Moses Mendez
Moses Mendez, or Mendes, (1690? - 4 February 1758), was a British poet and playwright. It has been suggested that he wrote the anonymous texts for Handel's dramatic English oratorios Solomon and Susanna.[1]
Life and career
Moses Mendez was born to a Jewish family in London. The physician Fernando Mendes was his grandfather. After studies at the University of Oxford he followed his father's choice of career as a stockbroker and became prosperous.[2] Mendez owned an estate called St Andrew’s at Old Buckenham in Norfolk. He wrote numerous poems and stage pieces, including the libretti for ballad operas including The Double Disappointment and The Chaplet, produced at leading London theatres Covent Garden and Drury Lane in the 1740s. [3] He also wrote the text for the 1750 ballad opera Robin Hood with music by Charles Burney. It has recently been suggested that Moses Mendez wrote the unattributed texts for Handel's oratorios Susanna and Solomon, both of which had their first performances in 1749.
Mendez was a freemason, having joined the Premier Grand Lodge of England and helped organise their Grand Festival in 1738.[4]
Mendez is mentioned by the writer William Maginn (1794–1842) in his Miscellanies (published posthumously in 1885):
Vain, quite vain, the toil you spend is,
When your time in verse you pass;
For, good Mr. Moses Mendes,
You are nothing but ass[5]
Mendez married Anna Gabriella Head in 1753 but his children (James Roper Mendes Head and Francis Head) would take on the Head surname after Anna's father died in 1768. His grandson was Sir Francis Bond Head, son of James Roper.
Notes
- ^ Andrew Pink. ‘Solomon, Susanna and Moses : locating Handel's anonymous librettist’. Eighteenth Century Music. Volume 12 / Issue 02 (September 2015) pp. 211-222.; accessed 6 April 2016
- ^ Goodwin, Gordon. "Moses Mendes". wikisource. Dictionary of National Biography. 1895-1900, vol 37. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
- ^ Jacobs, Joseph. "Moses Mendes". Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
- ^ "Jews in English Freemasonry". Jewish Communities and Records. 20 April 2015.
- ^ "Notes and Queries, Jan-June, 1908". 1908.
- v
- t
- e
Masters
- Anthony Sayer (1717–1718)
- George Payne (1718–1719)
- John Theophilus Desaguliers (1719–1720)
- George Payne (1720–1721)
- Duke of Montagu (1721–1723)
- Duke of Wharton (1723)
- Earl of Dalkeith (1723–1724)
- Duke of Richmond (1724)
- Lord Paisley (1724–1725)
- Earl of Inchiquin (1726–1727)
- Baron Colerane (1727–1728)
- Baron Kingston (1728–1730)
- Duke of Norfolk (1730–1731)
- Baron Lovell (1731–1732)
- Viscount Montagu (1732–1733)
- Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (1733–1734)
- Earl of Crawford (1734–1735)
- Lord Weymouth (1735–1736)
- Earl of Loudoun (1736–1737)
- Earl of Darnley (1737–1738)
- Marquis of Carnarvon (1738–1739)
- Baron Raymond (1739–1740)
- Earl of Kintore (1740–1741)
- Earl of Morton (1741–1742)
- Baron Ward (1742–1744)
- Lord Cranstoun (1744–1747)
- Baron Byron (1747–1752)
- Baron Carysfort (1752–1753)
- Marquis of Carnarvon (1754–1757)
- Lord Aberdour (1757–1762)
- Earl Ferrers (1762–1764)
- Baron Blayney (1764–1767)
- Duke of Beaufort (1767–1772)
- Baron Petre (1772–1777)
- Duke of Manchester (1777–1782)
- Duke of Cumberland (1782–1790)
- George, Prince of Wales (1792–1813)
- Duke of Sussex (1813)
articles
- History of Freemasonry
- Antient Grand Lodge of England
- United Grand Lodge of England
- James Anderson's The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1723)
- Freemasons' Tavern
- Freemasons' Hall, London
- Royal Society
- Society of Antiquaries of London
- Royal College of Physicians
- Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
- Spalding Gentlemen's Society
- Newtonianism
- English Enlightenment
- Order of the Bath
- Walpole ministries
- Whiggism (Kit-Cat Club)
- Gormogons
- Hellfire Club
- Foundling Hospital
- Unlawful Societies Act 1799
- James Anderson
- John Byrom
- William Stukeley
- William Jones
- Earl of Chesterfield
- Charles Delafaye
- Baron Carpenter
- William Billers
- Sir Thomas Prendergast, 2nd Baronet
- Brook Taylor
- Martin Folkes
- John Arbuthnot
- Charles Cox
- Earl Cornwallis
- Richard Cantillon
- John Machin
- William Rutty
- James Vernon
- John Senex
- James Thornhill
- Earl of Macclesfield
- John Browne
- James Jurin
- James Douglas
- Alexander Stuart
- Ephraim Chambers
- Richard Manningham
- Frank Nicholls
- Richard Rawlinson
- Charles Stanhope
- Lord James Cavendish
- Earl of Hopetoun
- William Richardson
- William Becket
- John Anstis
- Duke of Ancaster
- Charles Hayes
- Edmund Prideaux
- George Shelvocke
- John Woodward
- John Ward
- John Baptist Grano
- Baron King
- Jacques Leblon
- Adolphus Oughton
- Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet
- Viscount Cobham
- Francis Columbine
- Hugh Warburton
- Earl of Pembroke
- Viscount Townshend
- Martin Bladen
- Earl Waldegrave
- Duke of Kingston
- Earl of Burlington
- Earl of Essex
- Duke of Queensberry
- Earl of Deloraine
- Earl of Portmore
- Duke of Marlborough
- Baron Baltimore
- Duke of Atholl
- Marquess of Lothian
- Earl of Balcarres
- Earl of Winchilsea
- Sir Arthur Acheson, 5th Baronet
- Sir Robert Lawley, 4th Baronet
- Alexander Brodie
- William Hogarth
- Charles Labelye
- Walter Calverley-Blackett
- Frederick, Prince of Wales
- Thomas Wright
- Edward Gibbon
- Baron Hervey
- Thomas Dunckerley
- William Preston
- Marquess of Hastings
- James Moore Smythe
- Robert Boyle-Walsingham
- Sir Robert de Cornwall
- Batty Langley
- Thomas Arne
- John Soane
- Joseph Banks
- Johan Zoffany
- John Coustos
- Hipólito da Costa
- Meyer Löw Schomberg
- Joseph Salvador
- Sampson Eardley
- Moses Mendez
- Meyer Solomon
- Moses Montefiore
- Nathan Mayer Rothschild
Prime ministers |
---|