Nevertheless, when Sunday evening came round he sat down and read the Bible with genuine fervour, spelling the hard words aloud and asking how they should or might be pronounced; and he informed me, by way of explaining his attachment to the Book, that he had solemnly promised his wife never to omit his weekly devotions while on the deep.  Though I never shared the literary tastes of Mr. Wilson Barrett, the captain’s unfathomable ignorance of the Gospels, Isaiah and the Psalms startled even me; but on the other hand he had an intimate acquaintance with a number of stories to be found only in the Apocrypha, with which he had thoughtfully provided himself.  To gratify my curiosity he read me the tale of Susanna and the Elders.  Being young, my first notion was that I had chanced on a capital subject for an opera; and I actually thought for ten minutes of commencing at once on a libretto.  Later I remembered the censor, and realised for the first time that in England, when a subject is unfit for a drama, it is treated as an oratorio.  As soon as possible I bought Handel’s “Susanna” instead, and found that Handel curiously—­or perhaps not curiously—­had also been before me in thinking of treating the subject operatically.  In fact “Susanna” is as much an opera as “Rinaldo,” the only difference being that a few choruses are forcibly dragged in to give colour to the innocent pretence.  Handel’s librettist, whoever he was, did his work downright badly.  That he glorifies the great institution of permanent marriage and says nothing of the corresponding great institution of the Divorce Court, is only what might be expected of the horrible eighteenth century—­the true dark age of Europe; but surely even a composer of Handel’s powers could scarcely do himself justice with such a choice blend of stupidity and cant religion as this—­

    “Chorus.  How long, O Lord, shall Israel groan
      In bondage and in pain? 
    Jehovah! hear Thy people moan,
      And break the tyrant’s chain!

“Joachim. Our crimes repeated have provok’d His rage, And now He scourges a degen’rate age.  O come, my fair Susanna, come, And from my bosom chase its gloom,” etc.

Or is the abrupt third line of Joachim’s speech to be regarded as a masterstroke of characterisation?  I will tell the whole story, to show what manner of subject has been thought proper for an oratorio.  Joachim and Susanna are of course perfect monsters of fidelity; though it is only fair to say that Joachim’s virtue is not insisted on, or, for that matter, mentioned.  Joachim goes out of town—­he says so:  “Awhile I’m summoned from the town away”—­and Susanna, instead of obeying his directions to entertain some friends, goes into a dark glade, whither the Elders presently repair.  She declines their attentions; then they declare they caught her with an unknown lover, who fled; and she is condemned to death, the populace seeing naught but justice in the sentence.  But