Chapter 10

SeeVictoria County History, “Hampshire,” R. Warner,Collections for the History of Hampshire; &c. (London, 1789); H. Moody,Hampshire in 1086(1862), and the same author’sAntiquarian and Topographical Sketches(1846), andNotes and Essays relating to the Counties of Hants and Wilts(1851); R. Mudie,Hampshire, &c. (3 vols., Winchester, 1838); B. B. Woodward, T. C. Wilks and C. Lockhart,General History of Hampshire(1861-1869); G. N. Godwin,The Civil War in Hampshire, 1642-1645(London, 1882); H. M. Gilbert and G. N. Godwin,Bibliotheca Hantoniensis(Southampton, 1891). See also various papers inHampshire Notes and Queries(Winchester, 1883 et seq.).

HAMPSTEAD,a north-western metropolitan borough of London, England, bounded E. by St Pancras and S. by St Marylebone, and extending N. and W. to the boundary of the county of London. Pop. (1901), 81,942. The name,Hamstede, is synonymous with “homestead,” and the manor is first named in a charter of Edgar (957-975), and was granted to the abbey of Westminster by Ethelred in 986. It reverted to the Crown in 1550, and had various owners until the close of the 18th century, when it came to Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, whose descendants retain it. The borough includes the sub-manor of Belsize and part of the hamlet of Kilburn.

The surface of the ground is sharply undulating, an elevated spur extending south-west from the neighbourhood of Highgate, and turning south through Hampstead. It reaches a height of 443 ft. above the level of the Thames. The Edgware Road bounds Hampstead on the west; and the borough is intersected, parallel to this thoroughfare, by Finchley Road, and by Haverstock Hill, which, continued under the names of Rosslyn Hill, High Street, Heath Street, and North End, crosses the Heath for which Hampstead is chiefly celebrated. This is a fine open space of about 240 acres, including in its bounds the summit of Hampstead Hill. It is a sandy tract, in parts well wooded, diversified with several small sheets of water, and to a great extent preserves its natural characteristics unaltered. Beautiful views, both near and distant, are commanded from many points. Of all the public grounds within London this is the most valuable to the populace at large; the number of visitors on a Bank holiday in August is generally, under favourable conditions, about 100,000; and strenuous efforts are always forthcoming from either public or private bodies when the integrity of the Heath is in any way menaced. As early as 1829 attempts to save it from the builder are recorded. In 1871 its preservation as an open space was insured after several years’ dispute, when the lord of the manor gave up his rights. An act of parliament transferred the ownership to the Metropolitan Board of Works, to which body the London County Council succeeded. The Heath is continued eastward in Parliament Hill (borough of St Pancras), acquired for the public in 1890; and westward outside the county boundary in Golders Hill, owned by Sir Spenser Wells, Bart., until 1898. A Protection Society guards the preservation of the natural beauty and interests of the Heath. It is not the interests of visitors alone that must be consulted, for Hampstead, adding to its other attractions a singularly healthy climate, has long been a favourite residential quarter, especially for lawyers, artists and men of letters. Among famous residents are found the first earl of Chatham, John Constable, George Romney, George du Maurier, Joseph Butler, author of theAnalogy, Sir Richard Steele, John Keats, the sisters Joanna and Agnes Baillie, Leigh Hunt and many others. The parish church of St John (1747) has several monuments of eminent persons. Chatham’s residence was at North End, a picturesque quarter yet preserving characteristics of a rural village; here also Wilkie Collins was born. Three old-established inns, the Bull and Bush, the Spaniards, and Jack Straw’s Castle (the name of which has no historical significance), claim many great names among former visitors; while the Upper Flask Inn, now a private house, was the meeting-place of the Kit-Cat Club. Chalybeate springs were discovered at Hampstead in the 17th century, and early in the 18th rivalled those of Tunbridge Wells and Epsom. The name of Well Walk recalls them, but their fame is lost. There are others at Kilburn.

In the south-east Hampstead includes the greater part of Primrose Hill, a public ground adjacent to the north side of Regent’s Park. The borough has in all about 350 acres of open spaces. The name of the sub-manor of Belsize is preserved in several streets in the central part. Kilburn, which as a district extends outside the borough, takes name from a stream which, as the Westbourne, entered the Thames at Chelsea. Fleet Road similarly recalls the more famous stream which washed the walls of the City of London on the west. Hampstead has numerous charitable institutions, amongst which are the North London consumptive hospital, the Orphan Working School, Haverstock Hill (1758), the general hospital and the north-western fever hospital. In Finchley Road are the New and Hackney Colleges, both Congregational. The parliamentary borough of Hampstead returns one member. The borough council consists of a mayor, 7 aldermen and 42 councillors. Area, 2265 acres.

HAMPTON, WADE(1818-1902), American cavalry leader was born on the 28th of March 1818 at Columbia, South Carolina, the son of Wade Hampton (1791-1858), one of the wealthiest planters in the South, and the grandson of Wade Hampton (1754-1835), a captain in the War of Independence and a brigadier-general in the War of 1812. He graduated (1836) at South Carolina College, and was trained for the law. He devoted himself, however, to the management of his great plantations in South Carolina and in Mississippi, and took part in state politics and legislation. Though his own views were opposed to the prevailing state-rights tone of South Carolinian opinion, he threw himself heartily into the Southern cause in 1861, raising a mixed command known as “Hampton’s Legion,” which he led at the first battle of Bull Run. During the Civil War he served in the main with the Army of Northern Virginia in Stuart’s cavalry corps. After Stuart’s death Hampton distinguished himself greatly in opposing Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and was made lieutenant-general to command Lee’s whole force of cavalry. In 1865 he assisted Joseph Johnston in the attempt to prevent Sherman’s advance through the Carolinas. After the war his attitude was conciliatory and he recommended a frank acceptance by the South of the war’s political consequences. He was governor of his state in 1876-1879, being installed after a memorable contest; he served in the United States Senate in 1879-1891, and was United States commissioner of Pacific railways in 1893-1897. He died on the 11th of April 1902.

See E. L. Wells,Hampton and Reconstruction(Columbia, S. C., 1907).

HAMPTON,an urban district in the Uxbridge parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, 15 m. S.W. of St Paul’s cathedral, London, on the river Thames, served by the London & South Western railway. Pop. (1901), 6813. Close to the river, a mile below the town, stands Hampton Court Palace, one of the finest extant specimens of Tudor architecture, and formerly a royal residence. It was erected by Cardinal Wolsey, who in 1515 received a lease of the old mansion and grounds for 99 years. As the splendour of the building seemed to awaken the cupidity of Henry VIII., Wolsey in 1526 thought it prudent to make him a present of it. It became Henry’s favourite residence, and he made several additions to the building, including the great hall and chapel in the Gothic style. Of the original five quadrangles only two now remain, but a third was erected by Sir Christopher Wren for William III. In 1649 a great sale of the effects of the palace took place by order of parliament, and later the manor itself was sold to a private owner but immediately after came into the hands of Cromwell; and Hampton Court continued to be one of the principal residences of the English sovereigns until the time of George II. It was the birthplace of Edward VI., and the meeting-place (1604) of the conference held in the reign of James I. to settle the dispute between the Presbyterians and the state clergy. William III., riding in the grounds, met with the accident which resulted in his death. It is now partly occupied by persons of rank in reduced circumstances; but the state apartments and picturegalleries are open to the public, as is the home park. The gardens, with their ornamental waters, are beautifully laid out in the Dutch style favoured by William III., and contain a magnificent vine planted in 1768. In the enclosure north of the palace, called the Wilderness, is the Maze, a favourite resort. North again lies Bushey Park, a royal demesne exceeding 1000 acres in extent. It is much frequented, especially in early summer, when its triple avenue of horse-chestnut trees is in blossom.

Among several residences in the vicinity of Hampton is Garrick Villa, once, under the name of Hampton House, the residence of David Garrick the actor. Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Richard Steele are among famous former residents. Hampton Wick, on the river E. of Bushey Park, is an urban district with a population (1901) of 2606.

See E. Law,History of Hampton Court Palace(London, 1890).

HAMPTON,a city and the county-seat of Elizabeth City county, Virginia, U.S.A., at the mouth of the James river, on Hampton Roads, about 15 m. N.W. of Norfolk. Pop. (1890), 2513; (1900) 2764, including 1249 negroes; (1910) 5505. It is served by the Chesapeake & Ohio railway, and by trolley lines to Old Point Comfort and Newport News. Hampton is an agricultural shipping point, ships fish, oysters and canned crabs, and manufactures fish oil and brick. In the city are St John’s church, built in 1727; a national cemetery, a national soldiers’ home (between Phoebus and Hampton), which in 1907-1908 cared for 4093 veterans and had an average attendance of 2261; and the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (coeducational), which was opened by the American Missionary Association in 1868 for the education of negroes. This last was chartered and became independent of any denominational control in 1870, and was superintended by Samuel Chapman Armstrong (q.v.) from 1868 to 1893. The school was opened in 1878 to Indians, whose presence has been of distinct advantage to the negro, showing him, says Booker T. Washington, the most famous graduate of the school, that the negro race is not alone in its struggle for improvement. The National government pays $167 a year for the support of each of the Indian students. The underlying idea of the Institute is such industrial training as will make the pupil a willing and a good workman, able to teach his trade to others; and the school’s graduates include the heads of other successful negro industrial schools, the organizers of agricultural and industrial departments in Southern public schools and teachers in graded negro schools. The mechanism of the school includes three schemes: that of “work students,” who work during the day throughout the year and attend night school for eight months; that of day school students, who attend school for four or five days and do manual work for one or two days each week; and that of trade students, who receive trade instruction in their daily eight-hours’ work and study in night school as well. Agriculture in one or more of its branches is taught to all, including the four or five hundred children of the Whittier school, a practice school with kindergarten and primary classes. Graduate courses are given in agriculture, business, domestic art and science, library methods, “matrons’” training, and public school teaching. The girl students are trained in every branch of housekeeping, cooking, dairying and gardening. The institute publishesThe Southern Workman, a monthly magazine devoted to the interests of the Negro and the Indian and other backward races. In 1908 the Institute had more than 100 buildings and 188 acres of land S.W. of the national cemetery and on Hampton river and Jones Creek, and 600 acres at Shellbanks, a stock farm 6 m. away; the enrolment was 21 in graduate classes, 372 in day school, 489 in night school and 524 in the Whittier school. Of the total, 88 were Indians.

Hampton was settled in 1610 on the site of an Indian village, Kecoughtan, a name it long retained, and was represented at the first meeting (1619) of the Virginia House of Burgesses. It was fired by the British during the War of 1812 and by the Confederates under General J. B. Magruder in August 1861. During the Civil War there was a large Union hospital here, the building of the Chesapeake Female College, erected in 1857, being used for this purpose. Hampton was incorporated as a town in 1887, and in 1908 became a city of the second class.

HAMPTON ROADS,a channel through which the waters of the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers of Virginia, U.S.A., pass (between Old Point Comfort to the N. and Sewell’s Point to the S.) into Chesapeake Bay. It is an important highway of commerce, especially for the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News, and is the chief rendezvous of the United States navy. For a width of 500 ft. the Federal government during 1902-1905 increased its minimum depth at low water from 25½ ft. to 30 ft. The entrance from Chesapeake Bay is defended by Fortress Monroe on Old Point Comfort and by Fort Wood on a small island called the Rip Raps near the middle of the channel; and at Portsmouth, a few miles up the Elizabeth river, is an important United States navy-yard.

Hampton Roads is famous in history as the scene of the first engagement between iron-clad vessels. In the spring of 1861 the Federals set fire to several war vessels in the Gosport navy yard on the Elizabeth river and abandoned the place. In June the Confederates set to work to raise one of these abandoned vessels, the frigate “Merrimac” of 3500 tons and 40 guns, and to rebuild it as an iron-clad. The vessel (renamed the “Virginia” though it is generally known in history by its original name) was first cut down to the water-line and upon her hull was built a rectangular casemate, constructed of heavy timber (24 in. in thickness), covered with bar-iron 4 in. thick, and rising from the water on each side at an angle of about 35°. The iron plating extended 2 ft. below the water line; and beyond the casemate, toward the bow, was a cast-iron pilot house, extending 3 ft. above the deck. The reconstruction of the vessel was completed on the 5th of March 1862. The vessel drew 22 ft. of water, was equipped with poor engines, so that it could not make more than 5 knots, and was so unwieldy that it could not be turned in less than 30 minutes. It was armed with 10 guns—2 (rifled) 7 in., 2 (rifled) 6 in., and 6 (smooth bore Dahlgren) 9 in. Her most powerful equipment, however, was her 18 in. cast-iron ram. In October 1861 Captain John Ericsson, an engineer, and a Troy (N.Y.) firm, as builders, began the construction of the iron-clad “Monitor” for the Federals, at Greenpoint, Long Island. With a view to enable this vessel to carry at good speed the thickest possible armour compatible with buoyancy, Ericsson reduced the exposed surface to the least possible area. Accordingly, the vessel was built so low in the water that the waves glided easily over its deck except at the middle, where was constructed a revolving turret1for the guns, and though the vessel’s iron armour had a thickness of 1 in. on the deck, 5 in. on the side, and 8 in. on the turret, its draft was only 10 ft. 6 in., or less than one-half that of the “Merrimac.” Its turret, 9 ft. high and 20 ft. in inside diameter, seemed small for its length of 172 ft. and its breadth of 41 ft. 6 in., and this, with the lowness of its freeboard, caused the vessel to be called the “Yankee cheese-box on a raft.” Forward of the turret was the iron pilot house, square in shape, and rising about 4 ft. above the deck. The “Monitor’s” displacement was about 1200 tons and her armament was two 11 in. Dahlgren guns; her crew numbered 58, while that of the “Merrimac” numbered about 300. She was seaworthy in the shallow waters off the southern coasts and steered fairly well. The “Monitor” was launched at Greenpoint, Long Island, on the 30th of January, and was turned over to the government on the 19th of the following month. The building of the two vessels was practically a race between the two combatants.

On the 8th of March about 1P.M., the “Merrimac,” commanded by Commodore Franklin Buchanan (1795-1871), steamed down the Elizabeth accompanied by two one-gun gun-boats, to engage the wooden fleet of the Federals, consisting of the frigate “Congress,” 50 guns, and the sloop “Cumberland,” 30 guns, both sailing vessels, anchored off Newport News, andthe steam frigates “Minnesota,” and “Roanoke,” the sailing frigate “St Lawrence,” and several gun-boats, anchored off Fortress Monroe. Actual firing began about 2 o’clock, when the “Merrimac” was nearly a mile from the “Congress” and the “Cumberland.” Passing the first of these vessels with terrific broadsides, the “Merrimac” rammed the “Cumberland” and then turned her fire again on the “Congress,” which in an attempt to escape ran aground and was there under fire from three other Confederate gun-boats which had meanwhile joined the “Merrimac.” About 3.30P.M.the “Cumberland,” which, while it steadily careened, had been keeping up a heavy fire at the Confederate vessels, sank, with “her pennant still flying from the topmast above the waves.” Between 4 and 4.30 the “Congress,” having been raked fore and aft for nearly an hour by the “Merrimac,” was forced to surrender. While directing a fire of hot shot to burn the “Congress,” Commodore Buchanan of the “Merrimac” was severely wounded and was succeeded in the command by Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones. The Federal steam frigates, “Roanoke,” “St Lawrence” and “Minnesota” had all gone aground in their trip from Old Point Comfort toward the scene of battle, and only the “Minnesota” was near enough (about 1 m.) to take any part in the fight. She was in such shallow water that the Confederate iron-clad ram could not get near her at ebb tide, and about 5 o’clock the Confederates postponed her capture until the next day and anchored off Sewell’s Point.

The “Monitor,” under Lieut. John Lorimer Worden (1818-1897). had left New York on the morning of the 6th of March; after a dangerous passage in which she twice narrowly escaped sinking, she arrived at Hampton Roads during the night of the 8th, and early in the morning of the 9th anchored near the “Minnesota.” When the “Merrimac” advanced to attack the “Minnesota,” the “Monitor” went out to meet her, and the battle between the iron-clads began about 9A.M.on the 9th. Neither vessel was able seriously to injure the other, and not a single shot penetrated the armour of either. The “Monitor” had the advantage of being able to out-manœuvre her heavier and more unwieldy adversary; but the revolving turret made firing difficult and communications were none too good with the pilot house, the position of which on the forward deck lessened the range of the two turret-guns. The machinery worked so badly that the revolution of the turret was stopped. After two hours’ fighting, the “Monitor” was drawn off, so that more ammunition could be placed in her turret. When the battle was renewed (about 11.30) the “Merrimac” began firing at the “Monitor’s” pilot house; and a little after noon a shot struck the sight-hole of the pilot house and blinded Lieut. Worden. The “Monitor” withdrew in the confusion consequent upon the wounding of her commanding officer; and the “Merrimac” after a short wait for her adversary steamed back to Norfolk. There were virtually no casualties on either side. After the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederates on the 9th of May Commodore Josiah Tattnall, then in command of the “Merrimac,” being unable to take her up the James, sank her. The “Monitor” was lost in a gale off Cape Hatteras on the 31st of December 1862.

Though the battle between the two vessels was indecisive, its effect was to “neutralize” the “Merrimac,” which had caused great alarm in Washington, and to prevent the breaking of the Federal blockade at Hampton Roads; in the history of naval warfare it may be regarded as marking the opening of a new era—the era of the armoured warship. On the 3rd of February 1865 near Fortress Monroe on board a steamer occurred the meeting of President Lincoln and Secretary Seward with Confederate commissioners which is known as the Hampton Roads Conference (seeLincoln, Abraham). At Sewell’s Point, on Hampton Roads, in 1907 was held the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition.

See James R. Soley,The Blockade and the Cruisers(New York, 1883);Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, vol. i. (New York, 1887); chap. ii. of Frank M. Bennett’sThe Monitor and the Navy under Steam(Boston, 1900); and William Swinton,Twelve Decisive Battles of the War(New York, 1867).

1For the idea of the low free-board and the revolving turret Ericsson was indebted to Theodore R. Timby (1819-1909), who in 1843 had filed a caveat for revolving towers for offensive or defensive warfare whether placed on land or water, and to whom the company building the “Monitor” paid $5000 royalty for each turret.

HAMSTER,a European mammal of the order Rodentia, scientifically known asCricetus frumentarius(orC. cricetus), and belonging to the mouse tribe,Muridae, in which it typifies the sub-familyCricetinae. The essential characteristic of the Cricetines is to be found in the upper cheek-teeth, which (as shown in the figure of those ofCricetusin the articleRodentia) have their cusps arranged in two longitudinal rows separated by a groove. The hamsters, of which there are several kinds, are short-tailed rodents, with large cheek-pouches, of which the largest is the commonC. frumentarius. Their geographical distribution comprises a large portion of Europe and Asia north of the Himalaya. All the European hamsters show more or less black on the under-parts, but the small species from Central Asia, which constitute distinct subgenera, are uniformly grey. The common species is specially interesting on account of its habits. It constructs elaborate burrows containing several chambers, one of which is employed as a granary, and filled with corn, frequently of several kinds, for winter use. As a rule, the males, females, and young of the first year occupy separate burrows. During the winter these animals retire to their burrows, sleeping the greater part of the time, but awakening about February or March, when they feed on the garnered grain. They are very prolific, the female producing several litters in the year, each consisting of over a dozen blind young; and these, when not more than three weeks old, are turned out of the parental burrow to form underground homes for themselves. The burrow of the young hamster is only about a foot in depth, while that of the adult descends 4 or 5 ft. beneath the surface. On retiring for the winter the hamster closes the various entrances to its burrow, and becomes torpid during the coldest period. Although feeding chiefly on roots, fruits and grain, it is also to some extent carnivorous, attacking and eating small quadrupeds, lizards and birds. It is exceedingly fierce and pugnacious, the males especially fighting with each other for possession of the females. The numbers of these destructive rodents are kept in check by foxes, dogs, cats and pole-cats, which feed upon them. The skin of the hamster is of some value, and its flesh is used as food. Its burrows are sought after in the countries where it abounds, both for capturing the animal and for rifling its store. America, especially North America, is the home of by far the great majority ofCricetinae, several of which are called white-footed or deer-mice. They are divided into numerous genera and the number of species is very large indeed. Both in size and form considerable variability is displayed, the species ofHolochilusbeing some of the largest, while the common white-footed mouse (Eligmodon leucopus) of North America is one of the smaller forms. Some kinds, such asOryzomysandPeromyscushave long, rat-like tails, while others, likeAcodon, are short-tailed and more vole-like in appearance. In habits some are partially arboreal, others wholly terrestrial, and a few more or less aquatic. Among the latter, the most remarkable are the fish-eating rats (Ichthyomys) of North-western South America, which frequent streams and feed on small fish. The Florida rice-rat (Sigmodon hispidus) is another well-known representative of the group. In the Old World the group is represented by the PersianCalomyscus, a near relative ofPeromyscus.

(R. L.*)

HANAPER,properly a case or basket to contain a “hanap” (O. Eng.hnæp: cf. Dutchnap), a drinking vessel, a goblet with a foot or stem; the term which is still used by antiquaries for medieval stemmed cups. The famous Royal Gold Cup in the British Museum is called a “hanap” in the inventory of Charles VI. of France. The word “hanaper” (Med. Lat.hanaperium) was used particularly in the English chancery of a wicker basket in which were kept writs and other documents, and hence it became the name of a department of the chancery, now abolished, under an officer known as the clerk or warden of the hanaper, into which were paid fees and other moneys for the sealing of charters, patents, writs, &c., and from which issued certain writs under the great seal (S. R. Scargill-Bird,Guide to the Public Records(1908). In Ireland it still survives in the office of the clerk of the crown and hanaper, from which are issued writs for the return of members of parliament for Ireland.From “hanaper” is derived the modern “hamper,” a wicker or rush basket used for the carriage of game, fish, wine, &c. The verb “to hamper,” to entangle, obstruct, hinder, especially used of disturbing the mechanism of a lock or other fastening so as to prevent its proper working, is of doubtful origin. It is probably connected with a root seen in the Icel.hemja, to restrain, and Ger.hemmen, to clog.

HANAU,a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, on the right bank of the Main, 14 m. by rail E. from Frankfort and at the junction of lines to Friedberg, Bebra and Aschaffenburg. Pop. (1905) 31,637. It consists of an old and a new town. The streets of the former are narrow and irregular, but the latter, founded at the end of the 16th century by fugitive Walloons and Netherlanders, is built in the form of a pentagon with broad streets crossing at right angles, and possesses several fine squares, among which may be mentioned the market-place, adorned with handsome fountains at the four corners. Among the principal buildings are the ancient castle, formerly the residence of the counts of Hanau; the church of St John, dating from the 17th century, with a handsome tower; the old church of St Mary, containing the burial vault of the counts of Hanau; the church in the new town, built by the Walloons in the beginning of the 17th century in the form of two intersecting circles; the Roman Catholic church, the synagogue, the theatre, the barracks, the arsenal and the hospital. Its educational establishments include a classical school, and a school of industrial art. There is a society of natural history and an historical society, both of which possess considerable libraries and collections. Hanau is the birthplace of the brothers Grimm, to whom a monument was erected here in 1896. In the neighbourhood of the town are the palace of Philippsruhe, with an extensive park and large orangeries, and the spa of Wilhelmsbad.

Hanau is the principal commercial and manufacturing town in the province, and stands next to Cassel in point of population. It manufactures ornaments of various kinds, cigars, leather, paper, playing cards, silver and platina wares, chocolate, soap, woollen cloth, hats, silk, gloves, stockings, ropes and matches. Diamond cutting is carried on and the town has also foundries, breweries, and in the neighborhood extensive powder-mills. It carries on a large trade in wood, wine and corn, in addition to its articles of manufacture.

From the number of urns, coins and other antiquities found near Hanau it would appear that it owes its origin to a Roman settlement. It received municipal rights in 1393, and in 1528 it was fortified by Count Philip III. who rebuilt the castle. At the end of the 16th century its prosperity received considerable impulse from the accession of the Walloons and Netherlanders. During the Thirty Years’ War it was in 1631 taken by the Swedes, and in 1636 it was besieged by the imperial troops, but was relieved on the 13th of June by Landgrave William V. of Hesse-Cassel, on account of which the day is still commemorated by the inhabitants. Napoleon on his retreat from Leipzig defeated the Germans under Marshal Wrede at Hanau, on the 30th of October 1813; and on the following day the allies vacated the town, when it was entered by the French. Early in the 15th century Hanau became the capital of a principality of the Empire, which on the death of Count Reinhard in 1451 was partitioned between the Hanau-Münzenberg and Hanau-Lichtenberg lines, but was reunited in 1642 when the elder line became extinct. The younger line received princely rank in 1696, but as it became extinct in 1736 Hanau-Münzenberg was joined to Hesse-Cassel and Hanau-Lichtenberg to Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1785 the whole province was united to Hesse-Cassel, and in 1803 it became an independent principality. In 1815 it again came into the possession of Hesse-Cassel, and in 1866 it was joined to Prussia.

See R. Wille,Hanau im dreissigjährigen Krieg(Hanau, 1886); and Junghaus,Geschichte der Stadt und des Kreises Hanau(1887).

HANBURY WILLIAMS, SIR CHARLES(1708-1759), English diplomatist and author, was a son of Major John Hanbury (1664-1734), of Pontypool, Monmouthshire, and a scion of an ancient Worcestershire family. His great-great-great-grand-father, Capel Hanbury, bought property at Pontypool and began the family iron-works there in 1565. His father John Hanbury was a wealthy iron-master and member of parliament, who inherited another fortune from his friend Charles Williams of Caerleon, his son’s godfather, with which he bought the Coldbrook estate, Monmouthshire. Charles accordingly took the name of Williams in 1729. He went to Eton, and there made friends with Henry Fielding, the novelist, and, after marrying in 1732 the heiress of Earl Coningsby, was elected M.P. for Monmouthshire (1734-1747) and subsequently for Leominster (1754-1759). He became known as one of the prominent gallants and wits about town, and following Pope he wrote a great deal of satirical light verse, includingIsabella, or the Morning(1740), satires on Ruth Darlington and Pulleney (1741-1742),The Country Girl(1742),Lessons for the Day(1742),Letter to Mr Dodsley(1743), &c. A collection of his poems was published in 1763 and of hisWorksin 1822. In 1746 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Dresden, which led to further employment in this capacity; and through Henry Fox’s influence he was sent as envoy to Berlin (1750), Dresden (1751), Vienna (1753), Dresden (1754) and St Petersburg (1755-1757); in the latter case he was the instrument for a plan for the alliance between England, Russia and Austria, which finally broke down, to his embarrassment. He returned to England, and committed suicide on the 2nd of November 1759, being buried in Westminster Abbey. He had two daughters, the elder of whom married William Capel, 4th earl of Essex, and was the mother of the 5th earl. The Coldbrook estates went to Charles’s brother, George Hanbury-Williams, to whose heirs it descended.

See William Coxe’sHistorical Tour in Monmouthshire(1801), and T. Seccombe’s article in theDict. Nat. Biog.with bibliography.

HANCOCK, JOHN(1737-1793), American Revolutionary statesman, was born in that part of Braintree, Massachusetts, now known as Quincy, on the 23rd of January 1737. After graduating from Harvard in 1754, he entered the mercantile house of his uncle, Thomas Hancock of Boston, who had adopted him, and on whose death, in 1764, he fell heir to a large fortune and a prosperous business. In 1765 he became a selectman of Boston, and from 1766 to 1772 was a member of the Massachusetts general court. An event which is thought to have greatly influenced Hancock’s subsequent career was the seizure of the sloop “Liberty” in 1768 by the customs officers for discharging, without paying the duties, a cargo of Madeira wine consigned to Hancock. Many suits were thereupon entered against Hancock, which, if successful, would have caused the confiscation of his estate, but which undoubtedly enhanced his popularity with the Whig element and increased his resentment against the British government. He was a member of the committee appointed in a Boston town meeting immediately after the “Boston Massacre” in 1770 to demand the removal of British troops from the town. In 1774 and 1775 he was president of the first and second Provincial Congresses respectively, and he shared with Samuel Adams the leadership of the Massachusetts Whigs in all the irregular measures preceding the War of American Independence. The famous expedition sent by General Thomas Gage of Massachusetts to Lexington and Concord on the 18th-19th of April 1775 had for its object, besides the destruction of materials of war at Concord, the capture of Hancock and Adams, who were temporarily staying at Lexington, and these two leaders were expressly excepted in the proclamation of pardon issued on the 12th of June by Gage, their offences, it was said, being “of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment.” Hancock was a member of the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1780, was president of it from May 1775 to October 1777, being the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, and was a member of the Confederation Congress in 1785-1786. In 1778 he commanded, as major-general of militia, the Massachusetts troops who participated in the Rhode Island expedition. He was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1779-1780, became the first governor of the state, and served from 1780 to 1785 and again from 1787 until his death. Althoughat first unfriendly to the Federal Constitution as drafted by the convention at Philadelphia, he was finally won over to its support, and in 1788 he presided over the Massachusetts convention which ratified the instrument. Hancock was not by nature a leader, but he wielded great influence on account of his wealth and social position, and was liberal, public-spirited, and, as his repeated election—the elections were annual—to the governorship attests, exceedingly popular. He died at Quincy, Mass., on the 8th of October 1793.

See Abram E. Brown,John Hancock, His Book(Boston, 1898), a work consisting largely of extracts from Hancock’s letters.

HANCOCK, WINFIELD SCOTT(1824-1886), American general, was born on the 14th of February 1824, in Montgomery county, Pa. He graduated in 1844 at the United States Military Academy, where his career was creditable but not distinguished. On the 1st of July 1844 he was breveted, and on the 18th of June 1846 commissioned second lieutenant. He took part in the later movements under Winfield Scott against the city of Mexico, and was breveted first lieutenant for “gallant and meritorious conduct.” After the Mexican war he served in the West, in Florida and elsewhere; was married in 1850 to Miss Almira Russell of St Louis; became first lieutenant in 1853, and assistant-quartermaster with the rank of captain in 1855. The outbreak of the Civil War found him in California. At his own request he was ordered east, and on the 23rd of September 1861 was made brigadier-general of volunteers and assigned to command a brigade in the Army of the Potomac. He took part in the Peninsula campaign, and the handling of his troops in the engagement at Williamsburg on the 5th of May 1862, was so brilliant that McClellan reported “Hancock was superb,” an epithet always afterwards applied to him. At the battle of Antietam he was placed in command of the first division of the II. corps, and in November he was made major-general of volunteers, and about the same time was promoted major in the regular army. In the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg (q.v.), Hancock’s division was on the right among the troops that were ordered to storm Marye’s Heights. Out of the 5006 men in his division 2013 fell. At Chancellorsville his division received both on the 2nd and the 3rd of May the brunt of the attack of Lee’s main army. Soon after the battle he was appointed commander of the II. corps.

The battle of Gettysburg (q.v.) began on the 1st of July with the defeat of the left wing of the Army of the Potomac and the death of General Reynolds. About the middle of the afternoon Hancock arrived on the field with orders from Meade to assume command and to decide whether to continue the fight there or to fall back. He decided to stay, rallied the retreating troops, and held Cemetery Hill and Ridge until the arrival of the main body of the Federal army. During the second day’s battle he commanded the left centre of the Union army, and after General Sickles had been wounded, the whole of the left wing. In the third day’s battle he commanded the left centre, upon which fell the full brunt of Pickett’s charge, one of the most famous incidents of the war. Hancock’s superb presence and power over men never shone more clearly than when, as the 150 guns of the Confederate army opened the attack he calmly rode along the front of his line to show his soldiers that he shared the dangers of the cannonade with them. His corps lost in the battle 4350 out of less than 10,000 fighting men. But it had captured twenty-seven Confederate battle flags and as many prisoners as it had men when the fighting ceased. Just as the Confederate troops reached the Union line Hancock was struck in the groin by a bullet, but continued in command until the repulse of the attack, and as he was at last borne off the field earnestly recommended Meade to make a general attack on the beaten Confederates. The wound proved a severe one, so that some six months passed before he resumed command.

In the battles of the year 1864 Hancock’s part was as important and striking as in those of 1863. At the Wilderness he commanded, during the second day’s fighting, half of the Union army; at Spottsylvania he had charge of the fierce and successful attack on the “salient”; at Cold Harbor his corps formed the left wing in the unsuccessful assault on the Confederate lines. In August he was promoted to brigadier-general in the regular army. In November, his old wound troubling him, he obtained a short leave of absence, expecting to return to his corps in the near future. He was, however, detailed to raise a new corps, and later was placed in charge of the “Middle Division.” It was expected that he would move towards Lynchburg, as part of a combined movement against Lee’s communications. But before he could take the field Richmond had fallen and Lee had surrendered. It thus happened that Hancock, who for three years had been one of the most conspicuous figures in the Army of the Potomac did not take part in its final triumph.

After the assassination of Lincoln, Hancock was placed in charge of Washington, and it was under his command that Booth’s accomplices were tried and executed. In July 1866 he was appointed major-general in the regular army. A little later he was placed in command of the department of the Missouri, and the year following assumed command of the fifth military division, comprising Louisiana and Texas. His policy, however, of discountenancing military trials and conciliating the conquered did not meet with approval at Washington, and he was at his own request transferred. Hancock had all his life been a Democrat. His splendid war record and his personal popularity caused his name to be considered as a candidate for the Presidency as early as 1868, and in 1880 he was nominated for that office by the Democrats; but he was defeated by his Republican opponent, General Garfield, though by the small popular plurality of seven thousand votes. He died at Governor’s Island, near New York, on the 9th of February 1886. Hancock was in many respects the ideal soldier of the Northern armies. He was quick, energetic and resourceful, reckless of his own safety, a strict disciplinarian, a painstaking and hard-working officer. It was on the field of battle, and when the fighting was fiercest, that his best qualities came to the front. He was a born commander of men, and it is doubtful if any other officer in the Northern army could get more fighting and more marching out of his men. Grant said of him, “Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command. He commanded a corps longer than any other, and his name was never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible.”

A biography of him has been written by General Francis A. Walker (New York, 1894). See alsoHistory of the Second Corps, by the same author (1886).

(F. H. H.)

HANCOCK,a city of Houghton county, Michigan, U.S.A., on Portage Lake, opposite Houghton. Pop. (1890) 1772; (1900) 4050, of whom 1409 were foreign-born; (1904) 6037; (1910) 8981. Hancock is served by the Mineral Range, the Copper Range, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic railways (the last two send their trains in over the Mineral Range tracks), and by steamboats through the Portage Lake Canal which connects with Lake Superior. Hancock is connected by a bridge and an electric line with the village of Houghton (pop. in 1910, 5113), the county-seat of Houghton county and the seat of the Michigan College of Mines (opened in 1886). Hancock has three parks, and a marine and general hospital. The city is the seat of a Finnish Lutheran Seminary—there are many Finns in and near Hancock, and a Finnish newspaper is published here. Hancock is in the Michigan copper region—the Quincy, Franklin and Hancock mines are in or near the city—and the mining, working and shipping of copper are the leading industries; among the city’s manufactures are mining machinery, lumber, bricks and beer. The municipality owns and operates the water-works. The electric-lighting plant, the gas plant and the street railway are owned by private corporations. Hancock was settled in 1859, was incorporated as a village in 1875, and was chartered as a city in 1903.

HAND, FERDINAND GOTTHELF(1786-1851). German classical scholar, was born at Plauen in Saxony on the 15th of February 1786. He studied at Leipzig, in 1810 became professorat the Weimar gymnasium, and in 1817 professor of philosophy and Greek literature in the university of Jena, where he remained till his death on the 14th of March 1851. The work by which Hand is chiefly known is his (unfinished) edition of the treatise of Horatius Tursellinus (Orazio Torsellino, 1545-1599) on the Latin particles (Tursellinus, seu de particulis Latinis commentarii, 1829-1845). Like his treatise on Latin style (Lehrbuch des lateinischen Stils, 3rd ed. by H. L. Schmitt, 1880), it is too abstruse and philosophical for the use of the ordinary student. Hand was also an enthusiastic musician, and in hisÄsthetik der Tonkunst(1837-1841) he was the first to introduce the subject of musical aesthetics.

The first part of the last-named work has been translated into English by W. E. Lawson (Aesthetics of Musical Art, orThe Beautiful in Music, 1880), and B. Sears’sClassical Studies(1849) contains a “History of the Origin and Progress of the Latin Language,” abridged from Hand’s work on the subject. There is a memoir of his life and work by G. Queck (Jena, 1852).

HAND(a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger.Hand, Goth.handus), the terminal part of the human arm from below the wrist, and consisting of the fingers and the palm. The word is also used of the prehensile termination of the limbs in certain other animals (seeAnatomy:Superficial and artistic;Skeleton:Appendicular, and such articles asMuscular SystemandNervous System). There are many transferred applications of “hand,” both as a substantive and in various adverbial phrases. The following may be mentioned: charge or authority, agency, source, chiefly in such expressions as “in the hands of,” “by hand,” “at first hand.” From the position of the hands at the side of the body, the word means “direction,”e.g., on the right, left hand, cf. “at hand.” The hand as given in betrothal or marriage has been from early times the symbol of marriage as it also is of oaths. Other applications are to labourers engaged in manual occupations, the members of the crew of a ship, to a person who has some special skill, as in the phrase, “old parliamentary hand,” and to the pointers of a clock or watch and to the number of cards dealt to each player in a card game. As a measure of length the term “hand” is now only used in the measurement of horses, it is equal to 4 in. The name “hand of glory,” is given to a hand cut from the corpse of a hanged criminal, dried in smoke, and used as a charm or talisman, for the finding of treasures, &c. The expression is the translation of the Fr.main de gloire, a corruption of the O. Fr.mandegloire,mandegoire,i.e.mandragore, mandragora, the mandrake, to the root of which many magical properties are attributed.

HANDEL, GEORGE FREDERICK(1685-1759), English musical composer, German by origin, was born at Halle in Lower Saxony, on the 23rd of February 1685. His name was Handel, but, like most 18th-century musiciansLife.who travelled, he compromised with its pronunciation by foreigners, and when in Italy spelt it Hendel, and in England (where he became naturalized) accepted the version Handel, which is therefore correct for English writers, while Händel remains the correct version in Germany. His father was a barber-surgeon, who disapproved of music, and wished George Frederick to become a lawyer. A friend smuggled a clavichord into the attic, and on this instrument, which is inaudible behind a closed door, the little boy practised secretly. Before he was eight his father went to visit a son by a former marriage who was a valet-de-chambre to the duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. The little boy begged in vain to go also, and at last ran after the carriage on foot so far that he had to be taken. He made acquaintance with the court musicians and contrived to practise on the organ when he could be overheard by the duke, who, immediately recognizing his talent, spoke seriously to the father, who had to yield to his arguments. On returning to Halle Handel became a pupil of Zachau, the cathedral organist, who gave him a thorough training as a composer and as a performer on keyed instruments, the oboe and the violin. Six very good trios for two oboes and bass, which Handel wrote at the age of ten, are extant; and when he himself was shown them by an English admirer who had discovered them, he was much amused and remarked, “I wrote like the devil in those days, and chiefly for the oboe, which was my favourite instrument.” His master also of course made him write an enormous amount of vocal music, and he had to produce a motet every week. By the time he was twelve Zachau thought he could teach him no more, and accordingly the boy was sent to Berlin, where he made a great impression at the court.

His father, however, thought fit to decline the proposal of the elector of Brandenburg, afterwards King Frederick I. of Prussia, to send the boy to Italy in order afterwards to attach him to the court at Berlin. German court musicians, as late as the time of Mozart, had hardly enough freedom to satisfy a man of independent character, and the elder Händel had not yet given up hope of his son’s becoming a lawyer. Young Handel, therefore, returned to Halle and resumed his work with Zachau. In 1697 his father died, but the boy showed great filial piety in finishing the ordinary course of his education, both general and musical, and even entering the university of Halle in 1702 as a law student. But in that year he succeeded to the post of organist at the cathedral, and after his “probation” year in that capacity he departed to Hamburg, where the only German opera worthy of the name was flourishing under the direction of its founder, Reinhold Keiser. Here he became friends with Matheson, a prolific composer and writer on music. On one occasion they set out together to go to Lübeck, where a successor was to be appointed to the post left vacant by the great organist Buxtehude, who was retiring on account of his extreme age. Handel and Matheson made much music on this occasion, but did not compete, because they found that the successful candidate was required to accept the hand of the elderly daughter of the retiring organist.

Another adventure might have had still more serious consequences. At a performance of Matheson’s operaCleopatraat Hamburg, Handel refused to give up the conductor’s seat to the composer when the latter returned to his usual post at the harpsichord after singing the part of Antony on the stage. The dispute led to a duel outside the theatre, and, but for a large button on Handel’s coat which intercepted Matheson’s sword, there would have been noMessiahorIsrael in Egypt. But the young men remained friends, and Matheson’s writings are full of the most valuable facts for Handel’s biography. He relates in hisEhrenpfortethat his friend at that time used to compose “interminable cantatas” of no great merit; but of these no traces now remain, unless we assume that aPassion according to St John, the manuscript of which is in the royal library at Berlin, is among the works alluded to. But its authenticity, while strongly upheld by Chrysander, has recently been as strongly assailed on internal evidence.

On the 8th of January 1705, Handel’s first opera,Almira, was performed at Hamburg with great success, and was followed a few weeks later by another work, entitledNero.Nerois lost, butAlmira, with its mixture of Italian and German language and form, remains as a valuable example of the tendencies of the time and of Handel’s eclectic methods. It contains many themes used by Handel in well-known later works; but the current statement that the famous aria inRinaldo, “Lascia ch’io pianga,” comes from a saraband inAlmira, is based upon nothing more definite than the inevitable resemblance between the simplest possible forms of saraband-rhythm.

In 1706 Handel left Hamburg for Italy, where he remained for three years, rapidly acquiring the smooth Italian vocal style which hereafter always characterized his work. He had before this refused offers from noble patrons to send him there, but had now saved enough money, not only to support his mother at home, but to travel as his own master. He divided his time in Italy between Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice; and many anecdotes are preserved of his meetings with Corelli, Lotti, Alessandro Scarlatti and Domenico Scarlatti, whose wonderful harpsichord technique still has a direct bearing on some of the most modern features of pianoforte style. Handel soon became famous asIl Sassone(“the Saxon”), and it is said that Domenico on first hearing him play incognito exclaimed,“It is either the devil or the Saxon!” Then there is a story of Corelli’s coming to grief over a passage in Handel’s overture toIl Trionfo del tempo, in which the violins went up to A in altissimo. Handel impatiently snatched the violin to show Corelli how the passage ought to be played, and Corelli, who had never written or played beyond the third position in his life (this passage being in the seventh), said gently, “My dear Saxon, this music is in the French style, which I do not understand.” In Italy Handel produced two operas,RodrigoandAgrippina, the latter a very important work, of which the splendid overture was remodelled forty-four years afterwards as that of his last original oratorio,Jephtha. He also produced two oratorios,La Resurrezione, andIl Trionfo del tempo. This, forty-six years afterwards, formed the basis of his last work.The Triumph of Time and Truth, which contains no original matter. All Handel’s early works contain material that he used often with very little alteration later on, and, though the famous “Lascia ch’io pianga” does not occur in Almira, it occurs note for note inAgrippinaand the two Italian oratorios. On the other hand the cantataAci, Galattea e Polifemohas nothing in common withAcis and Galatea. Besides these larger works there are several choral and solo cantatas of which the earliest, such as the greatDixit Dominus, show in their extravagant vocal difficulty how radical was the change which Handel’s Italian experience so rapidly effected in his methods.

Handel’s success in Italy established his fame and led to his receiving at Venice in 1709 the offer of the post of Kapellmeister to the elector of Hanover, transmitted to him by Baron Kielmansegge, his patron and staunch friend of later years. Handel at the time contemplated a visit to England, and he accepted this offer on condition of leave of absence being granted to him for that purpose. To England accordingly Handel journeyed after a short stay at Hanover, arriving in London towards the close of 1710. He came as a composer of Italian opera, and earned his first success at the Haymarket withRinaldo, composed, to the consternation of the hurried librettist, in a fortnight, and first performed on the 24th of February 1711. In this opera the aria “Lascia ch’io pianga” found its final home. The work was produced with the utmost magnificence, and Addison’s delightful reviews of it in theSpectatorpoked fun at it from an unmusical point of view in a way that sometimes curiously foreshadows the criticisms that Gluck might have made on such things at a later period. The success was so great, especially for Walsh the publisher, that Handel proposed that Walsh should compose the next opera, and that he should publish it. He returned to Hanover at the close of the opera season, and composed a good deal of vocal chamber music for the princess Caroline, the step-daughter of the elector, besides the instrumental works known to us as the oboe concertos. In 1712 Handel returned to London and spent a year with Andrews, a rich musical amateur, in Barn Elms, Surrey. Three more years were spent in Burlington, in the neighbourhood of London. He evidently was but little inclined to return to Hanover, in spite of his duties to the court there. Two Italian operas and theUtrecht Te Deumwritten by the command of Queen Anne are the principal works of this period. It was somewhat awkward for the composer when his deserted master came to London in 1714 as George I. of England. For some time Handel did not venture to appear at court, and it was only at the intercession of Baron Kielmansegge that his pardon was obtained. By his advice Handel wrote theWater Musicwhich was performed at a royal water party on the Thames, and it so pleased the king that he at once received the composer into his good graces and granted him a salary of £400 a year. Later Handel became music master to the little princesses and was given an additional £200 by the princess Caroline. In 1716 he followed the king to Germany, where he wrote a second German Passion to the popular poem of Brockes, a text which, divested of its worst features, forms the basis of several of the arias in Bach’sPassion according to St John. This was Handel’s last work to a German text.

On his return to England he entered the service of the duke of Chandos as conductor of his concerts, receiving a thousand pounds for his first oratorioEsther. The music which Handel wrote for performance at “Cannons,” the duke of Chandos’s residence at Edgware, is comprised in the first version ofEsther, Acis and Galatea, and the twelveChandos Anthems, which are compositions approximately in the same form as Bach’s church cantatas but without any systematic use of chorale tunes. The fashionable Londoner would travel 9 miles in those days to the little chapel of Whitchurch to hear Handel’s music, and all that now remains of the magnificent scene of these visits is the church, which is the parish church of Edgware. In 1720 Handel appeared again in a public capacity as impresario of the Italian opera at the Haymarket theatre, which he managed for the institution called the Royal Academy of Music. Senesino, a famous singer, to engage whom Handel especially journeyed to Dresden, was the mainstay of the enterprise, which opened with a highly successful performance of Handel’s operaRadamisto. To this time belongs the famous rivalry between Handel and Buononcini, a melodious Italian composer whom many thought to be the greater of the two. The controversy has been perpetuated in John Byrom’s lines:

“Some say, compared to BuononciniThat Mynheer Handel’s but a ninny;Others aver that he to HandelIs scarcely fit to hold a candle.Strange all this difference should beTwixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.”

“Some say, compared to Buononcini

That Mynheer Handel’s but a ninny;

Others aver that he to Handel

Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.

Strange all this difference should be

Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.”

It must be remembered that at this time Handel had not yet asserted his greatness as a choral writer; the fashionable ideas of music and musicianship were based entirely upon success in Italian opera, and the contest between the rival composers was waged on the basis of works which have fallen into almost as complete an oblivion in Handel’s case as in Buononcini’s. None of Handel’s forty-odd Italian operas can be said to survive, except in some two or three detached arias out of each opera; arias which reveal their essential qualities far better in isolation than when performed in groups of between twenty and thirty on the stage, as interruptions to the action of a classical drama to which nobody paid the slightest attention. But even within these limits Handel’s artistic resources were too great to leave the issue in doubt; and when Handel wrote the third act of an operaMuzio Scevola, of which Buononcini and Ariosti1wrote the other two, his triumph was decisive, especially as Buononcini soon got into discredit by failing to defend himself against the charge of producing as a prize-madrigal of his own a composition which proved to be by Lotti. At all events Buononcini left London, and Handel for the next ten years was without a rival in his ventures as an operatic composer. He was not, however, without a rival as an impresario; and the hostile competition of a rival company which obtained the services of the great Farinelli and also induced Senesino to desert him, led to his bankruptcy in 1737, and to an attack of paralysis caused by anxiety and overwork. The rival company also had to be dissolved from want of support, so that Handel’s misfortunes must not be attributed to any failure to maintain his position in the musical world. Handel’s artistic conscience was that of the most easy-going opportunist, or he would never have continued till 1741 to work in a field that gave so little scope for his genius. But the public seemed to want operas, and, if opera had no scope for his genius, at all events he could supply better operas with greater rapidity and ease than any three other living composers working together. And this he naturally continued to do so long as it seemed to be the best way to keep up his reputation. But with all this artistic opportunism he was not a man of tact, and there are numerous stories of the type of his holding the great primadonna donna Cuzzoni at arm’s-length out of a window and threatening to drop her unless she consented to sing a song which she had declared unsuitable to her style.

Already before his last opera,Deidamia, produced in 1741, Handel had been making a growing impression with his oratorios.In these, freed from the restrictions of the stage, he was able to give scope to his genius for choral writing, and so to develop, or rather revive, that art of chorus singing which is the normal outlet for English musical talent. In 1726 Handel had become a naturalized Englishman, and in 1733 he began his public career as a composer of English texts by producing the second and larger version ofEstherat the King’s theatre. This was followed early in the same year byDeborah, in which the share of the chorus is much greater. In July he producedAthaliaat Oxford, the first work in which his characteristic double choruses appear. The share of the chorus increases inSaul(1738); andIsrael in Egypt(also 1738) is practically entirely a choral work, the solo movements, in spite of their fame, being as perfunctory in character as they are few in number. It was not unnatural that the public, who still considered Italian opera the highest, because the most modern form of musical art, obliged Handel at subsequent performances of this gigantic work to insert more solos.

TheMessiahwas produced at Dublin on the 13th of April 1742.Samson(which Handel preferred to theMessiah) appeared at Covent Garden on the 2nd of March 1744;Belshazzarat the King’s theatre, 27th of March 1745; theOccasional Oratorio(chiefly a compilation of the earlier oratorios, but with a few important new numbers), on the 14th of February 1746 at Covent Garden, where all his later oratorios were produced;Judas Maccabaeuson the 1st of April 1747;Joshuaon the 9th of March 1748;Alexander Baluson the 23rd of March 1748; Solomon on the 17th of March 1749;Susanna, spring of 1749;Theodora, a great favourite of Handel’s, who was much disappointed by its cold reception, on the 16th of March 1750;Jephtha(strictly speaking, his last work) on the 26th of February 1752, andThe Triumph of Time and Truth(transcribed fromIl Trionfo del tempowith the addition of many later favourite numbers), 1757. Other important works, indistinguishable in artistic form from oratorios, but on secular subjects, areAlexander’s Feast, 1736;Ode for St Cecilia’s Day(words by Dryden);L’Allegro, il pensieroso ed il moderato(the words of the third part by Jennens), 1740;Semele, 1744;Hercules, 1745; andThe Choice of Hercules, 1751.

By degrees the enmity against Handel died away, though he had many troubles. In 1745 he had again become bankrupt; for, although he had no rival as a composer of choral music it was possible for his enemies to give balls and banquets on the nights of his oratorio performances. As with his first bankruptcy, so in his later years, he showed scrupulous sense of honour in discharging his debts, and he continued to work hard to the end of his life. He had not only completely recovered his financial position by the year 1750, but he must have made a good deal of money, for he then presented an organ to the Foundling Hospital, and opened it with a performance of theMessiahon the 15th of May. In 1751 his sight began to trouble him; and the autograph ofJephtha, published in facsimile by theHändelgesellschaft, shows pathetic traces of this in his handwriting,2and so affords a most valuable evidence of his methods of composition, all the accompaniments, recitatives, and less essential portions of the work being evidently filled in long after the rest. He underwent unsuccessful operations, one of them by the same surgeon who had operated on Bach’s eyes. There is evidence that he was able to see at intervals during his last years, but his sight practically never returned after May 1752. He continued superintending performances of his works and writing new arias for them, or inserting revised old ones, and he attended a performance of theMessiaha week before his death, which took place, according to thePublic Advertiserof the 16th of April, not on Good Friday, the 13th of April, according to his own pious wish and according to common report, but on the 14th of April 1759. He was buried in Westminster Abbey; and his monument is by L. F. Roubilliac, the same sculptor who modelled the marble statue erected in 1739 in Vauxhall Gardens, where his works had been frequently performed.

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