The anonymous Anecdotes of George Frederick Handel and John Christopher Smith [. . .] (published in 1799, and formerly attributed to William Coxe) contains sentences on page 28 that must have caught the attention of many readers:1 [When] he [Handel] was young, two of his scholars, ladies of considerable fortune, were so much enamoured of him, that each was desirous of a matrimonial alliance. The first is said to have fallen a victim to her attachment. Handel would have married her; but his pride was stung by the coarse declaration of her mother, that she never would consent to the marriage of her daughter with a fiddler; and, indignant at the expression, he declined all further intercourse. After the death of the mother, the father renewed the acquaintance, and informed him that all obstacles were removed; but he replied, that the time was now past; and the young lady fell into a decline, which soon terminated her existence.