#20 Handel's Messiah

Mrs. Delaney, the good friend: Another woman who played an important role in Handel’s life was Mary Delaney or Mary Pendarves. The reason for calling attention to her in this advent calendar is that she had been trying to convince Handel for a long time that if he would only go to Dublin, everything was going to be alright. And she spoke from experience. For both Handel, Cibber and Mary Pendarves Dublin became the city of fresh starts.
Music: Dunedin Consort ‘Handel’s Original Dublin Version 1742’

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the twentieth episode of Handel's Messiah, a
podcast Advan Calendar. We have heard quite a bit about

(00:30):
Susanna Sibba in this advent Calendar. However, hers was not
the only female company that Handel enjoyed. There has been
much guessing throughout musical history about Handel's sexuality. I have
no intentions of analyzing that in this Advent Calendar. But
another woman who played an important role in Handel's life

(00:52):
was Mary Delaney or Mary Pindarve's. The reason for calling
attention to her in this Advent Calendar is that she
had been trying to convince Handel for a long time
that if he would only go to Dublin, everything was
going to be all right, and she spoke from experience.
For both Handel Sibber and Mary pin Doves, Dublin became

(01:16):
the city of fresh starts. Mary pan Doves and Handel
were almost neighbors in Brook Street in London. Mary first
heard Handel play when she was ten, and she was
a fan. She rarely missed a performance of Handel's music
and was a musical talent herself on the Harvest Court. However,
because she was a woman, she was only allowed to

(01:38):
play in private settings and never performed in public. As
a child, Mary took lessons in French music, embroidery and
dancing because her family had ambitions for her to become
made of honor at Queen Anne's court. When the Queen
died and George the First became king, these plans were

(01:59):
about and they moved to an estate in the country.
At the age of seventeen, Mary got married to the
sixty year old Alexander Pandalves against her will. However, her
parents were dependent on the money from a rich uncle,
and that very same rich uncle had political ambitions which

(02:20):
Alexander Pandalves could further. The marriage was a disaster from
the beginning. When Alexander Pandalves died six years later, he
didn't leave his young wife a single penny. As was
said about him, he had been way too busy drinking
to think about the future of his young wife. She

(02:42):
no longer had anywhere to live, but had to stay
with different family members, not that she minded in the least.
She was widowed at the age of twenty four, and
as a widow she could move much more freely in
society without a man. Constantly keeping an eye on her.
That Handel only had a few close friends, Mary pan

(03:43):
Doves was always one of his closest ones. In a
letter to her sister, Mary Pan Doves writes how one
evening she hosted a party where Handel played the Harvest
Chord and all of the guests, among them an Italian
opera singer, had sung all night. They drank hot chocolate
and spiced wine, and ate biscuits. When the guest had left,

(04:07):
Mary stayed up late with her brother, eating cold chicken
and chatting until one o'clock in the morning. No, Mary
pin Doves did not need any husband at all. From
seventeen thirty one, Mary started paying regular visits to Dublin,
where she would stay with friends and spend many interesting
hours having intellectual discussions with, among others, Jonathan Swift, whom

(04:32):
she had been introduced to by doctor Patrick Delaney. When
Delaney became a widower in seventeen forty three, he proposed
to Mary pin Doves. At the time, Mary was forty
three years old, but her family refused to let her
marry a parish priest, as she would be marrying far

(04:52):
beneath her station. However, Mary, who had been doing as
she liked for so many years, already married and came
missus Delaney. Throughout her life, Mary Delaney and Handel maintained
a close relationship. They often wrote to each other. Unfortunately,
Mary Delaney was not able to attend the premiere of

(05:13):
Messiah in Dublin, which she was really annoyed about. Despite
her being one of Handel's closest friends, she did not
and hide anything from him when he died because she
was a married woman and Handel was a bachelor, so
social etiquette dictated that it would be inappropriate to let
her and hide anything. So to marry Delaney, who had

(05:36):
once written an indignant letter about women being forced to
marry because otherwise they had no way of looking after
themselves financially, the difference between men and women must have
been confirmed yet again. Oh, I know it is christ

(06:05):
Brees f is christies a little bit. Let's I'm not
to see