"Và, và, speme infida pur va non ti credo,"
forms the Fifth Number of Handel's celebrated Chamber Duets, and was first printed, I believe, by the late Dr. Samuel Arnold, in his noble edition of the Works of Handel.
The circumstances attending the composition of these chamber duets are thus alluded to in the anonymous Memoirs of Handel, 8vo., 1759, p. 85.:
"Soon after his [Handel's] return to Hanover [in the year 1711], he made twelve Chamber Duettos, for the practice of the late Queen, then Electoral Princess. The character of these is well known to the judges in music. The words for them were written by the Abbate Mauro Hortensio, who had not disdained on other occasions to minister to the masters of harmony."
I must, however, beg leave to express my opinion that MR. SPARROW's MS. is not an autograph of the great composer, on the ground that the original MSS. of the Chamber Duets are preserved in the Queen's library at Buckingham Palace. Handel used not to make more than one copy of his various pieces, unless (as was seldom the case) he made additions or alterations.
I should mention that a new edition of the Chamber Duets is now in the course of publication by the Handel Society.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Dr. Fell (Vol. v., p. 296.).
—Your correspondent, who inquires about the lines of which the above is the subject, may find some answer to his question in Life of Canning, by R. Bell, p. 193., where, after describing the various attempts of the Pitt party to get Addington to resign the premiership, it is said: "In vain Sheridan exhausted his wit upon Addington, and threw the House into convulsions by his parody on Martial:
"'I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,' &c."