Chapter III (2)

“Sir Joshua and Lord Palmerston were both at her side—oh, how notably
silly must I look! She again repeated her question of ‘Is it true?’
and I again affected not to understand her; and then Sir Joshua,
taking hold of her arm, attempted to pull her away, saying:

“‘Come, come, Mrs. Cholmondeley, I won’t have her overpowered here!’

“I love Sir Joshua much for this. But Mrs. Cholmondeley, turning to
him, said, with quickness and vehemence:

“‘Why, I ain’t going to kill her! don’t be afraid, I shan’t compliment
her!—I can’t, indeed!’”

Then came a scene in which Mrs. Cholmondeley pursued Fanny across the room, hunted her round the card-table, and finally drove her to take refuge behind a sofa, continually plying her with questions, and receiving her confused replies with exclamations of _Ma foi! pardie!_ and other phrases borrowed from Madame Duval. At length:

“_Mrs. Chol._: My Lord Palmerston, I was told to-night that nobody
could see your lordship for me, for that you supped at my house every
night! Dear, bless me, no! cried I, not every night! and I looked as
confused as I was able; but I am afraid I did not blush, though I
tried hard for it!

“Then again turning to me:

“‘That Mr. What-d’ye-call-him, in Fleet Street, is a mighty silly
fellow;—perhaps you don’t know who I mean?—one T. Lowndes,—but maybe
you don’t know such a person?’

“_F. B._: No, indeed, I do not!—that I can safely say.

“_Mrs. Chol._: I could get nothing from him: but I told him I hoped he
gave a good price: and he answered me, that he always did things
genteel. What trouble and tagging we had! Mr. —— laid a wager the
writer was a man:—I said I was sure it was a woman: but now we are
both out; for it’s a girl!

“In this comical, queer, flighty, whimsical manner she ran on, till we
were summoned to supper....

“When we broke up to depart, which was not till near two in the
morning, Mrs. Cholmondeley went up to my mother, and begged her
permission to visit in St. Martin’s Street. Then, as she left the
room, she said to me, with a droll sort of threatening look:

“‘You have not got rid of me yet: I have been forcing myself into your
house.’

“I must own I was not at all displeased at this, as I had very much
and very reasonably feared that she would have been by then as sick of
me from disappointment, as she was before eager for me from curiosity.

“When we came away, Offy Palmer, laughing, said to me:

“‘I think this will be a breaking-in to you!’”

We have next a visit to the house of the persecutor:

“On Monday last, my father sent a note to Mrs. Cholmondeley, to
propose our waiting on her the Wednesday following: she accepted the
proposal, and accordingly, on Wednesday evening, my father, mother,
and self went to Hertford Street.

“I should have told you that Mrs. Cholmondeley, when my father some
time ago called on her, sent me a message, that if I would go to see
her, I should not again be stared at or worried; and she acknowledged
that my visit at Sir Joshua’s was a formidable one, and that I was
watched the whole evening; but that upon the whole, the company
behaved extremely well, for they only ogled!

“Well, we were received by Mrs. Cholmondeley with great politeness,
and in a manner that showed she intended to entirely throw aside
Madame Duval, and to conduct herself towards me in a new style.

“Mr. and the Misses Cholmondeley and Miss Forrest were with her; but
who else think you?—why, Mrs. Sheridan! I was absolutely charmed at
the sight of her. I think her quite as beautiful as ever, and even
more captivating; for she has now a look of ease and happiness that
animates her whole face.

“Miss Linley was with her; she is very handsome, but nothing near her
sister: the elegance of Mrs. Sheridan’s beauty is unequalled by any I
ever saw, except Mrs. Crewe.[42] I was pleased with her in all
respects. She is much more lively and agreeable than I had any idea of
finding her: she was very gay, and very unaffected, and totally free
from airs of any kind.

“Miss Linley was very much out of spirits; she did not speak three
words the whole evening, and looked wholly unmoved at all that passed.
Indeed, she appeared to be heavy and inanimate.

“Mrs. Cholmondeley sat next me. She is determined, I believe, to make
me like her: and she will, I believe, have full success; for she is
very clever, very entertaining, and very much unlike anybody else.

“The first subject started was the Opera, and all joined in the praise
of Pacchierotti. Mrs. Sheridan declared she could not hear him without
tears, and that he was the first Italian singer who ever affected her
to such a degree.

“They then talked of the intended marriage of the Duke of Dorset with
Miss Cumberland, and many ridiculous anecdotes were related. The
conversation naturally fell upon Mr. Cumberland, and he was finely cut
up!

“‘What a man is that!’ said Mrs. Cholmondeley; ‘I cannot bear him—so
querulous, so dissatisfied, so determined to like nobody and nothing
but himself!’

“‘What, Mr. Cumberland?’ exclaimed I.

“‘Yes,’ answered she; ‘I hope you don’t like him?’

“‘I don’t know him, ma’am. I have only seen him once, at Mrs. Ord’s.’

“‘Oh, don’t like him for your life! I charge you not! I hope you did
not like his looks?’

“‘Why,’ quoth I, laughing, ‘I went prepared and determined to like
him; but perhaps, when I see him next, I may go prepared for the
contrary.’

“A rat-tat-tat-tat ensued, and the Earl of Harcourt was announced.
When he had paid his compliments to Mrs. Cholmondeley—

“‘I knew, ma’am,’ he said, ‘that I should find you at home.’

“‘I suppose then, my lord,’ said she, ‘that you have seen Sir Joshua
Reynolds; for he is engaged to be here.’

“‘I have,’ answered his lordship; ‘and heard from him that I should be
sure to find you.’

“And then he added some very fine compliment, but I have forgot it.

“‘Oh, my lord,’ cried she, ‘you have the most discernment of anybody!
His lordship (turning another way) always says these things to me, and
yet he never flatters.’

“Lord Harcourt, speaking of the lady from whose house he was just
come, said:

“‘Mrs. Vesey[43] is vastly agreeable, but her fear of ceremony is
really troublesome: for her eagerness to break a circle is such, that
she insists upon everybody’s sitting with their backs one to another;
that is, the chairs are drawn into little parties of three together,
in a confused manner, all over the room.’

“‘Why, then,’ said my father, ‘they may have the pleasure of caballing
and cutting up one another, even in the same room.’

“‘Oh, I like the notion of all things,’ cried Mrs. Cholmondeley; ‘I
shall certainly adopt it!’

“And then she drew her chair into the middle of our circle. Lord
Harcourt turned his round, and his back to most of us, and my father
did the same. You can’t imagine a more absurd sight.

“Just then the door opened, and Mr. Sheridan entered.

“Was I not in luck? Not that I believe the meeting was accidental; but
I had more wished to meet him and his wife than any people I know not.

“I could not endure my ridiculous situation, but replaced myself in an
orderly manner immediately. Mr. Sheridan stared at them all, and Mrs.
Cholmondeley said she intended it as a hint for a comedy.

“Mr. Sheridan has a very fine figure, and a good, though I don’t think
a handsome, face. He is tall, and very upright, and his appearance and
address are at once manly and fashionable, without the smallest
tincture of foppery or modish graces. In short, I like him vastly, and
think him every way worthy his beautiful companion.

“And let me tell you what I know will give you as much pleasure as it
gave me—that, by all I could observe in the course of the evening, and
we stayed very late, they are extremely happy in each other: he
evidently adores her, and she as evidently idolizes him. The world has
by no means done him justice.

“When he had paid his compliments to all his acquaintance, he went
behind the sofa on which Mrs. Sheridan and Miss Cholmondeley were
seated, and entered into earnest conversation with them.

“Upon Lord Harcourt’s again paying Mrs. Cholmondeley some compliment,
she said:

“‘Well, my lord, after this I shall be quite sublime for some days! I
shan’t descend into common life till—till Saturday, and then I shall
drop into the vulgar style—I shall be in the _ma foi_ way.

“I do really believe she could not resist this, for she had seemed
determined to be quiet.

“When next there was a rat-tat, Mrs. Cholmondeley and Lord Harcourt,
and my father again, at the command of the former, moved into the
middle of the room, and then Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr. Warton
entered.

“No further company came. You may imagine there was a general roar at
the breaking of the circle, and when they got into order, Mr. Sheridan
seated himself in the place Mrs. Cholmondeley had left, between my
father and myself.

“And now I must tell you a little conversation which I did not hear
myself till I came home; it was between Mr. Sheridan and my father.

“‘Dr. Burney,’ cried the former, ‘have you no older daughters? Can
this possibly be the authoress of ‘Evelina’?’

“And then he said abundance of fine things, and begged my father to
introduce him to me.

“‘Why, it will be a very formidable thing to her,’ answered he, ‘to be
introduced to you.’

“‘Well, then, by-and-by,’ returned he.

“Some time after this, my eyes happening to meet his, he waived the
ceremony of introduction, and in a low voice said:

“‘I have been telling Dr. Burney that I have long expected to see in
Miss Burney a lady of the gravest appearance, with the quickest
parts.’

“I was never much more astonished than at this unexpected address, as
among all my numerous puffers the name of Sheridan has never reached
me, and I did really imagine he had never deigned to look at my trash.

“Of course I could make no verbal answer, and he proceeded then to
speak of ‘Evelina’ in terms of the highest praise; but I was in such a
ferment from surprise (not to say pleasure), that I have no
recollection of his expressions. I only remember telling him that I
was much amazed he had spared time to read it, and that he repeatedly
called it a most surprising book; and some time after he added: ‘But I
hope, Miss Burney, you don’t intend to throw away your pen?’

“‘You should take care, sir,’ said I, ‘what you say: for you know not
what weight it may have.’

“He wished it might have any, he said; and soon after turned again to
my father.

“I protest, since the approbation of the Streathamites, I have met
with none so flattering to me as this of Mr. Sheridan, and so very
unexpected....

“Some time after, Sir Joshua returning to his standing-place, entered
into confab with Miss Linley and your slave, upon various matters,
during which Mr. Sheridan, joining us, said:

“‘Sir Joshua, I have been telling Miss Burney that she must not suffer
her pen to lie idle—ought she?’

“_Sir Joshua_: No, indeed, ought she not.

“_Mr. Sheridan_: Do you then, Sir Joshua, persuade her. But perhaps
you have begun something? May we ask? Will you answer a question
candidly?

“_F. B._: I don’t know, but as candidly as _Mrs. Candour_ I think I
certainly shall.

“_Mr. Sheridan_: What then are you about now?

“_F. B._: Why, twirling my fan, I think!

“_Mr. Sheridan_: No, no; but what are you about at home? However, it
is not a fair question, so I won’t press it.

“Yet he looked very inquisitive; but I was glad to get off without any
downright answer.

“_Sir Joshua_: Anything in the dialogue way, I think, she must succeed
in; and I am sure invention will not be wanting.

“_Mr. Sheridan_: No, indeed; I think, and say, she should write a
comedy.

“_Sir Joshua_: I am sure I think so; and hope she will.

“I could only answer by incredulous exclamations.

“‘Consider,’ continued Sir Joshua, ‘you have already had all the
applause and fame you can have given you in the closet; but the
acclamation of a theatre will be new to you.’

“And then he put down his trumpet, and began a violent clapping of his
hands.

“I actually shook from head to foot! I felt myself already in Drury
Lane, amidst the hubbub of a first night.

“‘Oh no!’ cried I; ‘there may be a noise, but it will be just the
reverse.’ And I returned his salute with a hissing.

“Mr. Sheridan joined Sir Joshua very warmly.

“‘Oh, sir!’ cried I; ‘you should not run on so—you don’t know what
mischief you may do!’

“_Mr. Sheridan_: I wish I may—I shall be very glad to be accessory.”

We gather from the remarks made by Mrs. Cholmondeley and Sheridan in the preceding extracts that Miss Burney at this time looked much younger than she really was. With her low stature, slight figure, and timid air, she did not seem quite the woman. Probably this youthful appearance may have helped to set afloat the rumour which confounded the age of her heroine with her own. An unmarried lady of six-and-twenty could hardly be expected to enter a formal plea of not guilty to the charge of being only a girl; yet we shall see presently that Mrs. Thrale was pretty well informed as to the number of Fanny’s years.

Some readers may be tempted to think that, with all her coyness, she was enraptured by the pursuit of her admirers. This is only to say that she was a woman. We must remember, moreover, that the Diary which betrays her feelings was not written with any design of publication, but consisted of private letters, addressed chiefly to her sister Susan, and intended to be shown to no one out of her own family, save her attached Daddy Crisp. ‘If,’ says Macaulay very fairly, ‘she recorded with minute diligence all the compliments, delicate and coarse, which she heard wherever she turned, she recorded them for the eyes of two or three persons who had loved her from infancy, who had loved her in obscurity, and to whom her fame gave the purest and most exquisite delight. Nothing can be more unjust than to confound these outpourings of a kind heart, sure of perfect sympathy, with the egotism of a blue stocking, who prates to all who come near her about her own novel or her own volume of sonnets.’

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Footnote 31:

‘There was no want of low minds and bad hearts in the generation which
witnessed her first appearance. There was the envious Kenrick and the
savage Wolcot, the asp George Steevens and the polecat John Williams.
It did not, however, occur to them to search the parish register of
Lynn, in order that they might be able to twit a lady with having
concealed her age. That truly chivalrous exploit was reserved for a
bad writer of our own time, whose spite she had provoked by not
furnishing him with materials for a worthless edition of Boswell’s
Life of Johnson, some sheets of which our readers have doubtless seen
round parcels of better books.’—_Macaulay’s Essay._ This passage has
been often quoted and admired. Yet is not such writing rather too much
in the style of Mr. Bludyer, who, the reader will remember, was
reproached with mangling his victims? Compare Macaulay’s swashing blow
with the deadly thrust of a true master of sarcasm. ‘Nobody was
stronger in dates than Mr. Rigby; ... detail was Mr. Rigby’s forte;
... _it was thought no one could lash a woman like Rigby_. Rigby’s
statements were arranged with a formidable array of dates—rarely
accurate.’—_Coningsby._

Footnote 32:

The first edition consisted of 800 copies, the second of 500, the
third of 1,000. A fourth edition, the extent of which was not
divulged, followed in the autumn. After the third edition, Lowndes
paid the author a further sum of ten pounds in full satisfaction of
any claim or expectation which she or her friends might found on the
continued success of the book.

Footnote 33:

Mr. Crisp to Miss Burney, January, 1779: “Do you remember, about a
dozen years ago, how you used to dance ‘Nancy Dawson’ on the
grass-plot, with your cap on the ground, and your long hair streaming
down your back, one shoe off, and throwing about your head like a mad
thing!”

Footnote 34:

The sea-captain in ‘Evelina.’

Footnote 35:

Diary, i., p. 18; Memoirs, ii., p. 149.

Footnote 36:

Lockhart’s ‘Life of Scott.’ vi., p. 388. There seems to be some
trifling discrepancy between the different accounts, both as to the
date and the exact occasion of this incident.

Footnote 37:

‘I have this to comfort me: that, the more I see of sea-captains, the
less reason I have to be ashamed of Captain Mirvan; for they have all
so irresistible a propensity to wanton mischief, to roasting beaux and
detesting old women, that I quite rejoice I showed the book to no one
ere printed, lest I should have been prevailed upon to soften his
character.’—Diary, May 28, 1780.

Footnote 38:

Suspirius the Screech Owl. See ‘Rambler’ for Tuesday, October 9,
1750.

Footnote 39:

She was then building her famous house in Portman Square.

Footnote 40:

Mrs. Horneck was the wife of General Horneck. Her two daughters,
Mrs. Bunbury and Miss Horneck (afterwards Mrs. Gwynn), were
celebrated beauties, and their portraits rank among the best
productions of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s pencil. Mary Horneck was
Goldsmith’s Jessamy Bride, and became the wife of one of George
III.’s equerries; her sister married Harry Bunbury, ‘the graceful
and humorous amateur artist,’ as Thackeray calls him, ‘of those
days, when Gilray had but just begun to try his powers.’

Footnote 41:

Henry Temple, second Viscount Palmerston, father of the Prime
Minister.

Footnote 42:

Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Greville; afterwards Lady Crewe.

Footnote 43:

Well known as the founder of the _bas bleu_ meetings, and the author
of the name. Mr. Edward Stillingfleet, a writer on natural history,
who was one of her favourite guests, always wore blue stockings, and
a phrase used by her, ‘Come in your blue stockings,’ or ‘We can do
nothing without the blue stockings,’ caused the _bas bleu_ to be
adopted as the symbol of her literary parties.

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