DOI Heft:
June 24, 1865
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16875#0259
June 24, 1865.!
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
251
THE HANDEL PARLIAMENT.
IC sumus iterum—or, less classically speaking,
“here we are again: ” four thousand performers
X1 and more than forty thousand listeners, all pre-
D pared to take another turn with Handel. To
O r-JP\ those of us past thirty, it hardly seems three
years have passed since our last festival.. But
the years are as fugacious now as in the time of
Postumus, and they fly away the faster the older
that we grow.
The Handel Parliaments are triennial, as
everybody knows : this was one of the five points
in the charter which established them. Another
point was that the Parliaments should always
meet at Sydenham, seeing that its Palace is the
only place in England big enough to hold them.
Equality of districts—in the orchestra, that is—
was allotted to the singers, and no property
qualification was required in the electors, that
is, in the hearers who elected to be present-
further than the money which they paid for their
admission. Any one who has a half-guinea about
him, may readily obtain a seat in the Parliament
at Sydenham: and what he hears in the.three
days there will be far better worth listening to
than what is heard in any three months in the
Parliament at Westminster. There will never
be such harmony at St. Stephen’s as old Han-
del’s, even were Mu. Whalley to sing there
every evening.
Unlike the gentleman in ShaJcspeare, Mr. Punch
is ever merry when he hears sweet music: but
there is far too much of wisdom in his merri-
ment, for him simply to crack jokes about the
Handel Festival. Such music as our Handel
wrote, inspires a kind of .“awful mirth,” which
is more enjoyable than simple mundane merri-
ment. The pleasure that one feels in hearing, his
grand harmonies, not merely entertains the mind,
but raises and refines it. Handel said he wished
to make men better by his music; and surely
any one who listens to such sermons in tones
must feel the nearer, heaven for them. Sneer
as sceptics may, a religion must be heavenly to
inspire such heaven-born strains as those of the
Messiah.
After sentiments like these, Mr. Punch need
hardly say that, among his other gifts, he is
gifted with an ear—with two, in fact—for music.
It is not everybody who is similarly fortunate.
There are people in the world whose relish for
sweet sounds is limited to those which are
extractable from codfish, let even they, if they
be wise, will go and take a turn with Handel.
At the festival forthcoming there will be much
to please the eye, and not the hearing merely.
A deaf man and a blind one alike may find some
pleasure in it. The sight of that vast orchestra,
when filled with its four thousand, is quite
worth a trip to Sydenham, for it is not every day
one sees half an acre of white waistcoats.
When the Parliament assembles, the honour-
able Member for the kettledrums will take his
seat in front of them, and will be recognised no
doubt as a Chipp of the old block. The Members
for the ophicleide, the trombone, and the trumpet
will all be seated near him, and kept somewhat in the background, as people with much brass about them always ought to be. The front
seats will be occupied by Members who intend to play first fiddle in the Parliament, just as the front benches are occupied by those who
play first fiddle in the House. For the maintenance of order, Mr. Costa will preside, and, like the Speaker, lead the voices, while himself
remaining mute. Any one who fails to catch his eye at the right time will be pretty sure to “catch it” in quite another sense. Above
him some half mile or so—for one cannot speak with certainty in such a monstrous orchestra—a seat will be retained for the harmonious
Brownsmith, who perhaps, by way of interlude, will have his organ-bellows blown by the Harmonious Blacksmith.
Blow Handel would have loved to hear his music played as we who live now hear it! Two hundred were, in his time, a large body of
performers, and who would then have dreamed of hearing twenty times that number ? Yet this is how we now serve up the “ roast beef of
music,” as Handel’s has been christened; and when the four thousand all burst forth into sound, and “ the many rend the skies with loud
applause,” surely no one more than Handel would have enjoyed a sitting in the Handel Parliament.
Sailing Directions for the Bark of St. Peter.
How to assure safe voyage and quiet quarters
Unto St. Peter’s bark in English waters, ’
Ho wiseman here ? “ Try Manning ” is the cry :
“ If that don’t answer ? ” “ Then New-manning try.”
The Test of all Tests.
About the assault on Oxford tests.
Why make such a commotion?
Seeing the Bill would Oxford make
A very Land of Gos(c)hen.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
251
THE HANDEL PARLIAMENT.
IC sumus iterum—or, less classically speaking,
“here we are again: ” four thousand performers
X1 and more than forty thousand listeners, all pre-
D pared to take another turn with Handel. To
O r-JP\ those of us past thirty, it hardly seems three
years have passed since our last festival.. But
the years are as fugacious now as in the time of
Postumus, and they fly away the faster the older
that we grow.
The Handel Parliaments are triennial, as
everybody knows : this was one of the five points
in the charter which established them. Another
point was that the Parliaments should always
meet at Sydenham, seeing that its Palace is the
only place in England big enough to hold them.
Equality of districts—in the orchestra, that is—
was allotted to the singers, and no property
qualification was required in the electors, that
is, in the hearers who elected to be present-
further than the money which they paid for their
admission. Any one who has a half-guinea about
him, may readily obtain a seat in the Parliament
at Sydenham: and what he hears in the.three
days there will be far better worth listening to
than what is heard in any three months in the
Parliament at Westminster. There will never
be such harmony at St. Stephen’s as old Han-
del’s, even were Mu. Whalley to sing there
every evening.
Unlike the gentleman in ShaJcspeare, Mr. Punch
is ever merry when he hears sweet music: but
there is far too much of wisdom in his merri-
ment, for him simply to crack jokes about the
Handel Festival. Such music as our Handel
wrote, inspires a kind of .“awful mirth,” which
is more enjoyable than simple mundane merri-
ment. The pleasure that one feels in hearing, his
grand harmonies, not merely entertains the mind,
but raises and refines it. Handel said he wished
to make men better by his music; and surely
any one who listens to such sermons in tones
must feel the nearer, heaven for them. Sneer
as sceptics may, a religion must be heavenly to
inspire such heaven-born strains as those of the
Messiah.
After sentiments like these, Mr. Punch need
hardly say that, among his other gifts, he is
gifted with an ear—with two, in fact—for music.
It is not everybody who is similarly fortunate.
There are people in the world whose relish for
sweet sounds is limited to those which are
extractable from codfish, let even they, if they
be wise, will go and take a turn with Handel.
At the festival forthcoming there will be much
to please the eye, and not the hearing merely.
A deaf man and a blind one alike may find some
pleasure in it. The sight of that vast orchestra,
when filled with its four thousand, is quite
worth a trip to Sydenham, for it is not every day
one sees half an acre of white waistcoats.
When the Parliament assembles, the honour-
able Member for the kettledrums will take his
seat in front of them, and will be recognised no
doubt as a Chipp of the old block. The Members
for the ophicleide, the trombone, and the trumpet
will all be seated near him, and kept somewhat in the background, as people with much brass about them always ought to be. The front
seats will be occupied by Members who intend to play first fiddle in the Parliament, just as the front benches are occupied by those who
play first fiddle in the House. For the maintenance of order, Mr. Costa will preside, and, like the Speaker, lead the voices, while himself
remaining mute. Any one who fails to catch his eye at the right time will be pretty sure to “catch it” in quite another sense. Above
him some half mile or so—for one cannot speak with certainty in such a monstrous orchestra—a seat will be retained for the harmonious
Brownsmith, who perhaps, by way of interlude, will have his organ-bellows blown by the Harmonious Blacksmith.
Blow Handel would have loved to hear his music played as we who live now hear it! Two hundred were, in his time, a large body of
performers, and who would then have dreamed of hearing twenty times that number ? Yet this is how we now serve up the “ roast beef of
music,” as Handel’s has been christened; and when the four thousand all burst forth into sound, and “ the many rend the skies with loud
applause,” surely no one more than Handel would have enjoyed a sitting in the Handel Parliament.
Sailing Directions for the Bark of St. Peter.
How to assure safe voyage and quiet quarters
Unto St. Peter’s bark in English waters, ’
Ho wiseman here ? “ Try Manning ” is the cry :
“ If that don’t answer ? ” “ Then New-manning try.”
The Test of all Tests.
About the assault on Oxford tests.
Why make such a commotion?
Seeing the Bill would Oxford make
A very Land of Gos(c)hen.