the connivance of his nurse, hidden in the garret a poor spinet, and in
stolen hours taught himself how to play. At last the senior Handel had
a visit to make to another son in the service of the Duke of
Saxe-Weissenfels, and the young George was taken along to the ducal
palace. The boy strayed into the chapel, and was irresistibly drawn to
the organ. His stolen performance was made known to his father and the
duke, and the former was very much enraged at such a direct evidence of
disobedience. The duke, however, being astonished at the performance of
the youthful genius, interceded for him, and recommended that his taste
should be encouraged and cultivated instead of repressed.

From this time forward fortune showered upon him a combination of
conditions highly favorable to rapid development. Severe training,
ardent friendship, the society of the first composers, and incessant
practice were vouchsafed him. As the pupil of the great organist Zachau,
he studied the whole existing mass of German and Italian music, and soon
exacted from his master the admission that he had nothing more to teach
him. Thence he went to Berlin to study the opera-school, where Ariosti
and Bononcini were favorite composers. The first was friendly, but the
latter, who with a first-rate head had a cankered heart, determined
to take the conceit out of the Saxon boy. He challenged him to play at
sight an elaborate piece. Handel played it with perfect precision, and
thenceforward Bononcini, though he hated the youth as a rival, treated
him as an equal.

On the death of his father Handel secured an engagement at the Hamburg
opera-house, where he soon made his mark by the ability with which, on
several occasions, he conducted rehearsals.

At the age of nineteen Handel received the offer of the Lübeck organ, on