Sticks and Stones — Dryden and Rochester

Dryden had virulent enemies in his time. His satires and the king’s favour enraged John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, who legend says had him mugged one night in a dark passageway off Garrick Street, near Covent Garden.

(Michael Schmidt, Lives of the Poets, p.300)

I’m not a big fan of Dryden’s poetry, and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of professional rivalry between poets. But I’d have to say that in this instance — as in so many others — Rochester took things a little too far.