[202] The Director of the Drury Lane Theatre, Colley Cibber, produced, a month later, a farce called _The Contretemps, or The Rival Queens_, where the two singers were depicted tearing their chignons, and Handel saying in anger to them, whom he wished to separate, "Leave them alone, when they are tired their fury will spend itself out," and, in order that the strife might be definitely finished, he wound it up with great strokes on the drum. Handel's friend, Dr. Arbuthnot, also published on this subject one of his best pamphlets, "The Devil let loose at St. James's" (see Chrysander, Volume II). [203] The last representation at the Academy took place on June 1, 1728, with _Almeto_. [204] Amongst others, the accompanied recitative, the air _Da Capo_, the opera duets, the farewell scenes, the great prison scenes, the inconsequent ballads. Pepusch even took an air of Handel and parodied it. In the second act a band of robbers came together in the tavern, and solemnly defiled before their chiefs to the sound of the March of the Crusaders' Army in _Rinaldo_--_The Beggar's Opera_, given for the first time on January 29, 1728, was played all over England, and aroused violent polemics. Swift became a passionate champion for it. After the success appeared in the following years a number of operas with songs--Georgy Kalmas has dedicated a very complete article to _The Beggar's Opera_ in his _Sammelbände der I.M.G._ (January to March, 1907). [205] The first three books of the _Dunciad_ of Pope appeared in 1728; _The Voyages of Gulliver_ in 1726. Swift did not forget the musical folly in his satire on the kingdom of Lilliputia. [206] The Coronation Anthems comprised four hymns, of which we do not know the exact order. Handel arranged for their presentation at Westminster by forty-seven singers, and a very considerable orchestra. [207] _Riccardo I_, played in November of the same year (see p. 81), was also a national opera, dedicated to King George II, and celebrating, _apropos_ of Richard Coeur de Lion, the annals of Old England. [208] See page 48, note 4, the opinions held by Séré de Rieux. [209] Séré de Rieux: _les Dons les infants de Latone; la Musique et la Chasse du cerf_, poems dedicated to the King, 1734, Paris, p. 102-3. [210] During this voyage, where he sojourned a considerable time at Venice, he learned that his mother was stricken with paralysis. He hastened to Halle, so that he might see her again, but she could no longer see him. For several years she had been blind. She died the following year, December 27, 1730. Whilst Handel was at Halle watching over his mother, he received a visit from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who came on behalf of his father, to invite him to come to Leipzig. One can well understand that Handel declined the invitation under his sad circumstances.