poet, "The Jews will not come to it, because it is a Christian story; and
the ladies will not come, because it is a virtuous one." Theodora was
always Handel's favourite among his oratorios, and he considered the
chorus, "He saw the Lovely Youth," to be far beyond anything in Messiah.
None the less, the theatre was half empty when Theodora was given. "Never
mind," said Handel, with grim humour, "the music will sound all the
better."

An old acquaintance reappeared this year in London in the shape of Cuzzoni,
who had continued her quarrelsome career at Venice, Vienna, and Stuttgart.
An unsuccessful benefit concert was given for her, at which Giardini the
violinist made his first appearance in London. Handel engaged her to sing
in Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, but her voice was gone. She was
arrested for debt and bailed out by the Prince of Wales; after a few years
in Holland, where she was again in prison, she died in destitution at
Bologna.

In the summer Handel went to Germany for the last time. Nothing is known of
his movements there beyond the fact that on the journey out he met with a
carriage accident between the Hague and Haarlem. He was seriously injured,
but was stated in a London paper of August 21 to be out of danger. Nor is
it known when he returned; we have no further news of him until in January
he began work on Jephtha. Morell says that he himself wrote Jephtha in
1751, but, as Handel had completed the first act on February 2, it is
probable that Morell, like Jennens, supplied him with the words in
instalments.

The composition of the music suffered various interruptions owing to the
failure of Handel's eyesight, and possibly to a return of mental disorder
(Streatfeild). He was able to play the organ at the Foundling Hospital