home for the second performance, that a couple of hundred or so extra
listeners might be accommodated. This event was the grand triumph of
Handel's life. Years of misconception, neglect, and rivalry were swept
out of mind in the intoxicating delight of that night's success.


VII.

Handel returned to London, and composed a new oratorio, "Samson," for
the following Lenten season. This, together with the "Messiah," heard
for the first time in London, made the stock of twelve performances.
The fashionable world ignored him altogether; the newspapers kept a
contemptuous silence; comic singers were hired to parody his noblest
airs at the great houses; and impudent Horace Walpole had the audacity
to say that he "had hired all the goddesses from farces and singers of
roast-beef, from between the acts of both theatres, with a man with one
note in his voice, and a girl with never a one; and so they sang and
made brave hallelujahs."

The new field into which Handel had entered inspired his genius to
its greatest energy. His new works for the season of 1744 were the
"Det-tingen Te Deum," "Semele," and "Joseph and his Brethren;" for
the next year (he had again rented the Haymarket Theatre), "Hercules,"
"Belshazzar," and a revival of "Deborah." All these works were produced
in a style of then uncommon completeness, and the great expense he
incurred, combined with the active hostility of the fashionable world,
forced him to close his doors and suspend payment. From this time
forward Handel gave concerts whenever he chose, and depended on the
people, who so supported him by their gradually growing appreciation,
that in two years he had paid off all his debts, and in ten years had