fashionable revolutionary. The more he worked, the more his traits were accentuated, and became permanent. As happens to all artists who enjoy too much success, this reacted on his art, and imposed on him the repetition of certain fixed patterns. The natural laziness of Bononcini only exaggerated this tendency, so that from year to year this affectedness appeared in his art, making it quite mechanical. His music, often beautiful and gracious, always harmonious, never expressive, unrolled itself as a succession of elegant and highly finished subjects, all cut out as if with scissors on the same pattern, and indefinitely repeated. At first in London one was only conscious of his charm. The personality of the musician added to the attractions of his music. The gentle Italian had polished manners, a quality at once lovable, and penetrated by a bold courage. He was a _virtuoso_ like Handel, but on an instrument more distinguished than the clavier--on the violoncello; and he was listened to with respect in the aristocratic _salons_. He was, so to speak, the author _à la mode_; and his _Astarto_,[196] given at the end of 1720, erased the impression made by Handel's _Radamisto_. Handel had his work cut out. He was not suited to strive with Bononcini on the ground of Italianism. However, he was up against the wall. The English public, always keen on bear fights, cock fights, and _virtuoso_ contests, amused themselves by arranging a joust between Bononcini and Handel. They were to be tested by an opera written in combination. Handel took up the glove--and was beaten. His _Muzio Scevola_[197] (March, 1721) is very feeble, and the _Floridante_ which followed (December 9, 1721) is little better. The success of the Italian increased his fame, and the pretty _Griselda_ (February, 1722) consummated Bononcini's glory. He benefited by the strenuous opposition of the English _littérateurs_, and the leading aristocrats, against the Hanoverian Court and the German artists.