The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume I Part 87

before it was printed.--ED.]

[Footnote 28: The above "flowers of rhetoric" are taken from the "Memoirs of Dr. Burney," published in 1832; but it is scarcely just--indeed, it is wholly unjust--to include "Camilla" and "The Wanderer" under the same censure with that book. The literary style of the "Memoirs" is the more amazing, since we find Madame D'Arblay, in 1815, correcting in her son the very fault which is there indulged to so unfortunate an extent. She writes to him--"I beg you, when you write to me, to let your pen paint Your thoughts as they rise, not as you seek or labour to embellish them.

I remember you once wrote me a letter so very fine from Cambridge, that, if it had not made me laugh, it would have made me sick."--ED.]

[Footnote 29: "The Female Quixote" is the t.i.tle of a novel by Charlotte Lenox, published in 1752. It was written as a satire upon the Heroic Romances, so popular in England during the seventeenth century, and the early part of the eighteenth; and scarcely claims to be considered as a picture of life and manners. It is a delightful book however, and the character of the heroine, Arabella, is invested with a charm which never, even in the midst of her wildest extravagancies, fails to make itself felt.--ED.]

[Footnote 30: Author of the famous "Short View of the Immorality and the Profaneness of the English Stage," published in 1698; a book which, no doubt, struck at a real evil, but which is written in a spirit of violence and bigotry productive rather of amus.e.m.e.nt than of conviction.

It caused, however, a tremendous sensation at the time, and its effect upon the English drama was very considerable; not an unmixed blessing either.--ED.]

[Footnote 31: f.a.n.n.y Burney's step-mother.--ED.]

[Footnote 32: Dr. Burney's daughter by his second wife.]

[Footnote 33: "Evelina; or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World.--This novel has given us so much pleasure in the perusal, that we do not hesitate to p.r.o.nounce it one of the most sprightly, entertaining, and agreeable productions of this kind that has of late fallen under our notice. A great variety of natural incidents, some of the comic stamp, render the narrative extremely interesting. The characters, which are agreeably diversified, are conceived and drawn with propriety, and supported with spirit. The whole is written with great ease and command of language.

From this commendation we must, however, except the character of a son of Neptune, whose manners are rather those of a rough, uneducated country squire than those of a genuine sea-captain." Monthly Review, April, 1778.]

[Footnote 34: "Evelina.--The history of a young lady exposed to very critical situations. There is much more merit, as well respecting style as character and incident, than is usually to be met with in modern novels." London Review, Feb., 1778.]

[Footnote 35: f.a.n.n.y was no mistress of numbers; but the sincerity and warm affection expressed in every line of the Ode prefixed to "Evelina,"

would excuse far weaker verses. We quote it in full.--ED.

"Oh, Author of my being!--far more dear To me than light, than nourishment, or rest, Hygeia's blessings, Rapture's burning tear, Or the life-blood that mantles in-my breast!

If in my heart the love of Virtue glows, 'Twas planted there by an unerring rule From thy example the pure flame arose, Thy life, my precept,--thy good works, my school.

Could my weak pow'rs thy num'rous virtues trace, By filial love each fear should be repress'd; The blush of Incapacity I'd chace, And stand, Recorder of thy worth, confess'd But since my n.i.g.g.ard stars that gift refuse, Concealment is the only boon I claim Obscure be still the unsuccessful Muse, Who cannot raise, but would not sink, thy fame, Oh! of my life at once the source and joy!

If e'er thy eyes these feeble lines survey, Let not their folly their intent destroy; Accept the tribute-but forget the lay."]

[Footnote 36: Lady Hales was the mother of Miss Coussmaker, having been twice married, the second time to Sir Thomas Pym Hales, Bart., who died in 1773. They were intimate friends of the Burneys.--ED.]

[Footnote 37: Dr. Burney had brought the work under the notice of Mrs. Thrale.

Mrs. Cholmondeley was a sister of the famous actress, Peg Woffington.

Her husband, the Hon. and Rev. Robert Cholmondeley, was the second son of the Earl of Cholmondeley, and nephew of Horace Walpole.--ED.]

[Footnote 38: The sum originally paid for "Evelina" was twenty pounds, to which ten Pounds more were added after the third edition. "Evelina" pa.s.sed through four editions within a year.--ED.]

[Footnote 39: Mrs. Greville, the wife of Dr. Burney's friend and early patron, Fulke Greville, was f.a.n.n.y's G.o.dmother, and the author of a much admired "Ode to Indifference."--ED.]

[Footnote 40: Her cousin, Charles Rousseau Burney-Hetty's husband.--ED.]

[Footnote 41: A French auth.o.r.ess, who wrote about the middle of the eighteenth century. Her novels, according to Dunlop "A History of Fiction," (chap.

xiii.), "are distinguished by their delicacy and spirit." Her best works ar: "Miss Jenny Salisbury," "Le Marquis de Cressy," "Letters of Lady Catesby," etc.--ED.]

[Footnote 42: Mrs. Williams, the blind poetess, who resided in Dr. Johnson's house. She had written to Dr. Burney, requesting the loan of a copy of "Evelina."--ED.]

[Footnote 43: William Seward "a great favourite at Streatham," was the son of an eminent brewer, Mr. Seward, of the firm of Calvert and Seward, and was born in 1747. He was not yet a "literary lion," but he published some volumes--"Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons"--at a later date. He died in 1799.--ED.]

[Footnote 44: Miss Frances Reynolds--Dr. Johnson's "Renny"--was the sister of the great Sir Joshua, and a miniature painter of some talent.--ED.]

[Footnote 45: Her brother.--ED.]

[Footnote 46: Bennet Lampton, of Langton in Lincolns.h.i.+re, was an old and much loved friend of Dr. Johnson, and is frequently mentioned in Boswell's "Life." He was born about 1737, was educated at Oxford, was a good Greek scholar, and, says Boswell, "a gentleman eminent not only for worth, and learning but for an inexhaustible fund of entertaining conversation." He succeeded Johnson, on the death of the latter, as Professor of Ancient History to the Royal Academy, and died in 1801. Boswell has printed a charming letter, written by Johnson, a few months before his death, to Langton's little daughter Jane, then in her seventh year.--ED.]

[Footnote 47: "My master" was a Common appellation for Mr. Thrale,--and one which he seems, in earnest, to have deserved. "I know no man," said Johnson, "who is more master of his wife and family than Thrale, he but holds up a finger, he is obeyed." (Boswell.)--ED.]

[Footnote 48: Suspirius the Screech Owl. See "Rambler" for Oct. 9, 1750. (This is unjust to Goldsmith. The general idea of the character of Croaker, no doubt, closely resembles that of Suspirius, and was probably borrowed from Johnson; but the details which make the part so diverting are entirely of Goldsmith's invention, as anyone may see by comparing "The Good-natured Man" with "The Rambler.")--ED.]]

[Footnote 49: Mrs. Thrale tells a good story of Johnson's irrational antipathy to the Scotch. A Scotch gentleman in London, "at his return from the Hebrides, asked him, with a firm tone of voice, 'what he thought of his country?' 'That it is a very vile country, to be sure, sir,' returned for answer Dr. Johnson. 'Well sir!' replies the other, somewhat mortified, 'G.o.d made it!' 'Certainly he did,' answers Mr. Johnson, again, 'but we must always remember that He made it for Scotchmen; and--comparisons are odious." Mr. S.--"but G.o.d made h.e.l.l!"--(Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson)--ED.]

[Footnote 50: f.a.n.n.y's step-mother.--ED.]

[Footnote 51: Boswell prints these lines as follows:

"When first I drew my vital breath, A little minikin I came upon earth And then I came from a dark abode, Into this gay and gaudy world,"-ED,]

[Footnote 52: Malone gives some further particulars about Bet Flint in a note to Boswell's "Life of Johnson." She was tried, and acquitted, at the Old Bailey in September, 1758, the prosecutrix, Mary Walthow, being unable to prove "that the goods charged to have been stolen (a counterpane, a silver spoon, two napkins, etc.) were her property. Bet does not appear to have lived at that time in a very genteel style; for she paid for her ready-furnished room in Meard's-court, Dean-street, Soho, from which these articles were alleged to be stolen, only five s.h.i.+llings a week."--ED.]

[Footnote 53: Margaret Caroline Rudd was in great notoriety about the year 1776, from the fame of her powers of fascination, which, it was said, had brought a man to the gallows. This man, her lover, was hanged in January, 1776, for forgery, and the fascinating Margaret appeared as evidence against him. Boswell visited her in that year, and to a lady who expressed her disapprobation of such proceedings, Johnson said: "Nay, madam, Boswell is right: I should have visited her myself, were it not that they have got a trick of putting every thing into the newspapers."--ED.]

[Footnote 54: Kitty Fisher--more correctly, Fischer, her father being a German--an even more famous courtesan, who enjoyed the distinction of having been twice painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds--ED.]

[Footnote 55: The blind poetess, and inmate of Dr. Johnson's house.--ED.]

[Footnote 56: Michael Lort, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and subsequently Greek Professor. He was born in 1725, and died in 1799.--ED.]

[Footnote 57: "I wished the man a dinner and sat still."--Pope.]

[Footnote 58: The Miss Palmers were the nieces of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Mary, the elder, married, in 1792, the Earl of Inchiquin, afterwards created Marquis of Th.o.m.ond; the younger, Theophila ("Offy"), married Robert Lovell Gwatkin, Esq. One of Sir Joshua's most charming pictures ("Simplicity") was painted, in 1788, from Offy's little daughter. Lady Ladd was the sister of Mr. Thrale.--ED.]

[Footnote 59: Miss Thrale.--ED.]

[Footnote 60: Edmund Burke, our "greatest man since Milton," as Macaulay called him.--ED.]

[Footnote 61: At Sir Joshua's town house, in Leicester Square. The house is now occupied by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, the auctioneers.--ED.]

[Footnote 62: "de Mullin" is Mrs. Desmoulins, the daughter of Johnson's G.o.dfather, Dr. Swinfen, a physician in Lichfield. Left in extreme indigence by the deaths of her father and husband, she found for many years an asylum in the house of Dr. Johnson, whom she survived.--ED.]

[Footnote 63: Macbean was sometime Johnson's amanuensis. His "Dictionary of Ancient Geography" was published in 1773, with a Preface by Johnson.--ED.]

[Footnote 64: Robert Levett--not Levat, as f.a.n.n.y writes it--was a Lichfield man, "an obscure practiser in physick amongst the lower people," and an old acquaintance of Dr. Johnson's, in whose house he was supported for many years, until his death, at a very advanced age, in 1782, "So ended the long life of a very useful and very blameless man," Johnson wrote, in communicating the intelligence to Dr. Lawrence.--ED.]

[Footnote 65: Boswell tells us nothing of Poll, except that she was a Miss Carmichael. Domestic dissensions seem to have been the rule with this happy family, but Johnson's long-suffering was inexhaustible, On one occasion he writes Mrs. Thrale, "Williams hates everybody; Levett hates Desmoulins, who does not love Williams; Desmoulins hates them both; Poll loves none of them."--ED.]

[Footnote 66: The lives of Cowley and Waller, from Johnson's "Lives of the Poets." They were not published till 1781, but were already in print.--ED.]

[Footnote 67: "The Theory and Regulation of Love: A Moral Essay." By the Rev.

John Norris, Oxford, 1688.--ED.]

[Footnote 68: Miss Gregory was the daughter of a Scotch physician. She married the Rev. Archibald Alison, and was the mother of Sir Archibald Alison, the historian.--ED.]

[Footnote 69: The house in which she died, in Portman Square.--ED.]