When I was at the Handel House Museum recently I picked up a little biography of Balliol educated Charles Jennens by Ruth Smith, published by the museum. Illustrated throughout and on glossy paper it draws attention to the man who is most famous as the librettist for Handel's Messiah [1741-2, also Saul (1735-9), L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740-1), Belshazzar (1744-5) and, possibly, Israel in Egypt (1738-9)] He was also something of a Shakespeare buff and worked hard on his ancestral pile, Gopsal Hall in Leicestershire. He was a Non-juror and a high Anglican. Smith's thesis appears to be that he saw Handel as good vehicle for getting biblical material out to an unlikely crowd. Interesting intro. It would be nice to see a full theological analysis.
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