Handel by Edward J. Dent
page 84 of 106 (79%)
page 84 of 106 (79%)
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_Occasional Oratorio_, about half of which was taken from _Israel in
Egypt_; it contains a well-known quotation of "Rule, Britannia," and the point of the quotation is made clearer when we know that it was one of the patriotic songs sung at the theatres during the period of panic. The Duke of Cumberland's defeat of the Pretender at Culloden on April 16, 1746, finally disposed of the Jacobites, and Handel made a further contribution to the national rejoicings in "A Song on the Victory over the Rebels," which was printed in the _London Magazine_ for July. The words were by John Lockman; the first and last verses are as follows: _From scourging rebellion and baffling proud France, Crown'd with laurels behold British William advance: His triumph to grace and distinguish the day, The sun brighter shines and all nature's gay. Ye warriors on whom we due honours bestow, O think on the source whence our late evils flow; Commanded by William, strike next at the Gaul, And fix those in chains would Britain enthral._ In the same month Handel began the composition of a new oratorio in honour of the Duke; this was _Judas Maccabaeus_, for which he had discovered a new librettist, the Rev. Thomas Morell, formerly Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. Morell has given a lively account of his collaboration with the great man, whom he did not fear to criticise. Handel's retorts to him have been reproduced as if they were outbursts of righteous indignation against a snarling poetaster, but, in view of many other records of Handel's rough tongue and genial humour (in which he seems often to have resembled Brahms), we need not take them too seriously. It is quite clear that |
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