Note 48 — PREFACE.
Reading edition
“In the year 1740, the sublime genius of Handel roused our feelings from the lethargy into which they had fallen.”—Memoirs of the Irish Bards.
Banished from London by the intrigues of a party, Handel[49] fled to Ireland, where, with his friend Dubourg, the violin of his age, he was received with rapture. His first public exhibition in Dublin was the Messiah, which he performed for the benefit of the city prisons. Whoever had the happiness of knowing the late Richard Kirwan, the Irish philosopher, may judge of the enthusiasm of the travelled Irish gentlemen for Italian music, and the vogue which Piccini obtained through their means.