in May, and directly afterwards went for a short visit to Cheltenham,
returning to London on June 13. He resumed work on Jephtha, and finished it
on August 30. It was some time this year (the precise date is unknown) that
he consulted Samuel Sharp, a surgeon of Guy's Hospital, who told him that
he was suffering from gutta serena, and that freedom from pain in the
visual organs was all that he had to hope for during the remainder of his
days. It was a severe shock, especially to a man whose general physical and
mental health was already undermined, and it is no wonder that Handel began
to give way to periods of profound depression. The condition of Handel's
eyes, and of his hand as well, may be clearly observed in the autograph of
Jephtha, and it may be noted that here he again reverted to the process of
"borrowing"--this time from five Masses by Habermann, a composer twenty
years his junior, published in 1747.

It may well be asked how Handel acquired the original copies of all the
works which he utilised in his later years, since it is obvious that they
could not have been well known or easily available to musicians in England.
A guess may be hazarded that he obtained them through his old friend
Telemann at Hamburg. Telemann, it will be remembered, had been a close
friend of Handel's during their student days at Halle; whether they met
again in Germany after Handel had taken up his residence in London is
not known, but it is quite probable. The fact remains that Handel was
undoubtedly in friendly correspondence with Telemann in 1750, for in
December of that year he wrote a long letter to him (in French) thanking
him for a theoretical work. Telemann appears to have been a keen gardener,
and had evidently asked Handel to send him some rare plants. Handel's reply
suggests that he was not much interested in gardening himself, but was most
anxious to do all he could to give Telemann pleasure.

Another letter (again in French) to Telemann, dated September 20, 1754,