Judas Maccabaeus, the Music Opera (1747)

JUDAS MACCABAEUS

A Sacred Drama, by Georg Friedrich Handel (1747) , Words by Thomas Morell

Cast of Characters
Judas Maccabaeus (tenor)
Simon, his Brother (bass)
Israelite Woman (soprano)
Israelite Man (mezzo-soprano)
Eupolemus, the Jewish Ambassador to Rome (alto)
First Messenger (alto)
Second Messenger (bass)
Chorus of Israelites
Chorus of Youths
Chorus of Virgins


ACT ONE

1. (Overture) Scene 1
Chorus of Israelites, men and women, lamenting the death of Mattathias, the father of Judas Maccabaeus.

2. Chorus of Israelites:
Mourn, ye afflicted children, the remains
Of captive Judah, mourn in solemn strains;
Your sanguine hopes of liberty give over,
Your hero, friend and father is no more.

3. (Recitative) Israelite Man:
Well, may your sorrows, brethren, flow
In all the expressive signs of woe:
Your softer garments tear,
And squalid sackcloth wear,
Your drooping heads with ashes strew,
And with the flowig tear your cheeks bedew.

Israelite Woman:
Daughters, let your distressful cries
And loud lament ascend the skies;
Your tender bosoms beat, and tear,
With hands remorseless, your dishevelled hair;
For pale and breathless Mattathias lies,
Sad emblem of his country's miseries!

4. (Duet) Israelite Woman and Man:
From this dread scene, these adverse powers,
Ah, whither shall we fly?
O Solyma! Thy boasted towers
In smoky ruins lie.

5. Chorus of Israelites:
For Sion lamentation make,
With words that weep, and tears that speak.

6. (Recitative) Israelite Man
Not vain is all this storm of grief;
To vent our sorrows, gives relief.
Wretched indeed! But let not Judah's race
Their ruin with desponding arms embrace.
Distractful doubt and desperation
Ill become the chosen nation,
Chosen by the great I AM,
The Lord of hosts, who, still the same,
We trust, will give attentive ear
To the sincerity of prayer.

7. (Air) Israelite Man
Pious orgies, pious airs,
Decent sorrow, decent pray'rs,
Will to the Lord ascend, and move
His pity, and regain His love.

8. Chorus of Israelites:
O Father, whose Almighty power
The Heavens, and earth, and seas adore;
The hearts of Judah, thy delight,
In one defensive band unite.
And grant a leader bold, and brave,
If not to conquer, born to save.

9. (Accompagnato) Simon:
I feel, I feel the deity within,
Who, the bright cherubim between,
His radiant glory erst displayed;
To Israel's distressful prayer
He hath vouchsafed a gracious ear,
And points out Maccabaeus to their aid:
Judas shall set the captive free,
And lead us all to victory.

10. (Air) Simon:
Arm, arm, ye brave! A noble cause,
The cause of Heaven your zeal demands.
In defence of your nation, religion, and laws,
The Almighty Jehovah will strengthen your hands.
Arm, arm. . . da capo

11. Chorus of Israelites:
We come, we come, in bright array,
Judah, thy sceptre to obey.

12. (Recitative) Judas Maccabaeus:
'Tis well, my friends; with transport I behold
The spirit of our fathers, famed of old
For their exploits in war. Oh, may they fire
With active courage you, their sons inspire:
As when the mighty Joshua fought,
And those amazing wonders wrought,
Stood still, obedient to his voice, the sun,
Till kings he had destroyed, and kingdoms won.

13. (Air) Judas Maccabaeus
Call forth thy powers, my soul, and dare
The conflict of unequal war.
Great is the glory of the conquering sword,
That triumphs in sweet liberty restor'd.
Call forth. . . da capo

14. (Recitative) Israelite Woman:
To Heaven's Almighty king we kneel,
For blessings on this exemplary zeal.
Bless him, Jehovah, bless him, and once more
To thy own Israel liberty restore.

15. (Air) Israelite Woman:
O liberty, thou choicest treasure,
Seat of virtue, source of pleasure!
Life, without thee, knows no blessing,
No endearment worth caressing.

16. (Air) Israelite Woman:
Come, ever-smiling liberty,
And with thee bring thy jocund train.
For thee we pant, and sigh for thee,
With whom eternal pleasures reign.
Come. . . da capo

17. (Recitative) Israelite Man
O Judas, may these noble views inspire
All Israel with thy true heroic fire!

18. (Air) Israelite Man
'Tis liberty, dear liberty alone,
That gives fresh beauty to the sun;
That bids all nature look more gay,
And lovely life with pleasure steal away.

19. (Duet) Israelite Woman and Man
Come, ever-smiling liberty,
And with thee bring thy jocund train.
For thee we pant, and sigh for thee,
With whom eternal pleasures reign.

20. Chorus of Israelites:
Lead on, lead on! Judah disdains
The galling load of hostile chains.

21. (Recitative) Judas Maccabaeus:
So willed my father now at rest
In the eternal mansions of the blest:
'Can ye behold,' said he 'the miseries,
In which the long-insulted Judah lies?
Can ye behold their dire distress,
And not, at least, attempt redress?'
Then, faintly, with expiring breath,
'Resolve, my sons, on liberty, or death!'
We come! Oh see, thy sons prepare
The rough habiliments of war;
With hearts intrepid, and revengeful hands,
To execute, O sire, thy dread commands.

22. Semi-chorus of Israelite Men:
Disdainful of danger, we'll rush on the foe,
That Thy power, O Jehovah, all nations may know.

23. (Recitative) Judas Maccabaeus
Ambition! If ever honour was thine aim,
Challenge it here:
The glorious cause gives sanction to thy claim.

24. (Air) Judas Maccabaeus:
No unhallowed desire
Our breasts shall inspire,
Nor lust of unbounded power!
But peace to obtain:
Free peace let us gain,
And conquest shall ask no more.

25. (Recitative) Israelite Man:
Haste we, my brethren, haste we to the field,
Dependant on the Lord, our strength and shield.

26. Chorus of Israelites:
Hear us, O Lord, on Thee we call,
Resolved on conquest, or a glorious fall.

ACT TWO

27. Chorus of Israelites:
Fallen is the foe; so fall Thy foes, O Lord,
Where warlike Judas wields his righteous sword!

28. (Recitative) Israelite Man
Victorious hero! Fame shall tell,
With her last breath, how Apollonius fell,
And all Samaria fled, by thee pursued
Through hills of carnage and a sea of blood;
While thy resistless prowess dealt around,
With their own leader's sword, the deathful wound.
Thus, too, the haughty Seron, Syria's boast,
Before thee fell with his unnumbered host.

29. (Air) Israelite Man:
So rapid thy course is,
Not numberless forces
Withstand thy all-conquering sword.
Though nations surround thee,
No pow'r shall confound thee,
Till freedom again be restored.
So rapid. . . da capo

30. (Recitative) Israelite Man:
Well may we hope our freedom to receive,
Such sweet transporting views thy actions give.

31. (Duet) Israelite Woman and Man
Zion now her head shall raise,
Tune your harps to songs of praise.

32. (Chorus) Israelites
Zion now her head shall raise,
Tune your harps to songs of praise.

33. (Recitative) Israelite Woman:
Oh, let eternal honours crown his name:
Judas, first worthy in the rolls of fame.
Say, 'He put on the breast-plate as a giant,
And girt his warlike harness about him;
In his acts he was like a lion,
And like a lion's whelp roaring for his prey.'

34. (Air) Israelite Woman:
From mighty kings he took the spoil,
And with his acts made Judah smile.
Judah rejoiceth in his name,
And triumphs in her hero's fame.
From mighty kings. . . da capo

35. (Duet) Israelite Woman and Man
Hail, hail, Judea, happy land!
Salvation prospers in his hand.

36. (Chorus) Israelites:
Hail, hail, Judea, happy land!
Salvation prospers in his hand.

37. (Recitative) Judas Maccabaeus:
Thanks to my brethren; but look up to Heaven;
To Heaven let glory and all praise be given;
To Heaven give your applause,
Nor add the second cause,
As once your fathers did in Midian,
Saying, 'The sword of God and Gideon.'
It was the Lord that for his Israel fought,
And this our wonderful salvation wrought.

38. (Air) Judas Maccabaeus:
How vain is man, who boasts in fight
The valour of gigantic might!
And dreams not that a hand unseen
Directs and guides this weak machine.
How vain. . . da capo

39. (Recitative) First Messenger:
O Judas, O my brethren!
New scenes of bloody war
In all their horrors rise.
Prepare, prepare,
Or soon we fall a sacrifice
To great Antiochus; from the Egyptian coast,
(Where Ptolemy hath Memphis and Pelusium lost)
He sends the valiant Gorgias, and commands
His proud, victorious bands
To root out Israel's strength, and to erase
Every memorial of the sacred place.

40. (Air) Israelite Woman:
Ah! wretched, wretched Israel! fallen, how low,
From joyous transport to desponding woe.

41. (Chorus) Israelites:
Ah! wretched, wretched Israel! fallen, how low,
From joyous transport to desponding woe.

42. (Recitative) Simon:
Be comforted, nor think these plagues are sent
For your destruction, but for chastisement.
Heaven oft in mercy punisheth, that sin
May feel its own demerits from within,
And urge not utter ruin. Turn to God,
And draw a blessing from His iron rod.

43. (Air) Simon:
The Lord worketh wonders
His glory to raise;
And still, as he thunders,
Is fearful in praise.

44. (Recitative) Judas Maccabaeus:
My arms! Against this Gorgias will I go.
The Idumean governor shall know
How vain, how ineffective his design,
While rage his leader, and Jehovah mine.

45. (Air) Judas Maccabaeus:
Sound an alarm! Your silver trumpets sound,
And call the brave, and only brave, around.
Who listeth, follow: to the field again!
Justice with courage is a thousand men.
Sound an alarm. . . da capo

46. Chorus
We hear, we hear the pleasing dreadful call,
And follow thee to conquest; if to fall,
For laws, religion, liberty, we fall.

47. (Recitative) Simon:
Enough! To Heaven we leave the rest.
Such generous ardour firing every breast,
We may divide our cares; the field be thine,
O Judas, and your sanctuary mine;
For Sion, holy Sion, seat of God,
In ruinous heaps, is by the heathen trod;
Such profanation calls for swift redress,
If ever in battle Israel hopes success.

48. (Air) Simon:
With pious hearts, and brave as pious,
O Sion, we thy call attend,
Nor dread the nations that defy us,
God our defender, God our friend.

49. (Recitative) Israelite Man:
Ye worshippers of God,
Down, down with the polluted altars, down.
Hurl Jupiter Olympius from his throne,
Nor reverence Bacchus with his ivy crown
And ivy-wreathed rod.
Our fathers never knew
Him, or his beastly crew,
Or, knowing, scorned such idol vanities.

Israelite Woman:
No more in Sion let the virgin throng,
Wild with delusion, pay their nightly song
To Ashtoreth, yclep't the Queen of Heaven.
Hence to Phoenicia be the goddess driven,
Or be she, with her priests and pageants, hurled
To the remotest corner of the world,
Never to delude us more with pious lies.

50. (Air) Israelite Woman:
Wise men, flattering, may deceive us
With their vain, mysterious art;
Magic charms can never relieve us,
Nor can heal the wounded heart.
But true wisdom can relieve us,
Godlike wisdom from above;
This alone can never deceive us,
This alone all pains remove.
Wise men. . . da capo

51. (Duet) Israelite Woman and Man:
Oh, never, never bow we down
To the rude stock or sculptured stone.
We worship God, and God alone.

52. Chorus of Israelites:
We never, never will bow down
To the rude stock or sculptured stone.
We worship God, and God alone.

ACT THREE

53. (Air) Israelite Man:
Father of Heaven! From Thy eternal throne,
Look with an eye of blessing down,
While we prepare with holy rites,
To solemnize the feasts of lights.
And thus our grateful hearts employ;
And in Thy praise
This altar raise,
With carols of triumphant joy.
Father of Heaven. . . da capo

54. (Accompagnato) Israelitish Man:
See, see yon flames, that from the altar broke,
In spiring streams pursue the trailing smoke.
The fragrant incense mounts the yielding air;
Sure presage that the Lord hath heard our prayer.

55. (Recitative) Israelite Woman:
Oh, grant it, Heaven, that our long woes may cease,
And Judah's daughters taste the calm of peace,
Sons, brothers, husbands to bewail no more,
Tortur'd at home, or havock'd in the war.

56. (Air) Israelite Woman:
So shall the lute and harp awake,
And sprightly voice sweet descant run,
Seraphic melody to make,
In the pure strains of Jesse's son.

57. (Recitative) First Messenger:
From Capharsalama, on eagle wings I fly,
With tidings of impetuous joy:
Came Lysias, with his host, arrayed
In coat of mail; their massy shields
Of gold and brass, flashed lightning over the fields,
While the huge tower-backed elephants displayed
A horrid front. But Judas, undismayed,
Met, fought, and vanquished all the rageful train.
Yet more, Nicanor lies with thousands slain;
The blasphemous Nicanor, who defied
The living God, and, in his wanton pride,
A public monument ordained
Of victories yet ungained.

Second Messenger:
But lo, the conqueror comes; and on his spear,
To dissipate all fear,
He bears the vaunter's head and hand,
That threatened desolation to the land.

58. (Chorus) Youths:
See, the conqu'ring hero comes!
Sound the trumpets, beat the drums.
Sports prepare, the laurel bring,
Songs of triumph to him sing.

Virgins:
See the godlike youth advance!
Breathe the flutes, and lead the dance;
Myrtle wreaths, and roses twine,
To deck the hero's brow divine.

Israelites:
See, the conqu'ring hero comes!
Sound the trumpets, beat the drums.
Sports prepare, the laurel bring,
Songs of triumph to him sing.
See, the conquering hero comes!
Sound the trumpets, beat the drums.

59. March

60. Soli (alto, tenor) & Chorus of Israelites:
Sing unto God, and high affections raise,
To crown this conquest with unmeasured praise.

61. (Recitative) Judas Maccabaeus:
Sweet flow the strains, that strike my feasted ear;
Angels might stoop from Heav'n to hear
The comely song we sing,
To Israel's Lord and King.
But pause awhile: due obsequies prepare
To those who bravely fell in war.
To Eleazar special tribute pay;
Through slaughtered troops he cut his way
To the distinguished elephant, and, whelmed beneath
The stabbed monster, triumphed in a glorious death.

62. (Air) Judas Maccabaeus:
With honour let desert be crowned,
The trumpet ne'er in vain shall sound;
But, all attentive to alarms,
The willing nations fly to arms,
And, conquering or conquered, claim the prize
Of happy earth, or far more happy skies.

63. (Recitative) Eupolemus:
Peace to my countrymen; peace and liberty.
From the great senate of imperial Rome,
With a firm league of amity, I come.
Rome, whatever nation dare insult us more,
Will rouse, in our defence, her veteran power,
And stretch her vengeful arm, by land or sea
To curb the proud, and set the injured free.

64. Chorus of Israelites
To our great God be all the honour given,
That grateful hearts can send from earth to Heaven.

65. (Recitative) Israelite Woman:
Again to earth let gratitude descend,
Praiseworthy is our hero and our friend.
Come then, my daughters, choicest art bestow,
To weave a chaplet for the victor's brow;
And in your songs for ever be confessed
The valour that preserved, the power that blessed,
Blessed you with hours, that scatter, as they fly,
Soft quiet, gentle love, and boundless joy.

66. (Air Duet) Israelite Woman (and Man):
O lovely peace, with plenty crowned,
Come, spread thy blessings all around.
Let fleecy flocks the hills adorn,
And vallies smile with wavy corn.
Let the shrill trumpet cease, nor other sound
But nature's songsters wake the cheerful morn.
O lovely peace. . . da capo

67. (Air) Simon:
Rejoice, O Judah, and, in songs divine,
With cherubim and seraphim harmonious join!

68. (Chorus) Israelites:
Hallelujah! Amen.

THE END...

May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus.


SOURCE: Georg Friedrich Händel JUDAS MACCABAEUS (1747). A Sacred Drama. Initially input by Pierre Degott (degott@zeus.univ-metz.fr); HTML conversion by Potharn Imre (pubi@altavista.net)Last updated: Oct. 20, 1999, (http://opera.stanford.edu/iu/libretti/judas.htm)