.1723–7). The latter was employed in Florence by the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Jennens owned four of his Suonate per cimbalo (GB-Mp MS 710.5 Bk51; Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 12). The works by P. P. Bencini in the Aylesford collection are set to texts by Antonio Ottoboni, and so were probably acquired from within the ‘Ottoboni’ collection discussed below (see letter of 4 May 1742). From Jennens's comments in his letter of 14 May 1742, it appears that he had never before heard of either Francesco Mancini (1672–1737) or (?Pietro Paolo) Bencini and so the works by Mancini must also have been part of the Ottoboni collection. Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 23; Michael Talbot, ‘“Loving without Falling in Love”: Pietro Paolo Bencini's serenata Li due volubili’, ed. Nicolò Maccavino, La serenata tra Seicento e Settecento: musica, poesia, scenotecnica. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi. Reggio Calabria, 16–17 maggio 2003 (Reggio Calabria, 2007), i, 373–95; Colin Timms and Michael Talbot, ‘Music and the Poetry of Antonio Ottoboni (1646–1720)’, in Nino Pirrotta and Agostino Ziino, eds, Händel e gli Scarlatti a Roma. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi (Roma, 12–14 giugno 1985), (Florence, 1987), 367–438.
175 The eruption of Vesuvius started on 8 May 1737. The London Evening Post, no. 1495, Tuesday 14–Thursday 16 June 1737, [2]. Excavation of Herculaneum began in 1738.
176 A type of Claret from Bordeaux.
177 See n. 100, 106, 120, 141, 143 and 160.
178 Gaetano Latilla (1711–88) and Niccolò Jommelli (1714–74). The librettos of both Il Siroe (Rome, 1740) and Il Temistocle (Rome, 1737) were by Metastasio, while that of Astianatte (Rome, 1741) was by Salvi. Both Il Siroe and Astianatte were produced in Rome during the carnival season of 1740–1 (in the Teatro Delle Dame and the Teatro Argentina respectively) and Holdsworth's mention of Temistocle in connection with the other two operas suggests that it too was produced during the carnival that year (Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 17–18). Holdsworth sent Il Siroe and Astianatte to Jennens at the end of October 1741 (see letter of 1 November 1741) and in a letter of 4 February 1742 Jennens voices his criticism of them. Il Temistocle was sent later (see letter of 4 May 1742) but Jennens's opinion of it is not recorded. Roberts's work on the Aylesford collection reveals that Jennens's copies of all three operas were sold to Hunt at the Sotheby's sale in 1918 and Hunt sold them in turn to Reeves and it was probably from him that the Newberry library acquired Astianatte (US-Cn MS VM1500 J75A). Il Siroe and Temistocle were not resold until 1957 when they were acquired by Frank de Bellis of San Francisco, where they are now part of the Frank V. de Bellis Collection at San Francisco State University (US-SFsc). See nn. 156, 188 and 211.
179 Jennens's description of the ‘Songs of Porpora’ fits that of the Porpora arias in the Yale MS 75, which consist only of the outer parts. However, the letters of 13 February 1733 and 17 April 1732 make it clear that Holdsworth did not bring them back to England with him, but instead sent them to Jennens from Rome. If Jennens's words are taken literally, then doubt is cast on the identification of MS 75 with the ‘Airs’ of the 1732 and 1733 letters. However, no trace has been discovered of any other Porpora arias in the possession of Jennens, and so it appears more likely that Jennens was unintentionally misleading in his choice of words in this letter of 10 July 1741 and that all three letters therefore refer to the same Porpora arias, now in Yale MS 75 (Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 17–18). See nn. 80 and 90.
180 On 8 April, the Earl of Egmont wrote in his diary that Handel was ‘intending to go to Spa in Germany’. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont. Diary of the First Earl of Egmont (Viscount Percival). Vol. III. 1739–1747 (London, 1923), 210. See nn. 181, 182, 190, 209, 222, 223, 227, 229, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
181 A reference to Jennens's libretto for Messiah. The ‘other’ scripture collection was Israel in Egypt. See nn. 180, 182, 190, 209, 222, 223, 227, 229, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
182 It is unclear whether Jennens had actually sent it to Handel by this date. Handel began work on the score on 22 August. See nn. 180, 181, 190, 209, 222, 223, 227, 229, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
183 In a letter from 5 November, Horace Walpole identified eight directors: ‘Lord Middlesex, Lord Holderness, Mr Frederick, Lord Conway, Mr Conway, Mr Damer, Lord Brook and Mr Brand. The five last are directed by the three first; they by the first, and he by the Abbé Vanneschi, who will make a pretty sum’ (Lewis, Smith and Lam, eds., Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann I, 191).
184 Angelo Maria Monticelli (c.1712–?58). Italian castrato soprano. Horace Walpole reported that he was ‘infinitely admired; next to Farinelli’. Caterina Visconti (fl.1729–54). According to Walpole, she and Monticelli were each paid the ‘not so extravagant’ sum of 1,000 guineas for the 1741–2 season. (Lewis, Smith and Lam, eds., Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann I, 191).
185 Paul Vaillant had a shop in the Strand, opposite Southampton Street. His grandfather, Paul Vaillant, had fled France and set up a bookseller's shop on the same premises in 1686. Charles Henry Timperley, A Dictionary of Printers and Printing: With the Progress of Literature, Ancient and Modern (London, 1839), 811.
186 Cardinal Thomasius, Vindicoe Canonicarum Scripturarum, Valgatoe Latinoe silitionis (Blanchini), fol., vellum (Rome, 1740). (Erhardt, Text, Musik, Theologie, 351). Discussion of this and another of the Cardinal's works takes place over several letters. See letter of 4 May 1742 and nn. 202, 203 and 238.
187 A reference to his Stabat mater. See nn. 166, 172, 212, 214 and 236.
188 Holdsworth's specification of the number of folios allows for the precise identification of these pieces as the collection of cantatas (in 3 volumes) now in the Flower collection (GB-Mp MS 483 Mf61) (Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 20; Talbot, ‘Jennens and Vivaldi’, 70–1). See nn. 174, 213, 251 and 272.
189 A reference to the ‘war of Jenkin's ear’. See n. 149.
190 A further reference to Jennens's penchant for music making with other amateurs. See nn. 180, 181, 182, 209, 222, 223, 227, 229, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
191 Handel arrived in Dublin on 18 November (Pue's Occurrences, vol. 38, no. 93, Tuesday 17–Saturday 21 November 1741, [4]), possibly on an invitation from the Lord Lieutenant (William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire) (Burrows, Handel, 340). Handel's comment (reported by Jennens in his letter of 10 July 1741) that he intended to ‘do nothing next Winter’ implies that Handel may have planned his Dublin visit in early Summer 1741 and the light scoring of Messiah reinforces the likelihood of this (Burrows, Handel, 340). However, the extensive scoring of Samson, the draft of which was finished 29 October, suggests that Handel's plans were still uncertain by this date. Donald Burrows, Messiah (Cambridge, 1991), 12. Upon his arrival in London, Jennens presumably wrote to Handel requesting the inclusion of a motto in Messiah's wordbook. Handel's famous and unusually detailed reply of 29 December may well have been an attempt to appease his librettist (HHB, 341). In the following years, the setting of Messiah will become a point of friction between the two men (see n. 138, 153, 154 and 164).
192 The pasticcio Alessandro in Persia. Jennens's view appears to reflect that of the majority, as reported by Robert Price in a letter to the Earl of Haddington: ‘a great many people have not liked it’. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, The Manuscripts of the Duke of Beaufort, K.G., the Earl of Donoughmore, and others (London, 1891), 205.
193 An Italian tenor, Angelo (Maria) Amorevoli (1716–98). Jennens is perhaps referring to the singer's ill health of a month earlier, when he was reported as having a fever and therefore was unable to sing (HHB, 337).
194 A reference to Holdsworth's book, Pharsalia and Philippi: Letters to C. J. Esq., London, 1742, a collection of letters between Holdsworth and Jennens concerning the location of the Roman civil war battles Pharsalia and Philippi. Jennens oversaw its publication and sale by bookseller Paul Vaillant.
195 Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat (Horace, Ars Poetica, V. 143). Translates as: ‘He does not lavish at a blaze his fire, sudden to glare, and in a smoke to expire; But rises from a cloud of smoke to light, and pours his specious miracles to sight’ (Philip Francis, 1708–73).
196 See nn. 132, 171 and 205.
197 Horace Walpole wrote on 3 March that ‘there was to have been a vast elephant, but the just directors designing to give the audience the full weight of one for their money, made it so heavy that at the prova it broke through the stage. It was to have carried twenty soldiers with Monticelli on a throne in the middle’ (Lewis, Smith and Lam, eds., Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann I, 358).
198 Probably Concordantiae Bibliorum Hebraicae by Johann Buxtorf (1564–1629). See nn. 216 and 218.
199 See n. 112.
200 Holdsworth, Pharsalia and Philippi: Letters to C. J. Esq. (London, 1742).
201 The oratorio referred to is Saul.
202 Cardinal Thomasii, Opera omnia (Blanchini Veronensis), fol., vellum, 2 vols. (Rome, 1741). See nn. 186, 203 and 238.
203 See letter of 1 November 1741. See nn. 186, 202 and 238.
204 Joseph Sanford (1691–1774). An antiquarian and bibliophile, Sanford entered Exeter college in 1709, graduating in 1712 before entering Balliol College as a commoner. Elected a fellow in 1715, he became a priest in 1719 and was in residence for nearly 60 years.
205 The 4th Earl of Shaftesbury wrote on 8 May 1736: ‘The new singer Conti I have heard twice & will affirm he is all things consider'd the best singer I ever heard & they say in the world’ (Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 17). See nn. 132, 171 and 196.
206 No trace exists of the motto.
207 L'Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato. First performed 27 February 1740. Jennens arranged Milton's odes and composed the libretto for the third part.
208 Opened around 1720, Tom King's Coffee House was situated in Birchin Lane, Covent Garden. The coffee house was notorious as the meeting place of whores and their clients (many of whom were gentlemen and aristocrats), and frequently came under attack from moral campaigners.
209 See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 222, 223, 227, 229, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
210 The phrase ‘imitatores, servum pecus’ (‘Ye imitators; a servile herd’) is from Horace's ‘First Epistle’. Jennens here describes critics as servants of the votaries of goddess Dulness, whom Alexander Pope immortalized in his influential poem The Dunciad (1728).
211 A reference to Latilla's and Jommelli's operas Il Siroe and Astianatte. See nn. 156, 178 and 188.
212 See nn. 166, 172, 187, 214 and 236.
213 Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667–1740). A prolific patron of the arts, his collections were sold upon his death, probably to settle his large debts. Horace Walpole (1717–97) mentions the sale of Ottoboni's collection in a letter of 7 May 1740, and so Holdsworth probably acquired the music second hand (Talbot, ‘Jennens and Vivaldi’, 73–4). Thanks to the extensive work of Michael Talbot, John Roberts and Paul Everett, much of the content of Ottoboni's collection, as purchased by Holdsworth, is now known. Everett points out the difficulties in differentiating Scarlatti's Ottobonian works from his works for other Roman patrons but has traced Jennens's ownership of several Scarlatti works (other than the three operas already mentioned). The Scarlatti works referred to here may therefore have included four oratorios (Cain overo Il primo omicidio, Il martirio di S Cecilia and La Giuditta, first and second versions), the Marian antiphon Salve Regina, and several cantatas (Sciolta da freddi amplessi, Tutto acceso d'amore, Vola, Cupido, Pene amorose per Lontananza and Ardo, ardo d'amore). Salve Regina and Sciolta da freddi amplessi are held by GB-Cfm MU.MS.225B. Tutto acceso d'amore is held by GB-Cfm MU.MS.230 and Vola Cupido by GB-Cfm MU.MS.655 (Roberts, ‘Aylesford Collection’, 67, 81). The remaining two cantatas are now in Manchester (items 4 and 11, GB-Mp MS Q544 Bk51) (Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 33–4). Everett is able to identify with more certainty the works of the other composers listed above and Roberts has done much to trace those not currently held in Manchester (Roberts, ‘Aylesford Collection’, 80). Everett identifies Pollarolo's works as: operas Alfonso primo, Ottone (both US-SFsc) and Giulio Cesare (US-Wc M1500.P74G4), oratorios Sansone (GB-Mp MS F530 Ps41) and Saule indemoniato indemoniatio (GB-Mp MS F530 Ps44), and Pastorale a tre voci (GB-Mp MS 580 Ps41). Mancini's Cantata a voce solo ‘Son cosí, cosí geloso’ is also in the Flower collection (item 10, GB-Mp MS Q544 Bk51) as are Bencini's oratorios, Il sacrificio d'Abramo (GB-Mp MS 580 Bk51 [i]), La Jezabel (GB-Mp MS 580 Bk51 [ii]), and the cantatas Li due volubili (parts: GB-Mp MS 480 Bk51; score in the private collection of M. Talbot) and ‘Oh Fileno crudel’ (item 7, GB-Mp MS Q544 Bk51), (Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 30–1). Everett has also traced connections to Ottoboni from several composers of the remaining Italian music known to have belonged to Jennens: T. Albinoni, G. Boni, G. Bononcini, C. Cesarini, S. de Luca, T. B. Gaffi, F. C. Lanciani, B. Pasquini and A. Stradella. For further details see Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 35–6. In addition to the vocal works, Talbot and Everett have argued successfully that a portion of the collection constituted a large amount of instrumental music, contained in 14 partbooks (13 of which are part of the Flower collection in Manchester, GB-Mp MS 580 Ct51, and one of which is part of the Royal Music Library, London, GB-Lbl RM.22.c.28). These are in addition to the volume of 12 Vivaldi sonatas discovered by Talbot in 1973 (Talbot, ‘Vivaldi's “Manchester” Sonatas’, 22–7). Everett has traced the provenance of the 95 items in the Manchester volumes to six areas (with the exception of four items). Forty-three items are of Roman provenance, 15 date from the 1720s and include works by Corelli and Giuseppe Valentini, two other groups are Vivaldi concerti (remarkable for their unique texts), 11 are of Bolognese extraction and the remaining seven probably date from 1724–6, Milan (Everett, ‘Roman Concerto Repertory’, 67–8). See nn. 174, 188, 215, 251 and 272.
214 See nn. 166, 172, 187, 212, 236.
215 Burrows suggests that during Handel's time in Italy, from January to mid-October, 1707, the Sonata a 5 (for violin and orchestra, HWV 288) and Ero e Leandro (HWV 150) may have been composed under Ottoboni's patronage, but there is no trace of either work in Jennens's collection. See n. 213.
216 See nn. 198 and 218.
217 Vergilius Vaticanus. Fragments of Virgil's Aeneid and Georgics dating from c. 400. Jennens owned a print. Giovanni Gaetano Botteri, ed., Antiquissimi Virgiliani codicis fragmenta et picturæ ex bibliotheca Vaticana ad priscas imaginum formas a P. Sancte Bartholi incisæ (Rome, 1741), fol. British Library, Cup.652.dd.5 (Erhardt, Text, Musik, Theologie, 372).
218 Holdsworth must have purchased Concordantiae Hebracaie before receiving Jennens's note of 14 May 1742. However, a note scribbled by Holdsworth onto the back of a letter from Jennens, dated 28 June, 1742 shows him to have found someone to have relieved Jennens of the extra copy: ‘Dr Ferrara willing to take the Concord. Heb. Off his hands, either paying […] or if you please giving you yt value in other books, wch you may pick out of his Library.’ See nn. 198 and 216.
219 Most likely to have been a portrait of the Young Pretender. ‘Uncle C.’ is Jennens's uncle Cotton. See n. 22
220 Leghorn is now more commonly known by its Italian name, Livorno. The ‘Happy Jannet’ made regular trips from Livorno, carrying cargoes mainly of silk and cotton. Captain Macklish was buried in Dunbar on 24 July 1763.
221 The mother of a prospective pupil. In a letter of 24 June 1742, Holdsworth mentions a pupil of this name to whom Jennens's uncle Cotton has recommended him. The pupil was William Drake (1723–96), of the Tyrwhitt Drake family whose ancestral home is Shardeloes, on the outskirts of Amersham, Buckinghamshire.
222 Handel left Dublin on 13 August. Horatio Townsend, An Account of the Visit of Handel to Dublin (Dublin, 1852); [Vaillant], Catalogus Librorum apud Paulum Vaillant, Bibliopolam, Londini venales prostantium: Or, A Catalogue of Books in most Languages and Faculties, sold by Paul Vaillant, Bookseller, in the Strand. (London, 1745), 101. See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 209, 223, 227, 229, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
223 See Handel's letter of 9 September 1742 (HHB, 253). See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 209, 222, 227, 229, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
224 Jennens had been active in persuading Holdsworth to publish his letters on the subject of the location of the Philippi. Pharsalia and Philippi: Letters to C. J. Esq. (London, 1742); Smith, ‘Achievements’, 165.
225 Handel's season began on 18 February with Samson. The Daily Advertiser, no. 3771, Friday 18 February 1743, [1].
226 Roberts has documented in great detail Handel's borrowings from both Vinci and Scarlatti (see Roberts, ‘Didone abbandonata’, and ‘Italian Opera Manuscripts’). Handel borrowed material from Scarlatti's operas Dafni, Griselda and Attilio Regolo, and produced pasticcio versions of Vinci's operas Didone abbandonata and Artaserse (under the titles Didone and Arbace), using Jennens's scores of each these works (Roberts, ‘Italian Opera Manuscripts’, 161; Markstrom, Leonardo Vinci, 147).
227 Jennens cannot have heard Messiah by this time, for it was not performed in London until 23 March 1743. He may have obtained a score and played through it, but his comments suggest that his disappointment stemmed mainly from Handel's apparently ‘light’ treatment of the libretto (see letter of 21 February 1743). He may also have been annoyed by Handel's decision to open the Lent season of 1743 with Samson (libretto by Newburgh Hamilton). See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 209, 222, 223, 229, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
228 Holdsworth uses this traditional slanderous perception of Jews (as untrustworthy money-lenders and general profiteers) to illustrate Handel's laziness and negligence of Jennens's libretto for Messiah.
229 There are, in fact, few errors in the Dublin wordbook. However, a new wordbook was produced for the London performance of 1743, the most striking difference being that it is divided into ‘scenes’ according to the topic of the text. See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 209, 222, 223, 227, 232, 234, 239 and 253.
230 Messiah appears to have been received without criticism in Dublin (especially because it was designated for a charitable performance), but it attracted some controversy ahead of its first performance in London, resulting in its being advertised under the title ‘A New Sacred Oratorio’ (The Daily Advertiser and The London Daily Post). On 19 March a letter was published in The Universal Spectator, questioning at some length the propriety of performing an ‘Act of Religion’ in the ‘Playhouse’ (HHB, 359–60). These reactions were insufficient to hurt Handel's financial success, however, as his second subscription had already been closed. On 3 March, Horace Walpole reported that ‘The oratorios thrive abundantly’ (Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann II, 186), and by 20 March, it was rumoured that ‘Mr Handle will get at least £2,000 by these subscriptions’ (Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 156).
231 Handel's problems with ecclesiastical authority date back to 1732, when Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, objected to the participation of the Chapel Royal boys in the production of the revised Esther at the King's Theatre. Donald Burrows, Handel and the English Chapel Royal (Oxford, 2005), 294–6.
232 Samson was performed every night for an advertised six-performance subscription beginning on 18 February 1743 and was so successful that Handel devoted three performances of his second six-performance subscription to the work. Two performances of this subscription were devoted to Messiah and the other was a single performance of a revised L'Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato (Burrows, Handel, 354). See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 209, 222, 223, 227, 229, 234, 239 and 253.
233 See letters of 4 February 1741/2, 4 May 1742 and 24 March 1742/3.
234 Smith suggests that the clergy may have objected to the use of Scripture in the theatre. Roberts believes there to have been a general public anathema to the introduction of sacred themes in a place of such profanity as the theatre, pointing out that the recitative ‘He that dwelleth’ and ensuing aria ‘Thou shalt break them’ would commonly have been interpreted as a warning to those who would ‘oppose Christ's Gospel’. John H. Roberts, ‘Christ of the Playhouse: Indirect Narrative in Handel's Messiah’, Händel-Jahrbuch, 55 (2009), 113 and 116. In fact, biblical drama had ceased to be performed on the London stage in the early seventeenth century, with the (Puritan-influenced) belief that ‘greater humanization of biblical figures detracted from their sanctity’. Murray Roston, Biblical Drama in England; From the Middle Ages to the Present Day (London, 1968), 181. However, allegory was a powerful and recognized tool of most art forms and discussions around another ‘scripture collection’, Israel in Egypt, had centred not only on issues of biblical drama but also on its potential political allegory, namely the possibility of a Jacobite interpretation of the text. Ruth Smith, Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought (Cambridge, 1995), 288–91, HHB, 308). See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 209, 222, 223, 227, 229, 232, 239 and 253.
235 A bench of Bishops, i.e., the bishops of the Church of England as members of the House of Lords (where they sit on a particular ‘bench’ to distinguish them from supporters of the Government).
236 See nn. 166, 172, 187, 212 and 214.
237 Jennens's tutor at Balliol, Joseph Sanford, was only a few years older than Jennens. Ruth Smith, Charles Jennens: The Man Behind Handel's Messiah (London, 2012), 7.
238 See nn. 186, 202 and 203.
239 See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 209, 222, 223, 227, 229, 232, 234 and 253.
240 The letter of 19 March in the Universal Spectator was answered on 31 March with a stanza appended to the advertisement of Handel's oratorio in the The Daily Advertiser: ‘Cease, Zealots, cease to blame these Heav'nly Lays, / For Seraphs fit to sing Messiah's Praise! […]’ (no. 3806, Thursday 31 March 1743, [2]). This, in turn, prompted a response by the original letter's author in The Universal Spectator, and Weekly Journal (no. 758, Saturday 16 April 1743, [1]).
241 Handel's copyist, John Christopher Smith (senior). See letter of 21 February 1742/3. In early summer, he would be involved in efforts to reconcile Handel with Middlesex and compose operas for the latter's company the following season; see Smith's long letter of 28 July in Betty Matthews, ‘Unpublished Letters Concerning Handel’, Music & Letters, 40 (1959), 263–4.
242 Nathanial Crynes (1686–1745). A book collector, Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, and Superior Bedel of Arts (1716). He bequeathed his collection of MSS (legal, biblical, philosophical, theological and literary) to the Bodleian in 1745.
243 See nn. 114, 147, 150 and 243.
244 The Daily Advertiser reported on 11 April 1743, that ‘Mr Handel, who has been dangerously ill, is now recover'd.’ On 4 May, Horace Walpole wrote that ‘Handel has had a palsy and can't compose’ (Lewis, Smith and Lam, eds., Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann II, 225), and when Thomas Harris met the composer in the park in mid-June he found his ‘head’ to be not ‘so clear as I could wish it to be’ (Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 163). See n. 249. There is no evidence that he went abroad and he must have recovered by mid-summer 1743, for between June and September he composed Semele, Joseph and his Brethren and the Dettingen Te Deum and Dettingen Anthem ‘The King Shall Rejoice’ (HWV 283, 265) (Burrows, Handel, 359).
245 Jennens's complaint about the obscurity of Virgil is extended also to Pope and his comments on the whole reveal his championing of the Bible as a text which was not above the understanding of the average person (and perhaps which should therefore be read more often).
246 The Dettingen Te Deum and Dettingen Anthem were composed in 1743 and first performed in a service in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace, on the morning of 27 November. The date on the first folio of the Te Deum autograph (R.M.20.h.6) shows that Handel began composing the work on 17 July 1743, the same day as a prayer of thanksgiving for the victory of the king's forces and safe deliverance of the king at the battle of Dettingen was read at churches throughout Britain.
247 It should also be noted that at this period Handel was under heavy pressure to compose operas for Middlesex's company (Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 167–8; Betty Matthews, ‘Unpublished Letters concerning Handel’, Music & Letters, 40 (1959), 263–4.
248 Dagon was the god of the Philistines whose temple was destroyed by Samson: ‘the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon’ (Judges 16: 23–31). Presumably this is what Jennens is referring to when he says (in a tone of sarcastic understatement) that Handel was ‘complaisant’ towards Dagon. However, Handel was probably referring to his intention to place Samson (rather than Messiah) as the showpiece of his 1743 season, and Jennens obviously interprets this (as it appears to have been intended) as a slight from the composer.
249 See n. 244.
250 An admonition to Jennens (as Samson) not to abuse Handel as Samson abused the Philistines by pulling down their temple on top of them.
251 Probably a reference to Estro poetico-armonico: parafrasi sopra li prima [e secondi] venticinque salmi (vernacular texts by G. A. Giustini), 8 vols. (Venice, 1724–6). As Everett points out, all eight volumes (psalms 1–50) had been printed by 1726 and so Holdsworth appears slightly misinformed (Everett, Manchester Concerto Partbooks, 25). The six volumes did not feature in the 1918 Sotheby's sale and no trace of them has hitherto been found. See nn. 174, 188, 213 and 272.
252 A further reference to Jennens's quarrel with Handel over Messiah.
253 Surviving letters from 9 June (1744) onwards indicate a frequent discussion and exchange of ideas between the two men regarding not only the new collaboration (Belshazzar, 1744) but also Messiah, presumably in preparation for the 1745 revival of the latter work. See nn. 180, 181, 182, 190, 209, 222, 223, 227, 229, 232, 234 and 239.
254 James Miller (1704–44). Playwright and satirist. Author of the libretto of Joseph and his Brethren (1744).
255 A reference to Belshazzar. Jennens sent Handel each of the three parts one at a time, between July and October 1744 (Burrows, Handel, 369).
256 Covent Garden Theatre. The oratorios performed were Deborah, Semele, Hercules, Samson, Saul, Joseph and his Brethren, Belshazzar and Messiah.
257 Alexander Pope died on 30 May 1744.
258 Henry St John (1678–1751), styled 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. Politician, diplomatist and author.
259 Lewis Theobald (bap. 1688, d. 1744) was a critic of Pope's edition of Shakespeare (1725) and consequently became the mock hero of Pope's Dunciad (1728). Colley Cibber (1671–1757), poet laureate from 1730, was the author of a critical pamphlet on Pope in ‘A letter from Mr Cibber to Mr Pope’ (July 1742). Cibber consequently took Theobald's place as the mock hero in Pope's New Dunciad (1742).
260 George Harbin (c.1665–1744), a prominent Nonjuror.
261 Jennens stayed in no. 8 Queen's Square during this period. The house belonged to his brother-in-law, William Hanmer.
262 Not singers, but socially influential ladies.
263 A reference to Margaret Cecil, Lady Brown (1692–1782). Cecil has been charged with leading attacks against, and boycotts of, Handel's operas but David Hunter suggests that although she was certainly no supporter of Handel, the case against her may have been subject to hyperbole since Burney's naming of her in 1789 as a ‘persevering enemy to Handel’. David Hunter, ‘Margaret Cecil, Lady Brown: “Persevering Enemy to Handel” but “Otherwise Unknown to History”’, Women and Music, 3 (1997), 43.
264 Libretto by Reverend Thomas Broughton, based on Sophocles's Women of Trachis and Ovid's Metamorphoses (book IX).
265 Handel abandoned his ‘experiment’ after 11 February when a planned performance of Hercules was cancelled, and he returned to the Lenten plan of the previous two years. These were not as well attended as previous years, however, and only 16 of the promised 24 subscription performances were fulfilled (Burrows, Handel, 373–4).
266 The other was Belshazzar, first performed on 27 March.
267 An informal term for debt-collectors’ letters. A section of this letter has disintegrated but Jennens is almost certainly referring to his libretto for Belshazzar, for the completion of which he felt pressurized by Handel (see letter of 13 September 1744).
268 Possibly a reference to Belshazzar. Several letters from Holdsworth appear to have been lost, for his last surviving letter prior to this is dated 8 February 1744.
269 See letters of 29 April 1743 and 28 October 1743.
270 Handel visited the Earl of Gainsborough (at Exton in Rutland) in June 1745 for what the Earl's brother James Noel described as ‘Quiet and Retirement’ (letter to the Earl of Shaftesbury, 23 June 1745) (Burrows, Handel, 379). The Earl of Shaftesbury in turn commented on Handel's ill health in a letter to James Harris (24 October 1745) (Burrows, Handel, 381; HHB, 395) and his description of Handel as ‘a good deal disordered in his head’ suggests a return of Handel's ‘paralytick’ disorder of 1743. He did not compose another major work until January 1746 (Occasional Oratorio).
271 No letters survive from Holdsworth in answer to these letters by Jennens but it would appear that Holdsworth was staying at Gopsall while Jennens remained in town. Jennens's concern about his friend's access to the bookcases is an example of the care they took of each other. Much of the content of the letters around this time concern Jennens's gentle and sensitive insistence on settling his and Holdsworth's debts.
272 See nn. 174, 188, 213 and 251.
273 In mid-October Vaillant had advertised the publication of his 446-page catalogue. The London Evening Post, no. 2801, Thursday 17–Saturday 19 October 1745, [3]. The first title is almost certainly Pierre Bourdelot and Pierre Bonnet, Histoire de la Musique et de ses effets depuis son origine jusqu’à present (Paris, 1715). The second one is Des Representations en Musique Anciennes & Modernes (Paris, 1684). Catalogus Librorum apud Paulum Vaillant, Bibliopolam, Londini venales prostantium: Or, A Catalogue of Books in most Languages and Faculties, sold by Paul Vaillant, Bookseller, in the Strand (London, 1745), 256. As the catalogue's titles under ‘Music’ include only music scores, Jennens had to browse the entire volume. The title page of Holdsworth's Pharsalia and Philippi etc. states ‘Printed for Paul Vaillant, in the Strand’, and note of agreement from Vaillant dated 28 January 1741/2 verifies him as the bookseller for Holdsworth's collection of letters.
274 ‘From his foot, Hercules’. A reference to the maxim of proportionality ‘from his foot, we can measure Hercules’. Jennens is asking Holdsworth to look at and compare the two books without going to too much trouble (‘a slight view’).
275 Jennens may be referring here to his personal circumstances, living under the jurisdiction of his father. Earlier letters (24 July 1736, 16 April 1741, 5 December 1743) suggest that he found the arrangement unsatisfactory (Smith, ‘Achievements’, 166). His father died in 1744.
276 Jennens states clearly in earlier letters that his health is much better in Leicestershire than in London.
277 To be surprised by nothing.
278 Jennens's unease may have been prompted by the Occasional Oratorio's pro-Hanoverian stance (see letter of 3 February 1745/6), which undoubtedly clashed with his own Jacobite sympathies. However, his comments in his letter of 3 February 1745/6 suggest that he also objected to the work on artistic grounds.
279 Possibly his sister Elizabeth, in whose husband's house he stayed when in London. He bequeathed his Gopsall estate to her daughter, Esther.
280 Occasional Oratorio.
281 William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and the King's younger son, was put in command of the King's forces in response to the Jacobite uprising of 1745. By February 1746, the Jacobites had been driven back to Scotland but were not yet defeated. The Duke was in London in early 1746 (Burrows, Handel, 384). Jennens's view is echoed in George Harris's letter of 8 February 1746 (Burrows and Dunhill, Family Papers of James Harris, 223).
282 Newburgh Hamilton.
283 Atherstone, Warwickshire, was probably the closest town to Gopsall.
284 This may be a facetious reference to Thomas Rowney, MP for Oxford 1722–59, who is mentioned by Holdsworth in a letter of 1 May 1738.
285 ‘To read at my peril “Bawdatorio”’. Jennens was expressing disapproval at the labeling of such a bawdy tale as Semele as an oratorio.
286 Handel performed the Occasional Oratorio on Friday 14, Wednesday 19 and Wednesday 26 February ‘in Order to make good the Number of Performances subscrib'd to last Season’ (The General Advertiser, no. 3527, 3531 and 3537, all on p. [2]). According to a contemporary report, ‘on Wednesday last [19 February] there was at the Oratorio a great deal of excellent Music, and no Company’. [Henry Fielding], The True Patriot: and The History of Our Own Times (repr. New York, 1975), Tuesday 18–Tuesday 25 February 1746, [3]).
287 See n. 157.
288 Thomas Sternhold's and John Hopkins's Psalter was formerly a widely used collection of Psalms, mostly in the ballad metre. By the eighteenth century, however, opinion of them had turned and so Jennens is probably not being complimentary.
289 Ironically, Hamilton re-used large portions of the music, and its accompanying text, of Israel in Egypt (Burrows, Handel, 420).
290 Edmund Spenser (1552?–99). Poet and administrator in Ireland. Tears of the Muses was published in 1590.
291 Joseph Addison (1672–1719), writer and politician.
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