Charles Jennens
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Charles Jennens (1700 – 20 November 1773) was an English landowner and art patron. As a friend of
Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...
, he helped author the libretti of several of his
oratorio An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble. Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...
s, most notably ''
Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
''.


Life

Jennens was brought up at Gopsall Hall in Leicestershire, the son of Charles Jennens and his second wife, Elizabeth Burdett. He was educated at
Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...
, matriculating in 1716, but did not graduate. He was a devout Christian and a non-juror, upholding the legitimacy of the deposed Stuart line. He became interested in Primitive Apostolic (Sabbatarian) Christianity and
John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and p ...
. Jennens has been identified as an anti-
Deist Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin term '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...
.
Richard Kidder Richard Kidder (1633 – 26 November 1703) was an English Anglican churchman, Bishop of Bath and Wells, from 1691 to his death. He was a noted theologian. Biography He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was a sizar, from 16 ...
's book ''A Demonstration of the Messias'' influenced him. After his father's death in 1747, Jennens had Gopsall Hall completely rebuilt in the Palladian style, including within the estate an Ionic temple built in memory of his friend, the poet and classical scholar, Edward Holdsworth. Remaining unmarried, he was considered melancholic and extravagant, his neighbours calling him Solyman the Magnificent. As a non-juror, Jennens was ineligible for any public appointment, and he devoted himself to the arts, both as a collector of fine art (his collection was one of the best in Britain at the time) and a music patron.
George Frideric Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...
's compositions were very much to his musical taste and they became close friends. Handel visited him frequently at Gopsall Hall and in 1749 provided the specification for an organ for his home. Thomas Hudson's portrait of Handel was commissioned by Jennens – and the same artist's portrait of Charles Jennens is now in the Handel House Museum in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. He died on 20 November 1773. His memorial lies in Nether Whitacre Parish Church and was sculpted by Richard Hayward who also provided sculptures both in his London home at Great Ormond Street and at his country seat of Gopsall Park. After his death, Jennens' second cousin Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford, inherited his music library and much of it is now preserved in the Henry Watson Music Library at
Manchester Central Library Manchester Central Library is the headquarters of the city's library and information service in Manchester, England. Facing St Peter's Square, it was designed by E. Vincent Harris and constructed between 1930 and 1934. The form of the build ...
. It contains a large collection of manuscripts and published music by Handel and other contemporary composers, both English and Italian; there are 368 volumes of Handel manuscripts, and others include the autograph of
Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist, impresario of Baroque music and Roman Catholic priest. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lif ...
's "Manchester" violin sonatas and an early manuscript of '' The Four Seasons''. Jennens' extensive collection of books by
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, on literature,
philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
and theology was largely dispersed in a sale in 1918.


Collaboration with Handel

Jennens' deep knowledge of the Bible and wide literary interest led him, from 1735, to prepare or contribute to libretti for Handel. These included ''
Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...
'' (1735–39), '' L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato'' (1740–41), ''
Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
'' (1741–42), ''
Belshazzar Belshazzar ( Babylonian cuneiform: ''Bēl-šar-uṣur'', meaning " Bel, protect the king"; ''Bēlšaʾṣṣar'') was the son and crown prince of Nabonidus (), the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Through his mother, he might have been ...
'' (1744–45) and, possibly, '' Israel in Egypt'' (1738–39). The libretti were freely given and always published anonymously. ''Saul'' and ''Belshazzar'' are said to "show an impressive gift for dramatic structure and characterization and the ability to wield political analogies adroitly." Well versed in music as well as literature, he annotated his copies of Handel's operas, adding corrections, bass figures, rejected pieces and dates. It is also clear that on occasions Handel was prepared to accept Jennens' suggestions and improvements to his compositions. The most famous collaboration is Jennens' libretto for ''Messiah'', drawn entirely from the Bible, about 60 per cent from the Old Testament (with occasional small alterations). Musicologist Watkins Shaw describes it as "a meditation of our Lord as Messiah in Christian thought and belief", and which "amounts to little short of a work of genius". Some attribute ''Messiahs emphasis on the Old Testament – and choice of the Old Testament title "Messiah" – to Jennens' theological beliefs. Jennens was less than wholly approving of the musical setting, writing to Edward Holdsworth:
"I shall show you a collection I gave Handel, called ''Messiah'', which I value highly. He has made a fine entertainment of it, though not near so good as he might and ought to have done. I have with great difficulty made him correct some of the grossest faults in the composition; but he retained his overture obstinately, in which there are some passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the ''Messiah.''"


Editor of Shakespeare

In the early 1770s, Jennens commenced the preparation of scrupulous critical editions of Shakespeare plays, and the first time that these had been published individually and with editorial footnotes. He completed ''King Lear'', ''Hamlet'', ''Othello'', ''Macbeth'', and ''Julius Caesar'' before his death in 1773. These editions drew scorn, perhaps due to envy, from the Shakespeare editor George Steevens who severely attacked not only Jennens' work, but particularly his character: "The chief error of Mr. Jennens's life consisted in his perpetual association with a set of men every way inferior to himself. By these means he lost all opportunities of improvement, but gained what he preferred to the highest gratifications of wisdom – flattery in excess."


Family

Jennens was the grandson of Birmingham ironmaster Sir Humphrey Jennens, of Eddington Hall, Warwickshire. Charles Jennens' first cousin, William Jennens was described as the "richest commoner in England" when he died unmarried and intestate with a fortune estimated at £2 million (worth in excess of £230 million at 2015 rates). Charles Jennens' own fortune was inherited by his sister Elizabeth Jennens Hanmer (1692–1777). Elizabeth's daughter Esther Hanmer (1719–1764) married Assheton Curzon, 1st Viscount Curzon.Smith, R. (23 September 2004). Jennens, Charles (1700/01–1773), patron of the arts and librettist. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''


See also

* Letters and writings of George Frideric Handel


References


Further reading

* * Amanda Babington and Ilias Chrissochoidis, "Musical References in the Jennens–Holdsworth Correspondence (1729–46)," ''Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle'' 45:1 (2014), 76–129.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jennens, Charles 1700 births 1773 deaths Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford English opera librettists English oratorio and passion librettists English patrons of music 18th-century English landowners People from Hinckley and Bosworth (district) 18th-century English composers 18th-century English male musicians English male dramatists and playwrights 18th-century English philanthropists es:Charles Jennens#top