book bears the following note in Novello's hand, written, not
later than 1820, under the contents of the volume:

"The whole of the above are unpublished manuscripts, and were
copied from an extremely rare volume, containing the full
orchestral score of the entire oratorio, kindly lent to me for
the purpose by my friend, Mr Shield, who had obtained it from
Haydn himself during the visit of the latter to England in
the year 1791.--VINCENT NOVELLO, 240 Oxford St."

[See an interesting account of "Il Ritorno di Tobia" in The
Musical Times for September 1901, p. 600.]

Some of our musical societies in search of novelties might do
worse than revive this almost completely forgotten oratorio.
The airs are exceedingly melodious, and the choruses bold and
tuneful, with well-developed fugue subjects. The "Insanae"
already referred to is frequently performed.

Opponents

In 1776 Haydn composed "La Vera Costanza" for the Court Theatre
of Vienna, but owing to certain intrigues it was declined by the
management and produced at Esterhaz instead. The opera was
subsequently staged at Vienna in 1790, and six of its airs and a
duet were published by Artaria. This incident makes it
sufficiently plain that Haydn had his opponents among the
musicians and critics of Vienna as well as elsewhere. Burney says
a friend in Hamburg wrote him in 1772 that "the genius, fine
ideas and fancy of Haydn, Ditters and Filitz were praised, but