what was being played? The little organist
was brought before him, questioned and
encouraged. It will be a crime, said the
grand-duke to the old surgeon, to stifle so
much genius in its birth. Now, if a sovereign
prince condescended to think that, it could
not fail to be true. The father promised
thenceforward not to quell, but to encourage
the son's disposition, and he kept his word.
When they got home again to Halle, George
was sent to receive lessons from the organist
in the cathedral there, a good man of the
old school, Frederic Zackau, who adored
fugue, canon and counterpoint, and who soon
found out how rare a pupil he had got. Between
the ages of eight and eleven, young
Handel— whose first love was for the hymns
of Luther—wrote every week for Zackau, as
his exercise, a sacred motet or cantata.
During the same period he still practised on
the harpsichord, and learnt to play the
violin, the organ, and, dearer than all to him,
the hautboy; while his father taught him
latin and still hoped that there might come
a day for law.

Eleven years old and master of all Zackau
could teach him, young Handel, who was a
strong and manly boy, was sent by the
organist's wish to learn more at Berlin, whither
he could go, as it chanced, under the protection
of a friend of the family. There he
became known to Attilio and Bononcini, two
Italian composers then high in repute. Attilio,
a kindly man, would take the boy upon
his knee and make him play on his harpsichord
for an hour together. Bononcini was
so weak as to resent the boy's high credit,
and, hoping to put him down, wrote a cantata
for the harpsichord, into which he crammed
all kinds of difficulty and which he maliciously
requested him to play. George played it off
at sight as a mere trifle. Thereafter
Bononcini addressed him and treated him as
a man—hated him too as a rival.

Though never brought before the public
as a prodigy, the young Handel, of course,
excited much attention among Berlin
connoisseurs, and the Elector of Brandenburg
himself wished to become his patron and send
him to complete in Italy his musical training.
The father did not like the scheme, and with
humble excuses called the son back hastily to
Halle, where he again worked under Zackau
the organist. Very soon afterwards, when
George was only twelve years old, his father
died, leaving him poor, but he remained with
his mother at Halle for six years after his
father's death, during the latter part of the
time corresponding with a young composer,
M. Telemann, who though but four years
older than himself was already director of
the opera at Leipsic. Of this Telemann, his
friend Handel said that he could compose a
piece of church music in eight parts, in less
time than another man would take to write a
letter. At last, in his nineteenth year, Handel
began to earn his living as a musician, by
going to Hamburg, and there taking a small
engagement in the orchestra of the opera
house, which was a rival to that of Berlin,
as violon di ripieno, a supplementary fiddler,
who played generally with the choruses.
Mattheson, a young citizen of Hamburg,
twenty-two years old, composer, singer, actor,
clever player on the harpsichord, a young man:
who had sung and played upon the organ at
the age of nine cantatas of his own composing,
and who at eighteen had written an opera in
which he sang and played the leading character,
—Mattheson was, at Hamburg, Handel's
associate and friend. Mattheson it was who
introduced him to the opera where, Mattheson
says: " at first he played the violon di
ripieno in the orchestra of the opera house,
and he acted the part of a man who did not
know how to count five, for he was naturally
prone to dry humour. But the harpsichordist
being absent, he allowed himself to be
persuaded to replace him, and proved himself to
be a great master, to the astonishment of
everybody except myself, who had often heard
him in private."

Soon after his arrival in Hamburg, Handel
heard that the post of organist at Lubeck
was vacant, and went over with Mattheson
to try for it. They found that one condition
of election was, that the successor was to
marry the daughter of the retiring organist, so
they withdrew from the competition. Handel
never married, never thought of marrying.

Handel being within two months of the
age of twenty, presided over the harpsichord
in the orchestra, at a performance of
Mattheson's third opera, Cleopatra, Mattheson's
age then being twenty-three. After his
death upon the stage, Mattheson used to
come into the orchestra and conduct at the
harpsichord all the remaining music. Handel
would not give up his place to him.
Accordingly the two friends quarrelled as they
left the theatre. Mattheson boxed Handel's
ears, whereupon swords were drawn and the
friends fought, until the sword of the elder
youth was shivered on a metal button in his
adversary's coat. Thereupon Mattheson said:

"If you break your sword upon a friend,
you do not injure him so much as if you
spoke ill of him."

Mutual friends secured a reconcilement,
and ere the month was out, Mattheson gave
Handel a dinner before they both went to
assist at the first night of the first of young
Handel's two accepted operas, " Almira,
Queen of Castile, or the Vicissitudes of
Royalty." Upon the vicissitudes of royalty,
most operas in those days dwelt. The
second opera was produced six weeks later.
It was called "Nero, or Love obtained by
Blood and Murder," and the first night of its
performance was two days after Handel had
attained the age of twenty. Within the
next twelve months two more operas by
young Handel were performed at Hamburg,
"Daphne " and " Florinda." In each of them