Handel's Humble Librettist

by Grant Dexter
Winnipeg Free Press, December, 1961

This was not always so. The Messiah was produced at Dublin in April, 1742. The second production was almost a year later at London.

But certainly for a hundred years The Messiah was an accepted part of the celebration of Christ's birth in the English-speaking world.

Much has been written of the music of this, the most popular and enduring of all oratorios. Handel, an Englishman by naturalization, has been acclaimed for The Messiah by the great masters as well as by the millions who find in his music the perfect medium for devotion.

But this article is not concerned with Handel. The Messiah was the work of two men of towering genius. One, Handel, is honored by us all. The other, Dr. Pooley, of Gopsall, Leicestershire, is scarcely known. Most reference works ignore the point. The Oxford Companion to Music is silent. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians has but a passing reference to him. Only a few scholars, like the late George Sampson, author of the Cambridge History of English Literature, are more knowledgeable and kindlier.

The Man commonly supposed to have made the selection of passages from the Old and New Testaments … which inspired Handel to write the music … was Charles Jennens, also of Gopsall. Jennens was a wealthy, overbearing, arrogant, undesirable person. In literary matters, as Sampson points out, Jennens was "shallow and showy." Believing himself greater than Shakespeare he re-wrote and published three of the plays-a classic display of vanity.

No, the true partner, although Handel never knew it, was Dr. Pooley, chaplain and secretary to the wealthy Jennens -- a deeply devout, able, but poor, self-effacing, humble clergyman. Jennens falsely claimed the credit. Pooley was content with the result.

Few read the text of The Messiah as literature and therefore few realize how close this narrative of Christ's birth and life comes to the great mystery of religion. Few trace the passages back to their sources and discover how widely Pooley ranged in his selection.

• Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned. Isaiah 40:1
• The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill be made low, and the crooked straight and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 40: 3-5
• Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts: Yet once a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Haggai 2:6-7
• But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like the refiner's fire, and he shall purify the sons of Levi that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:2
• Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah 7:14
• O Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain. O Thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion. Isaiah 40:9
• Arise, shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee and His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isaiah 60:1,2
• The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Isaiah 9:2
• For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
• There were shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:8-11
• And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:13,14
• Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee. Zechariah 9:9
• He is the righteous Saviour, he shall speak peace unto the heathen. Zechariah 9:10
• Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. Isaiah 35: 5,6
• He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Isaiah 40:11
• Come unto him, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and He will give you rest. Take his yoke upon you and learn of him; for he is meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30
• Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29
• He was despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Isaiah 53:3
• He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; he hid not his face from shame and spitting. Isaiah 50:6
• Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4-6
• All they that see him laugh him to scorn; they shoot out their lips and shake their heads saying, he trusted in God that he would deliver him; let him deliver him if he delight in him. Psalm 22:7-8
• Thy rebuke hath broken his heart, he is full of heaviness. He looked for some to have pity on him but there was no man, neither found he any to comfort him. Psalm 69:20
• Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow. Lamentations 1:12
• He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of they people was he stricken. Isaiah 53:8
• But thou didst not leave his soul in hell; nor didst thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Psalm 16:10
• Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye left up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. Psalm 24:7-10
• The Lord gave the word: great was the company of the preachers. Psalm 68:11
• How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Isaiah 53:7
• Their sound is gone out into all lands and their words unto the ends of the world. Romans 10:18
• Why do the nations so furiously rage together? Why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their yokes from us. Psalm 2:1-3
• He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn, the Lord shall have them in derision. Psalm 2:4
• Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Psalm 2:9
• Hallelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Revelation 19:6
• The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign for ever and ever. Revelation 11:15
• I know that my redeemer liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Job 19:25-26
• For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep. Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. I Corinthians 15:20-22
• Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall all be changed. For this corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. I Corinthians 15:51-53
• Worthy is the lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen, amen. Revelations 5:12-13

And yet there may have been changes. The passage from the 68th psalm on "the company of the preachers" is not, like the rest, taken from the King James version. Perhaps Handel made this alteration to suit his music.

Hebrew scholars point out that the opening chords, leading to the tenor aria, "Comfort Ye," are an exact reproduction of the rhythm if the passage is recited in Hebrew. Yet Handel, as far as is known, knew nothing of Hebrew.

Again, the Deity never speaks in The Messiah as he does in the Bach Passions. It is not "Come unto Me" but "Come unto Him."

But there is no wish to discuss individual numbers. There were two aspects to the England of the eighteenth century. It was the age of elegance and affectation. It was, as well, the age of devotion -- of the Wesleys, of Whitefield and of the great hymn-writers. The Messiah is the pinnacle of eighteenth century devotion and it has held its place over the centuries. This Christmas season, like all before it, The Messiah will be heard all over the English-speaking world.

George Sampson has a final word: "There is one" (song) "that stands above all, so great an affirmation that they put the first words of it on Handel's monument in the Abbey. What those mysterious sentences from the Book of Job literally mean, the agitated marginal notes of translators and commentators leave us in some doubt. They were written, perhaps, about the time at which Aeschylus was writing Prometheus. Prometheus had a saving secret; but so had Job, and it saved him. The secret of Prometheus does not concern us; the secret of Job concerns us deeply and Handel's musical genius makes it clear to us: it is Faith, the greatest of God's gifts to man, the one gift that not God himself could take away from Job -- Faith, which survives affliction and calamity, bodily torment and destruction, which annihilates the attorney's notion of evidence, which defeats the devil himself, and animates the soul of man forever. The words are old, but Handel has made of them one of the most divine songs of the eighteenth century: 'I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God'"

Shirley (Dann) Madany was Grant Dexter's private secretary until she married Bassam Madany in 1953. Gradually their life work developed into an Arabic radio ministry to North Africa and the Middle East, from 1958 to 1994. Grant Dexter never lost touch and in a letter written a few months before his death he said: "I wished to reply at length as I am just as keenly interested in you and yours as ever, but I find it hard to write. I can't see well enough to hit the proper keys on the typewriter or to write as legibly as in the old days. However, if anyone can read this writing, it will be you." In an earlier letter he said: "I note your sense of mission. You and Bassam must not set your sights too high. There are a lot of Muslims in your part of the world. They have been there quite a time and may persist for quite a time to come. Don't break your hearts trying too hard. Enjoy each other and the deep and lasting spiritual blessings of your home life. All our love, Grant"