Fanny Burney and Her Friends: Select Passages from Her Diary and Other Writings

Fanny Burney and Her Friends: Select Passages from Her Diary and Other Writings

BirthParentageThe MacburneysEarly Life of Dr. BurneyFulk GrevilleEsther SleepeLynnPoland StreetFrances Burneys Brothers and SistersHer Backwardness in ChildhoodHer Mothers DeathDavid GarrickThe Old LadyThe Wig-makerNeglect of Fannys EducationHer Taste for ScribblingSamuel CrispHis Early LifeHis TragedyIts FailureHis ChagrinHis Life at HamptonHis Retirement from the WorldCrisp renews his Acquaintance with BurneyBecomes the Adviser of the FamilyBurneys Amiable TemperChesington HallIts Quaint InteriorContrast between Fanny and her Elder SisterBurneys Second MarriageChange of PlansMrs. Burney lectures FannyAn Auto da FOrigin of EvelinaBurney takes his Doctors DegreeHis Essay on CometsPreparations for the History of MusicMusical Tour in France and ItalyHouse in Queen SquareGerman TourFannys Occupation during his AbsenceRemoval to St. Martins StreetNewtons HouseThe ObservatoryFannys Arrival at Womanhood. Frances Burney was born at Kings Lynn on the 13th of June, 1752. She was the second daughter, and third child, of Dr. Charles Burney, author of the well-known History of Music, by Esther Sleepe, his first wife. It has been stated,[1] we know not on what authority, that Dr. Burney was a descendant in the fifth degree of James Macburney, a native of Scotland, who attended King James I. when he left that country to take possession of the English throne. The doctor himself was certainly unacquainted with this fact, if fact it be. His grandfather and father were each named James Macburney, 2but they were both born at the village of Great Hanwood, in Shropshire, where the former inherited a considerable estate; there was no trace in their connections of Celtic extraction; and Charles has recorded that he could never find at what period any of his ancestors lived in Scotland or Ireland. Doubtless it was the adventures of the two historical James Macburneys which led Macaulay to conclude that the family was of Irish origin. James the younger offended his father by eloping with an actress from the Goodmans Fields Theater. The old gentleman could devise no more judicious mode of wreaking vengeance on his undutiful boy than by marrying the cook. He married some sort of domestic, at any rate, who brought him a son, named Joseph, to whom he left all his property. Joseph, however, soon ran through his fortune, and was reduced to earn his bread as a dancing-master in Norfolk. His elder brother James survived the actress, and though a poor widower with a swarm of children, gained the hand of Miss Ann Cooper, an heiress and beauty, who had refused the addresses of the celebrated Wycherley. After his second marriage, James followed the profession of a portrait-painter, first at Shrewsbury, and later at Chester. The number of his children rose to twenty-two; the youngest being Charles, afterwards Dr. Burney, and a twin sister, Susannah, who were born and baptized at Shrewsbury on the 12th of April, 1726; at which date their father still retained the name of Macburney. When and why the Mac was dropped we are not informed, but by the time Charles attained to manhood, the family in all its branchesuncles and cousins, as well as brothers and sistershad concurred in adopting the more compact form of Burney. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 57472
Author: Burney, Fanny
Release Date: Jul 10, 2018
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Seeley, L. B. (Leonard Benton), 1831-1893