From the year 1729 the career of Handel was to be a protracted battle,
in which he was sometimes victorious, sometimes defeated, but always
undaunted and animated with a lofty sense of his own superior power.
Let us take a view of some of the rival musicians with whom he came
in contact. Of all these Bononcini was the most formidable. He came to
England in 1720 with Ariosti, also a meritorious composer. Factions
soon began to form themselves around Handel and Bononcini, and a bitter
struggle ensued between these old foes. The same drama repeated itself,
with new actors, about thirty years afterward, in Paris. Gluck was then
the German hero, supported by Marie Antoinette, and Piccini fought for
the Italian opera under the colors of the king's mistress Du Barry,
while all the _litterateurs_ and nobles ranged themselves on either
side in bitter contest. The battle between Handel and Bononcini, as the
exponents of German and Italian music, was also repeated in after-years
between Mozart and Salieri, Weber and Rossini, and to-day is seen in
the acrimonious disputes going on between Wagner and the Italian school.
Bononcini's career in England came to an end very suddenly. It was
discovered that a madrigal brought out by him was pirated from another
Italian composer; whereupon Bononcini left England, humiliated to the
dust, and finally died obscure and alone, the victim of a charlatan
alchemist, who succeeded in obtaining all his savings.

Another powerful rival of Handel was Porpora, or, as Handel used to
call him, "old Borbora." Without Bononcini's fire or Handel's daring
originality, he represented the dry contrapuntal school of Italian
music. He was also a great singing-master, famous throughout Europe,
and upon this his reputation had hitherto principally rested. He came to
London in 1733, under the patronage of the Italian faction, especially
to serve as a thorn in the side of Handel. His first opera, "Ariadne,"