In 1738 Handel was obliged to close the theatre and suspend payment.
He had made and spent during his operatic career the sum of £10,000
sterling, besides dissipating the sum of £50,000 subscribed by his
noble patrons. The rival house lasted but a few months longer, and the
Duchess of Marlborough and her friends, who ruled the opposition
clique and imported Bononcini, paid £12,000 for the pleasure of
ruining Handel. His failure as an operatic composer is due in part to
the same causes which constituted his success in oratorio and cantata.
It is a little significant to notice that, alike by the progress of
his own genius and by the force of conditions, he was forced out of
the operatic field at the very time when he strove to tighten his grip
on it.
His free introduction of choral and instrumental music, his creation
of new forms and remodelling of old ones, his entire subordination of
the words in the story to a pure musical purpose, offended the singers
and retarded the action of the drama in the eyes of the audience; yet
it was by virtue of these unpopular characteristics that the public
mind was being moulded to understand and love the form of the
oratorio.
From 1734 to 1738 Handel composed and produced a number of operatic
works, the principal ones of which were "Alcina," 1735; "Arminio,"
1737; and "Berenice," 1737. He also during these years wrote the
magnificent music to Dryden's "Alexander's Feast," and the great
funeral anthem on the occasion of Queen Caroline's death in the
latter part of the year 1737.
We can hardly solve the tenacity of purpose with which Handel
persevered in the composition of operatic music after it had ruined
him; but it was still some time before he fully appreciated the true
turn of his genius, which could not be trifled with or ignored. In his
adversity he had some consolation. His creditors were patient,
believing in his integrity. The royal family were his firm friends.
Southey tells us that Handel, having asked the youthful Prince of
Wales, then a child, and afterward George the Third, if he loved
music, answered, when the prince expressed his pleasure, "A good boy,
a good boy! You shall protect my fame when I am dead." Afterwards,
when the half-imbecile George was crazed with family and public
misfortunes, he found his chief solace in the Waverley novels and
Handel's music.
It is also an interesting fact that the poets and thinkers of the age
were Handel's firm admirers. Such men as Gay, Arbuthnot, Hughes,
Colley Cibber, Pope, Fielding, Hogarth, and Smollett, who recognised
the deep, struggling tendencies of the times, measured Handel truly.
They defended him in print, and never failed to attend his
performances, and at his benefit concerts their enthusiastic support
always insured him an overflowing house.
The popular instinct was also true to him. The aristocratic classes
sneered at his oratorios and complained at his innovations. His music
was found to be good bait for the popular gardens and the
holiday-makers of the period. Jonathan Tyers was one of the most
liberal managers of this class. He was proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens,
and Handel (_incognito_) supplied him with nearly all his music. The
composer did much the same sort of thing for Marylebone Gardens,
furbishing up old and writing new strains with an ease that well
became the urgency of the circumstances.
"My grandfather," says the Rev. J. Fountagne, "as I have been told,
was an enthusiast in music, and cultivated most of all the friendship
of musical men, especially of Handel, who visited him often, and had a
great predilection for his society. This leads me to relate an
anecdote which I have on the best authority. While Marylebone Gardens
were flourishing, the enchanting music of Handel, and probably of
Arne, was often heard from the orchestra there. One evening, as my
grandfather and Handel were walking together and alone, a new piece
was struck up by the band. 'Come, Mr. Fountagne,' said Handel, 'let us
sit down and listen to this piece; I want to know your opinion about
it.' Down they sat, and after some time the old parson, turning to his
companion, said, 'It is not worth listening to; it's very poor stuff.'
'You are right, Mr. Fountagne,' said Handel, 'it is very poor stuff; I
thought so myself when I had finished it.' The old gentleman, being
taken by surprise, was beginning to apologise; but Handel assured him
there was no necessity, that the music was really bad, having been
composed hastily, and his time for the production limited; and that
the opinion given was as correct as it was honest."