ADVICE

TO

Mr. HANDEL:

Which may serve as an EPILOGUE to

ISRAEL in EGYPT.

 

GRiev’st thou, my Friend, that HARMONY has Foes?

That Spite and Ignorance Desert oppose?

Reflect; true Merit always Envy rais’d,

Who felt herself condemn’d, when That was prais’d.

In vain thou hop’st to charm with Sounds divine

The Fiend, who stops her Ears to Sounds like Thine;

Deaf to the Charmer’s Voice, tho’ ’ere so wise:

The more thy Art to sooth her Malice tries,

The more her Javelin of Detraction flies,

But flies in vain; her Javelin let her throw,

Superior Merit still eludes the Blow.

IF Vandal Ears with native Dulness curst,

Damn the best Musick, and applaud the worst:

If thou to dull P——ti [= Pescetti] quit the Field,

And * Bards inspir’d, to duller C——i [= Cori] yield;

Repine not but attend the sure Event,

And with the pleasing Prospect rest content.

THOU know’st the Rigour of Egyptian Law,

Exacting Brick, yet not allowing Straw.

Think on this Lot severe, and pity those

Who justly claim thy Pity, tho’ thy Foes,

By Hunger, without Genius, fated to Compose.

Pity th’ Egyptian Darkness of His Mind,

Who gropes for HARMONY, but cannot find.

Nay, pity us, once doom’d Two Hours to bear

Such Sounds, as Thou hast made us loath to hear.

FROM Day to Day thou shif’st thy flying Muse,

From Day to Day the Vandal Host pursues:

They cannot long; like Egypt, quickly drown’d,

Their own dull Weight shall sink ’em in the vast Profound.

Thou safe, like Israel, on the promis’d Shore,

Exult, enjoy the Wreck, nor fear their Insults more.

 

* Moses and David.[1]

 



[1] Harvard University Houghton Library, shelfmark *EB7.A100.739a; repr., David Hunter, “Advice to Mr. Handel,” Newsletter of the American Handel Society 12:3 (December 1997), 3, 6; facs., Ilias Chrissochoidis, “‘true Merit always Envy rais’d’: The Advice to Mr. Handel (1739) and Israel in Egypt’s early reception,” The Musical Times 150 ([no. 1906, Spring] 2009), 69-86: 71. See also Anthony Hicks, “Advice to Dr. Hunter: On his Exposition of the Advice to Mr. Handel,” Newsletter of the American Handel Society 13:2 (August 1998), 5.