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The year 1737 marked a turning point for England鈥檚 most celebrated composer. George Frideric Handel had been entertaining London society with his Italian operas since 1720. Each season he staged several, for which he wrote the music, hired the singers and directed 50 or more performances. Then he abandoned opera and wrote the type of music he is best remembered for, his English oratorios. Handel鈥檚 operas had been peopled by gods and heroes, played by strutting superstar singers. Now his themes tended towards the tragic, his characters mere mortals and his music more personal. What prompted the change? Ill health, says Handel authority David Hunter.

鈥淭HE ingenious Mr. Handell is very much indispos鈥檇 and it鈥檚 thought with a Paraletick Disorder, he having at present no Use of his Right Hand, which, if he don鈥檛 regain, the Publick will be depriv鈥檇 of his fine Compositions.鈥� As the London Evening Post reported in May 1737, George Frideric Handel, composer to kings and perennial favourite of opera-going London society, had been struck down by a palsy that threatened to cut short his glittering career. Handel recovered but his next 20 years were dogged by ill health and repeated attacks of the 鈥淧araletick Disorder鈥�. They were also the years in which he composed some of his greatest works.

For the first 50 years of his life, Handel seems to have been untroubled by illness. Even in middle age, and decidedly overweight, he had the stamina to stage several operas a year, a workload that would have defeated many younger, fitter men. Then in the spring of 1737 Handel suffered the first of a series of seizures that temporarily paralysed his right hand and caused his head to be 鈥渁 good deal disordered鈥�.

鈥淲e may never be absolutely certain what ailed him,鈥� says , who in his youth was a cathedral chorister and is now music librarian at the Fine Arts Library of the University of Texas at Austin. After spending more than 15 years piecing together Handel鈥檚 medical history, however, he believes there鈥檚 enough evidence to support two diagnoses that go a long way towards explaining the fundamental change in his music that gave us and other masterpieces.

Handel was clearly obese. According to friends and admirers he 鈥減aid more attention to [his food] than is becoming in any man鈥� and was 鈥渃orpulent and unwieldy in his motions鈥�. Others were less kind, making him the butt of jokes and mocking verses. 鈥淗e consumed what even by the standards of his well-fed peers were embarrassingly large amounts of food and drink,鈥� says Hunter. His odd behaviour indicates something other than simple greed: Handel couldn鈥檛 control his eating, even if it meant losing friends or facing ridicule.

One secret binge caused a rift between Handel and one of his oldest friends, the painter Joseph Goupy. In 1744 or 1745, Handel invited Goupy home for dinner, warning him that business wasn鈥檛 going too well so the meal would be frugal. Dinner over, Handel excused himself. He was gone so long, Goupy went looking for him 鈥� and found Handel stuffing himself with 鈥渟uch delicacies as he had lamented his ability to afford his friend鈥�. Furious, Goupy left, and had soon produced a new portrait of Handel, one in which he was caricatured as an organ-playing pig (pictured).

On a second occasion, Handel played host to some of his musicians. During dinner, it was later reported, he suddenly had an idea. His guests urged him to go and make a note of it. Handel was so inspired that evening he had to leave the room at regular intervals. Astonished by his burst of creativity, one guest spied on Handel through a keyhole and saw him hard at work on a 鈥渇resh hamper of burgundy鈥�.

鈥淭hrough the keyhole he saw Handel hard at work on a fresh hamper of burgundy鈥�

Based on all the available evidence, Hunter believes the diagnosis that fits best is binge-eating disorder. Such a condition might also explain Handel鈥檚 notoriously heavy drinking, which in turn was largely responsible for the condition that led to his seizures and, Hunter suspects, his eventual blindness.

There has been no shortage of explanations for Handel鈥檚 illness in the past. They include stroke, damage to the peripheral nerves and saturnine gout 鈥� the expression of chronic lead poisoning. But if Handel was exposed to enough lead over a long time, that alone could account for all his symptoms, including the seizures, says Hunter (Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, vol 41, p 69).

In the early stages of lead poisoning, symptoms include headaches, colic and irritability. Continued exposure brings rheumatic pains, paralysis, confusion and sometimes loss of speech and memory. It can also cause small strokes, deafness and blindness, even coma and death.

In Handel鈥檚 day, doctors recognised a link between lead and saturnine gout among workers whose jobs exposed them to lead. They were more puzzled by wealthy patients with the same condition. Yet those who could afford to eat well and drink heavily were at almost as much risk as plumbers, miners and pot-menders. Lead contaminated food, medicines, cosmetics, even the powder so liberally applied to the wigs then in fashion. But wine was the worst of all.

Most wine was imported from southern Europe, where many makers added lead to sweeten it and prevent it going off en route to England. Once there, unscrupulous merchants added lead shot to freshen tired tasting wine and mask off flavours. Port was even more dangerous: it was fortified with brandy made in stills with lead parts and pipes.

Ingestion of 2 milligrams of lead a day can produce symptoms of severe lead poisoning within a year. An analysis of late 18th-century port carried out in the 1970s found as much as 2 milligrams per litre. Handel may have been partial to burgundy, but port was his favourite tipple and he quaffed it in large quantities.

鈥淎ll the reports of Handel鈥檚 illnesses are consistent with a diagnosis of saturnine gout,鈥� says Hunter. No one mentions whether Handel suffered headaches or colic 鈥� why would they? 鈥� but they do mention his irritability. 鈥淗e was notoriously irritable when working with other musicians,鈥� says Hunter. 鈥淧eople put it down to his frustration when they didn鈥檛 meet his exacting standards, but it was likely to have been an early sign of lead poisoning.鈥� Later, when the palsy struck, it was described as a 鈥渞humatick palsy鈥� which 鈥渟eemed at times to affect his Understanding鈥�. In 1743, a second attack 鈥渁ffects his Head and Speech鈥� and in 1745 he was 鈥渕uch out of order in his body, and a little in his head鈥�. In 1751, Handel lost the sight in his right eye. Two years later he was blind. He lived for another eight years, dying on 14 April 1759 at the age of 74.

Handel鈥檚 health, in particular the debilitating effects of lead poisoning, made worse by obesity, played a significant part in the history of English music, argues Hunter. After his first seizure in 1737, Handel scaled back his opera work and focused on oratorios, offering much shorter runs of performances (Eighteenth-Century Music, vol 3, p 253). In 1740 he gave up opera altogether. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think he could keep up the 50-plus performances a year and all the associated rehearsals and so on,鈥� says Hunter. 鈥淚t became too much.鈥�

The music was fundamentally different too, coloured by Handel鈥檚 undoubted pain and an increasing awareness of his own mortality. No longer tied to the plots of traditional Italian operas, Handel chose his own stories and commissioned writers to produce the words. Gone were the immortals, replaced by more tragic and more human figures. 鈥淭he music had a different feel too,鈥� says Hunter. 鈥淟isten to or Joshua or Israel in Egypt 鈥� it鈥檚 lamentation and breast-beating. He can be tender too and, while there are some heroic pieces, there鈥檚 a preponderance of tragic ones.鈥�

If Handel had taken the advice of doctors and friends and cut down his eating and drinking, he might have stuck with gods and heroes. Fortunately for us, he didn鈥檛 鈥� or couldn鈥檛. 鈥淗andel鈥檚 oratorios are such an integral part of the British musical tradition,鈥� says Hunter, 鈥渋t鈥檚 unthinkable that he should not have written them.鈥�