Hazlitt's Black Eye
A short, absurd anecdote about a literary quarrel between William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb's brother that turned into a scuffle over the merits of Holbein versus Van Dyck.
NewsPipe summary
Burlington Weekly Free Press · February 11, 1876 · Page 1
1 min readHere is a story which is so exquisitely absurd as to deserve an immortality among anecdote. It is recorded under date of Oct. 13, 1823: "Talfourd and Miss Mitford dined with us, and Talfourd made us laugh exceedingly with a good story of Hazlitt. At a card party at Charles Lamb's, Hazlitt and Lamb's brother got into a discussion as to whether Holbein's coloring was as good as that of Vandyke. Hazlitt denied it. Lamb asserted the contrary; till at length they both became so irritated they upset the card-table and seized each other by the throat. In the struggle that ensued Hazlitt got a black eye; but when the two combatants were parted, Hazlitt turned to Talfourd, who was sobering his aid, and said: 'You need not trouble yourself, sir. I do not mind a blow, sir — nothing affects me but an Abstract [...]'"
Was this worth reading?
This is how the site learns what to look for. Ratings move the weights behind the front page; notes go into the editorial brief that guides what gets pulled from the archives next.
Elsewhere in the archive
On the New Bustle
Burlington Weekly Free Press · February 11, 1876
A single sharp-tongued sentence of church-porch gossip about fashion and vanity, preserved here as a tiny slice of period wit.
The Ruling Passion Strong in Death
Burlington Weekly Free Press · February 11, 1876 · St. Louis, Missouri
A wry, gently mocking deathbed anecdote from the St. Louis Republican, in which a dying old woman's last words concern nothing more than a disliked hairpiece — a small comic gem about vanity outlasting even life itself.
The Chicago Rothschild
Burlington Weekly Free Press · February 11, 1876 · Detroit, Michigan
A comic tale from the Detroit Free Press about a boastful stranger who claims to be a millionaire when a hotel clerk asks him to pay in advance — a slice of vintage American tall-tale humor, cut short where the original page ends.
A Remarkable Lynching Scene in West Virginia
Burlington Weekly Free Press · February 11, 1876 · Barboursville, West Virginia
A harrowing eyewitness account of a lynching in Barboursville, West Virginia, where a mob hanged a man and nearly hanged a woman for the axe murder of her husband, complete with confessions, prayers, and a near-riot over whether to spare her life.