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Thomas Morell (/mɔːˈrɛl/; 18 March 1703 – 19 February 1784) was an English librettist, classical scholar,[1] and printer.[2]
He was born in Eton, Berkshire and educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge (BA, 1726, MA, 1730 and DD, 1743).
He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and in 1768 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society as a "Rector of Buckland in Hertfordshire, Author of the Greek Thesaurus lately published, and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, a Gentleman well skilled in Natural History and every branch of Polite Literature".[4][5]
He was appointed Garrison Chaplain at Portsmouth barracks in 1775.
Morell wrote the longest and most detailed surviving account of collaboration with Handel.[6]
He died in 1784 and was buried in Chiswick, London.
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He is best known as the librettist of the following of George Frideric Handel's oratorios:
- Judas Maccabaeus (1747).[2]
- Joshua (1747).
- Alexander Balus (1748).[2]
- Theodora (1750).[2]
- The Choice of Hercules (1750). Uncertain if Morell was the librettist.
- Jephtha (1752).[2]
- The Triumph of Time and Truth (1757). Morell was probably the librettist.
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