The Diary and Collected Letters of Madame D'Arblay, Frances Burney. Frances Burney
(Seward), whose abilities we all respect exceedingly, were sitting. A lady (Miss Streatfield), who walked in two minutes before me, had blown ’em both into a flame by whispering something to Mr. S—d, which he endeavoured to explain away so as not to affront the doctor, whose suspicions were all alive. ‘And have a care, sir,’ said he, just as I came in, ‘the Old Lion will not bear to be tickled.’ The other was pale with rage, the lady wept at the confusion she had caused, and I could only say with Lady Macbeth—‘Soh! you’ve displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting with most admired disorder.’"
69 The following note is in the hand-writing of Miss Burney, at a subsequent period. The objection of Mr. Crisp to the MS play of ‘The Witlings,’ was its resemblance to Moliere’s ‘Femmes Savantes,’ and consequent immense inferiority. It is, however, a curious fact, and to the author a consolatory one, that she had literally never read the ‘Femmes Savantes’ when she composed ‘The Witlings.’
70 Mr. Rose Fuller.
71 Anthony Chamier, M.P. for Tamworth, and an intimate friend of Dr. Burney’s. He was Under Secretary of State from 1775 till his death in 1780. We find him at one of Dr. Burney’s famous music-parties in 1775. Fanny writes of him then as “an extremely agreeable man, and the very pink of gallantry.” (“Early Diary,” vol, ii. p. 106.)
72 Afterwards Sir William Weller Pepys, Master in Chancery, and brother of the physician, Sir Lucas Pepys. He was an ardent lover of literature, and gave “blue-stocking” parties, which Dr. Burney frequently attended. Fanny extols his urbanity and benevolence. See “Memoirs of Dr. Burney,” vol. ii. p. 285.
73 His dog.
74 Mrs. Pleydell was a friend of Dr. Burney’s, and greatly admired for her beauty and the sweetness of her disposition. She was the daughter of Governor Holwell, one of the survivors from the Black Hole of Calcutta.
75 Mr. Thrale was Member of Parliament for Southwark.
76 Samuel Foote, the famous actor and writer of farces,
77 Lady Diana Spencer, eldest daughter of Charles, second Duke of Marlborough. She was born in 1734, married in 1760 to Viscount Bolingbroke, divorced from him in 1768, and married soon after to Dr. Johnson’s friend, Topham Beauclerk. Lady Di was an amateur artist, and the productions of her pencil were much admired by Horace Walpole and other persons of fashion. Elizabeth, Countess of Pembroke, was the sister of Lady Di Beauclerk, being the second daughter of the Duke of Marlborough.
78 See note 15 ante.
79 Young Cumberland, son of the author.
80 General Blakeney.
81 A character in Fanny’s suppressed comedy, “The Witlings.”
82 Not the celebrated George Selwyn, but a wealthy banker of that name.
83 Lucrezia Agujari was one of the most admired Italian singers of the day. She died at Parma in 1783.
84 The Rev. Henry Bate, afterwards Sir Henry Bate Dudley, editor of the “Morning Post” from its establishment in 1772 till 1780, in which year his connection with that paper came to an end in consequence of a quarrel with his coadjutors. On the 1st of November, 1780, he brought out the “Morning Herald” in opposition to his old paper, the “Post.” He assumed the name of Dudley in 1784, was created a baronet in 1813, and died in 1824. Gainsborough has painted the portrait of this ornament of the Church, who was notorious, in his younger days, for his physical strength, and not less so for the very unclerical use which he made of it. He was popularly known as the “Fighting Parson.”
(1780–1781)
A SEASON AT BATH: MR. THRALE’S DEATH
(There is a long hiatus here in the published “Diary,” and upon its resumption we find Fanny at Bath with the Thrales, in April, 1780; but from her letters to Mr. Crisp we learn that she returned, at Christmas, 1779, to her father’s house in St. Martin’s-street, and spent there the intervening period, frequently visiting, and being visited by, the Thrales. Bath was at this time the most fashionable summer resort in the kingdom. Fanny had been there before, in 1776 or 1777, but of that visit no account remains to us. She has recorded, however, in “Evelina,” her general impression of the place. “The charming city of Bath answered all my expectations. The Crescent, the prospect from it, and the elegant symmetry of the Circus, delighted me. The Parades, I own, rather disappointed me; one of them is scarce preferable to some of the best paved streets in London; and the other, though it affords a beautiful prospect, a charming view of Prior-park and of the Avon, yet wanted something in itself of more striking elegance than a mere broad pavement, to satisfy the ideas I had formed of it.
“At the pump-room, I was amazed at the public exhibition of the ladies in the bath; it is true, their heads are covered with bonnets; but the very idea of being seen, in such a situation, by whoever pleases to look, is indelicate.”
We may be sure Fanny never exhibited herself in such a situation. Of her drinking the waters, even, there is no mention in her Bath journal Of 1780. But the journal records a continual succession of visits and diversions, and keeps us entertained with the most life-like and amusing descriptions of Bath society. The house occupied by Mr. Thrale and his party was at the corner of the South-parade, and Fanny’s room commanded that beautiful prospect of Prior-park and the Avon which had charmed Evelina.
Amid all these gaieties there are glimpses of more serious scenes. The Gordon riots took place in June, 1780, and the alarm they occasioned spread far and wide over the country. The present section, too, closes with a melancholy incident— the death of Mr. Thrale. He had been long ailing, and had had a paralytic stroke in 1779. He died on the 4th of April, 1781. Probably no one felt the loss more keenly than Thrale’s old friend, ‘Dr. Johnson, in whose “Prayers and Meditations” occurs the following touching entry:—
“Good Friday, 13th April, 1781. On Wednesday, 11th, was buried my dear friend Thrale, who died on Wednesday, 4th; and with him were buried many of my hopes and pleasures. About five, I think, on Wednesday morning he expired. I felt almost the last flutter of his pulse, and looked for the last time upon the face that for fifteen years had never been turned upon me but with respect or benignity.”
A Youthful Prodigy
Bath, April 7—The journey was very comfortable; Mr. Thrale was charmingly well and in very good spirits, and Mrs. Thrale must be charming, well or ill. We only went to Maidenhead Bridge the first night, where I found the caution given me by Mr. Smelt,85 of not attempting to travel near Windsor on a hunting-day, was a very necessary one, as we were with difficulty accommodated even the day after the hunt; several stragglers remaining at all the inns, and we heard of nothing but the king and royal huntsmen and huntswomen. The second day we slept at Speen Hill, and the third day we reached Devizes.
And here Mrs. Thrale and I were much pleased with our hostess, Mrs. Laurence, who seemed something above her station in her inn. While we were at cards before supper, we were much surprised by the sounds of a pianoforte. I jumped up, and ran to listen whence it proceeded. I found it came from the next room, where the overture to the “Buona Figliuola” was performing. The playing was very decent, but as the music was not quite new to me, my curiosity was not whole ages in satisfying, and therefore I returned to finish the rubber.
Don’t I begin to talk in an old-cattish manner of cards?
Well, another deal was hardly played, ere we heard the sound of a voice, and out I ran again. The singing, however, detained me not long, and so back I whisked; but the performance, however indifferent in itself yet’ surprised us at the Bear however indifferent in itself, yet surprised us at Devizes, and therefore Mrs. Thrale determined to know from