The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay
Chapter 88 : [Footnote 70: No doubt Simon Nicolas Henri Linguet, a French author, who published nume

[Footnote 70: No doubt Simon Nicolas Henri Linguet, a French author, who published numerous works, historical and political, both before and after this date.--ED.]

[Footnote 71: In the original edition: perhaps "vexation" was the word intended.--ED.]

[Footnote 72: Sir John Ladd, Mr. Thrale's sister's son, a young profligate who subsequently married, not Miss Burney, but a woman of the town! Dr.

Johnson's satirical verses on his coming of age are printed near the end of Boswell's "Life."--ED.]

[Footnote 73: This was not the famous philosopher and statesman, but the Rev.

Thomas Franklin, D.D., who was born in 1721, and died in 1784. He published various translations from the cla.s.sics, as well as plays and miscellaneous works; but is best known for his translation of Sophocles, published in 1759.--ED.]

[Footnote 74: "Warley: a Satire," then just published, by a Mr. Huddisford.

"Dear little Burney's" name was coupled in it with that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, in a manner which seemed to imply that Sir Joshua had special reasons for desiring her approbation. It will be remembered that, before he knew that Miss Burney was the author of "Evelina," Sir Joshua had jestingly remarked that If the author proved to be a woman, he should be sure to make love to her. See ante, p. 94.--ED.]

[Footnote 75: Mrs. Horneck and Mrs. Bunbury (her eldest daughter) had declared that they would walk a hundred and sixty miles, to see the author of "Evelina."--ED.]

[Footnote 76: See note 37 ante.--ED,]

[Footnote 77: A kinsman of the great Edmund Burke, and, like him, a politician and member of Parliament. Goldsmith has drawn his character in "Retaliation."

"Here lies honest William, whose heart was a mint, While the owner ne'er knew half the good that was in 't; The pupil of impulse, it forced him along, His conduct still right, with his argument wrong Still aiming at honour, yet fearing to roam, The coachman was tipsy, the chariot drove home; Would-you ask for his merits? alas! he had none; What was good was spontaneous, his faults were his own."--ED.]

[Footnote 78: Henry Temple, second Viscount Palmerston, and father of the celebrated Lord Palmerston.--ED.]

[Footnote 79: Mrs. Cholmondeley imitates the language of Madame Duval, the French woman in "Evelina."--ED.]

[Footnote 80: A character in "Evelina."--ED.]

[Footnote 81: Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was born at Plympton, in Devons.h.i.+re, in 1723--ED.]

[Footnote 82: Mr. Qwatkin afterwards married Miss Offy Palmer.--ED.]

[Footnote 83: Afterwards Lady Crewe; the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Greville, and a famous Political beauty. At a supper after the Westminster election on the Prince of Wales toasting, "True blue and Mrs. Crewe," the lady responded, "True blue and all of you."--ED.]

[Footnote 84: A celebrated Italian singer and intimate friend of the Burneys.--ED.]

[Footnote 85: See note [15: ante, p. xxvi. The intended marriage above referred to above came to nothing, Miss c.u.mberland, the eldest daughter of the dramatist subsequently marrying Lord Edward Bentinck, son of the Duke of Portland.--ED.]

[Footnote 86: Miss Hannah More, the auth.o.r.ess.--ED.]

[Footnote 87: Hannah More gave Dr. Johnson, when she was first introduced to him, such a surfeit of flattery, that at last, losing patience, he turned to her and said, "Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having."--ED.]

[Footnote 88: Mrs. Vesey was the lady at whose house were held the a.s.semblies from which the term "blue-stocking" first came into use. (See ante.) f.a.n.n.y writes of her in 1779, "She is an exceeding well-bred woman, and of agreeable manners; but all her name in the world must, I think, have been acquired by her dexterity and skill in selecting parties, and by her address in rendering them easy with one another--an art, however, that seems to imply no mean understanding."--ED.]

[Footnote 89: Joseph Warton, author of the "Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope."--ED.]

[Footnote 90: Sheridan was at this time manager of Drury-lane Theatre--ED.]

[Footnote 91: Sir P. J. Clerke's bill was moved on the 12th of February. It pa.s.sed the first and second readings, but was afterwards lost on the motion for going into committee. It was ent.i.tled a "Bill for restraining any person, being a member of the House of Commons, from being concerned himself, or any person in trust for him, in any contract made by the commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, the commissioners of the Navy, the board of Ordnance, or by any other person or persons for the public service, Unless the said contract shall be made at a public bidding."--ED.]

[Footnote 93: Arthur Murphy, the well-known dramatic author, a very intimate friend of the Thrales. He was born in Ireland in 1727, and died at Knightsbridge in 1805. Among his most successful plays were "The Orphan of China" and "The Way to Keep Him."--ED.]

[Footnote 94: "The Good-natured Man."-ED]

[Footnote 95: Sophy Streatfield, a young lady who understood Greek, and was consequently looked upon as a prodigy of learning. Mrs. Thrale appears to have been slightly jealous of her about this time, though without serious cause. In January, 1779, she writes (in "Thraliana"): "Mr.

Thrale has fallen in love, really and seriously, with Sophy Streatfield; but there is no wonder in that; she is very pretty, very gentle, soft and insinuating; hangs about him, dances round him, cries when she parts from him, squeezes his hand slily, and with her sweet eyes full of tears looks fondly in his face--and all for love of me, as she pretends, that I can hardly sometimes help laughing in her face. A man must not be a man, but an it, to resist such artillery."--ED.]

[Footnote 96: Characters in the comedy which f.a.n.n.y was then engaged upon.--ED.]

[Footnote 97: Sir Philip Jennings Clerke--ED.]

[Footnote 98: The Rev. John Delap, D.D., born 1725, died 1812. He was a man "of deep learning, but totally ignorant of life and manners," and wrote several tragedies, two or three of which were acted, but generally without success,--ED.]

[Footnote 99: Mrs. Piozzi (then Mrs. Thrale) relates this story in her "Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson." "I came into the room one evening where he [Johnson]

and a gentleman [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.'"--ED.]

[Footnote 100: 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.']

[Footnote 101: Mr. Rose Fuller.--ED.]

[Footnote 102: 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.

f.a.n.n.y writes of him then as "an extremely agreeable man, and the very pink of gallantry." ("Early Diary," vol, ii. p. 106.)--ED.]

[Footnote 103: 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. f.a.n.n.y extols his urbanity and benevolence. See "Memoirs of Dr. Burney," vol. ii. p. 285.--ED.]

[Footnote 104: His dog.--ED.]

[Footnote 105: 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.--ED.]

[Footnote 106: Mr. Thrale was Member of Parliament for Southwark.--ED.]

[Footnote 107: Samuel Foote, the famous actor and writer of farces,--ED.]

[Footnote 108: 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 fas.h.i.+on. Elizabeth, Countess of Pembroke, was the sister of Lady Di Beauclerk, being the second daughter of the Duke of Marlborough.--ED.]

[Footnote 109: See note 15 ante.--ED.]

[Footnote 110: Young c.u.mberland, son of the author.--ED.]

[Footnote 111: General Blakeney.--ED.]

[Footnote 112: A character in f.a.n.n.y's suppressed comedy, "The Witlings."--ED.]

[Footnote 113: Not the celebrated George Selwyn, but a wealthy banker of that name.--ED.]

[Footnote 114: Lucrezia Agujari was one of the most admired Italian singers of the day. She died at Parma in 1783.--ED.]