Since then one knows what a number of editions of the _Messiah_ have appeared. The Schoelcher collection in the Paris Conservatoire has brought together sixty-six published between 1763-1869. [247] The character of Delilah is one of the most complex which Handel has created, and the parts of Samson and Harapha require exceptional voices. [248] Milton's poem had been adapted by Newburgh Hamilton. [249] The Battle of Dettingen took place on June 27, 1743. Handel had already finished on July 17 his _Te Deum_, which was solemnly performed on the following November 27 in Westminster Abbey. [250] Too slowly for the liking of Handel, who composed it bit by bit as the acts were sent him. There are five letters from him to Jennens dated June 9, July 19, August 21, September 13 and October 2, 1744, where he presses him to send at once the rest of the poem, expressing his own admiration for the second act, which he said provides new means of expression and furnishes the opportunity of giving some special ideas, "finally asking him to cut down the work a little, as it was too long" (see Schoelcher). [251] Handel wrote it during the forced pauses in the composition of _Belshazzar_, and produced it at the commencement of 1745. [252] The letters quite recently published throw much light on this troublous period in Handel's life (William Barclay-Squire: Handel in 1745, in the H. Riemann Festschrift, 1909, Leipzig). [253] Two examples of the song appear in the Schoelcher Collection at the Paris Conservatoire. Handel also wrote in July, 1746, for the return of the Duke of Cumberland, a song on the victory over the rebels by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, which was given at Vauxhall (a copy of this song also appears in the Schoelcher Collection). [254] Finished in the early days of December, 1745, and given in February, 1746. The text was founded partly on the Psalms of Milton and partly on the Bible. Handel inserted in the third part several of the finest pages from _Israel in Egypt_. In one of the solos the principal theme of Rule Britannia which was later to be composed by Arne appears. [255] The poem, very mediocre, was by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Morell, who was the librettist for the last oratorios of Handel. [256] It was not one of Handel's oratorios, of which the style was in the popular vein, and where one finds further grand ensembles and solos closely connected with the Chorus.