Charles Jennens was born in Leicestershire and entered Balliol College Oxford in 1716, aged sixteen. The librettist of Handel's Messiah and other works, Jennens was a wealth, high-Tory gentleman who engaged in a literary quarrel with Samuel Johnson and George Steevens over editing Shakespeare — in which he proved no match for the scholars. In his Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) John Nichols reprints a vituperative character by Steevens and a copy of Jennens's will.
TEXT RECORDS:
1740Il Moderato.
PUBLICATIONS:
L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, ed il Moderato. 1740.
Belshazzar. An oratorio. 1745.
King Lear ... collated with the old and modern editions. 1770.
The tragedy of King Lear as lately published, vindicated. 1772.
Hamlet ... collated. 1773.
Macbeth ... collated. 1773.
Othello ... collated. 1773.
Julius Caesar ... collated. 1774.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Balliol College Oxford
editor
poet
Handel
Rev. Richard Jago
George Steevens
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Charles Jennens:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Charles Jennens:
