BURNEYANA

NLY the other day, we stood looking at the deso- 0 late spot in St. Martin’s Street, once occupied by the happy home of the Burneys, and Dr. Johnson’s dictum about that gifted family came to our mind : ‘ I love all of that breed whom I can be said to know, and one or two I hardly know, I love on credit.’ And lo I on returning from our stroll, we found this new and valuable volume of Burneyana’ with those very words inscribed on its title-page. Mr. Brimley Johnson, who has already delved to such good purpose in eighteenth century quarries, here gives us a delightful miscellany. It is made u of hitherto unused material

from contemporary newspapers, and the result is a ‘full-length family group’ of all the Burneys. By far the best part of the book consists of a reproduction of the suppressed passages in Madame d’ Arblay’s Journal during her stay in France in 1802 and the suc- ceeding years. These are full of interest, and in their vividness are well worthy of one who was at once the greatest diarist and all but the greatest novelist of her period.

The editor in his introduction rightly praises Fanny Burney’s incomparable literary picture-painting, and extols her as perhaps the shrewdest observer of human nature who ever created fictions in the likeness of man. In 1802, Bonaparte was on the eve of the Consulate for Life, and Paris presented a curious spectacle, of which we are here given many glimpses. While some of the entries are of a very intimate character, others were written to be read to Queen Charlotte and her

’Fanny Burney and the Burneys. Edited by R. Brimley Johnson. (London : Stanley Paul, 1926 ; 16/- net.)

from manuscript journa f s and correspondence, and

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Blacbiars

daughters at Windsor, and are therefore of the full- dress order. In them we see portrayed the gradual evolution of the Consular Court, the ci-devant noblesse prostrating themselves before the rising sun, and the First Consul reviewing his Mameluke troops ; and have a graphic account of a speech day at Madame de Campan’s school, at which were con- spicuous the future Queen Hortense, the Murats- so soon to reign in Naples, the Margravine of Anspach (the former Lady Craven), and the well-known Eng- lish Catholic, Chevalier Jerningham. We meet also Mdme. de Stael, Mdme. de la Fayette, Lord Whit- worth, the British Ambassador, the famous AbbC Sicard, apostle of the deaf and dumb, and other inter- esting personages; and we fall in with bodies of the troops who were then converging on Boulogne for the projected invasion of England.

The other parts of Mr. Brimley Johnson’s book are less engrossing (Susan Burney’s Diary-she had not her sister’s gifts-might with advantage have been compressed), but Dr. Burney (the father of the family, and author of the History of Music) makes some read- able contributions. His account of a nun of St. Ursula taking the veil in Rome in 1771 is highly enter- taining-the brown hair of the postulant was ‘ curled all over her head e;12 t t te de moutbn,’ her blue and silver embroidered and diamond be-spangled gown was drawn over a large hoop, she had ‘ the finest teeth in the world and a genteel shaped visage.’ But the band of musicians engaged in her honour, though they ‘played neatly,’ were overpowered in their sym- phonies and accompaniments by the organ; while several other bands, of a much superior quality to that in the chapel, were discoursing sweet melody mean- while in the interior of the convent, pending the arri- val there of the ‘ human sacrifice,’ who appeared to Dr. Burney’s keen eyes to be first pale and then red, pout-

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Burneyana

ing, and on the verge of tears, yet ‘very heroical’ and ‘so circumstanced, a beauty,’ although anywhere else only ‘ a pretty woman.’ The editor gives us some examples of Dr. Burney’s poetical talents, though neither he nor we can say much in praise of them. T h u s the Doctor sings of Garrick’s death :

‘ Hilarity missed him, each Muse dropped a tear, And Genius and Feeling attend his bier.’

And of his friend Dr. Johnson : ‘ Huge Briareus’s heads, if old bards have not blundered, Amounted in all to the sum of one hundred: And Johnson-= wide his intelligence spreads, Has the brains of-at least-the same number of heads. ’

Further sections of the book are devoted by Mr. Brimley Johnson to Fanny’s brothers (i) James Burney the Admiral, who began life as Eugene Aram’s pupil, went to sea with Captain Cook, and ended up as the triend of Lamb and Wordsworth. ‘ Sailor James ’ was not of the most refined, yet Dr. Johnson wondered at his gentle and humane manner after he had lived so long among sailors and savages. And (ii) Charles Burney the scholar, whose enormous library was pur- chased by Parliament for the British Museum, and whom Dr. Parr called ‘ the t h i d Greek scholar in Europe ’ (meaning himself and Porson as the first and second).

As a whole, the present volume is of such a supple- mentary character that it can only be thoroughly en- joyed by those who have a working knowledge of Madame d’Arblay’s diaries and novels, and at least some such acquaintance with the whole Burney family as may be gained from Hill’s Home in St. Martin’s Street. But within this limited circle, the booB Will be highly appreciated.

ROBERT BRACEY, -0.P.