SAUL. THE MESSIAH. 95 Handel's House in Abby street, and at Mr. Neal's in Christ-churchyard, at Half a Guinea each. A Ticket for the Rehearsal (which will be on Friday the 21st) will be given gratis with the Ticket for the Performance. Both the Rehearsal and the Performance will begin at 12 at Noon."* In Faulkner's Journal, of May 18th to 22nd, we read 66 : 'Yesterday there was a Rehearsal of the Oratorio of Saul, at the Musick Hall in Fishamble-street, at which there was a most grand polite and numerous Audience, which gave such universal Satisfaction, that it was agreed by all the Judges present to have been the finest Performance that hath been heard in this Kingdom." In the same number of Faulkner, the approaching performance of the oratorio is advertised— "To begin at 7 o'clock. Books to be had at the Musick Hall, Price a British Sixpence." The performance of Saul took place on the appointed evening.† It will easily be imagined that the production of the Messiah had excited a powerful interest in the minds of the people of Dublin; and that many were eagerly hoping for a repetition of the performance. In obedience to an expression of this feeling, the following announcement of a second performance of the Messiah appeared in Faulkner's Journal on Saturday, the 29th of May : "At the Particular Desire of several of the Nobility and Gentry. "On Thursday next, being the 3d day of June, at the new * Faulkner's Journal, May 8th to 11th, and 11th to 15th, and 15th to 18th, 1742. + Faulkner's Journal, May 22nd to 25th, 1742. Musick Hall in Fishamble street, will be performed Mr. Handel's new Grand Sacred Oratorio, called MESSIAH, with Concertos on the Organ. Tickets will be delivered at Mr. Handel's house in Abbey-street, and at Mr. Neal's in Christ-church-yard, at Half a guinea each. A Rehearsal Ticket will be given with the ticket for the Performance. The Rehearsal will be on Tuesday the 1st of June, at Twelve, and the Performance at Seven in the Evening. In order to keep the Room as cool as possible, a Pane of Glass will be removed from the top of each of the Windows. "N. B. This will be the last Performance of Mr. Handel's during his stay in this Kingdom.' *. This was the last public advertisement issued by Handel, during his residence in Ireland. The rehearsal and the performance took place on the several days mentioned. The traditions of Handel's visit preserved in Dublin, and handed down to our time, are few, and not always to be depended on. It is said that he used to play on the organ at St. Michan's, one of the oldest churches in Dublin, situated a little to the north-west of the site where then stood the Infirmary. He was a frequent visitor at the house of Alexander Lee, an eminent music-seller, on Cork-hill. A gentleman has told me that when he was a boy, he heard Mr. Lee (then a very old man) affirm that Handel composed the Messiah in his house on Cork-hill, and that he had seen him in the act of writing it. The truth probably was, that the composer often had the manuscript sheets of the oratorio before him, for the purpose of correcting any errors of the copyist, or of introducing his own second thoughts. And when Mr. Lee, knowing that he was * Faulkner's Journal, May 25th to 29th, and 29th to June 1st, DR. QUIN'S REMINISCENCES. 97 at work upon the new oratorio he was about to produce, saw him writing on the music-paper, he assumed that he was then engaged in composing the work. Some reminiscence of Handel during his visit to Ireland, was supplied in a letter to Dr. Burney, dated July 16, 1788, by his friend Dr. Quin, who had known Handel in Dublin, and remembered his performances, and who has already been mentioned in this narrative, as being, in later times, a member of Lord Mornington's musical academy. This gentleman, of whose taste and judgment Dr. Burney speaks very highly, responded to the inquiries which Dr. B., engaged on the fourth volume of his History of Music, had made concerning the musical transactions of Handel in Ireland, and particularly about the first performance of the Messiah. Dr. Burney valued the information given him by Dr. Quin so highly, as to insert part of his letter in the History which he was writing. In this letter, besides his testimony, already quoted in these pages,* concerning the first performance of the Messiah, Dr. Quin relates that Handel was received in Ireland by people of the first distinction with all possible marks of esteem, as a man, and admiration as a performer and composer of the highest order: and adds—“ There were many noble families here with whom Mr. Handel lived in the utmost degree of friendship and familiarity. Mrs. Vernon, a German lady, who came over with King George I., was particularly intimate with him; and at her house I had the pleasure of seeing and conversing with Mr. Handel; who, with his other excellencies, was possessed of a great stock of humour: no man ever told a story * Ante, pp. 76, 84. F with more. But it was requisite for the hearer to have a competent knowledge of at least four or five languages; English, French, Italian, and German; for in his narratives, he made use of them all."* The following extracts from the reply of Dr. Burney to this letter, I am enabled to transfer to these pages, by the kind permission of W. C. Quin, Esq.:: "TO DR. QUIN, DUBLIN. "DEAR SIR, "St Martin's Street, London, 66 Augt 8th, 1788. "The renewal of an acquaintance with which I was so much flattered, after an interruption of more than forty years, is a circumstance so unexpected and so fortunate, that I hasten to make my acknowledgments for the honour you have done me in kindly beginning a correspondence, and not only satisfying my enquiries concerning Handel with so much readiness and intelligence, but entering with so much zeal upon the troublesome employment of getting my proposals inserted in the Irish newspapers. With respect to Handel, having already written so much in the Sketch of his life prefixed to the account of the Commemoration, the chief point I wished to settle, was whether the Messiah had been performed and slighted in England previous to his going to Ireland, of which the round assertion of his biographer, Mr. Mainwaring, never convinced me; and I am glad, for the Honour of the English, that such injustice and want of taste cannot be proved. I have examined all the newspapers where every species of pub DR. BURNEY TO DR. QUIN. 99 lic exhibition was advertised, from Handel's first arrival in England, to his departure for Ireland in the summer of 1741, without finding the least mention of the Messiah or Sacred Oratorio, and I am glad to find such a coincidence in our opinions on that subject. The other particulars concerning him during his residence in Dublin, with which you have favoured me, are so truly characteristic, and to my purpose, that I shall certainly contrive to make use of them, before I finish my 4th Vol. though I have already printed my review of all his operas from the original score, and for the present taken leave of him. "With respect to my proposals being advertised at full length in your newspapers, the expense will so far surpass my expectations of the advantage that may accrue from it, that it seems most prudent to decline all further thoughts of it. The opening a subscription for the sequel of my History was forced upon me by certain information that the instant it was published a person would abridge the whole, and sell perhaps for half a crown an Epitome of a work of which the materials have already cost me £2000 in collecting; and in digesting, thirty years of all the leisure I could spare from the exercise of my profession, besides the expense of paper, printing, engraving, and advertising. Though the subscription to the first two vols. is very numerous and splendid on paper, yet all is not gold that glitters,' and from the most illustrious personages in the list, nothing more solid accrued than the leave of inserting their names. I should therefore have left the work to its fate, and have thrown it wholly on the patronage of the public at large, but for the above information from which I am at present delivered by the death of the per |