Memoirs of Doctor Burney, Volume 2: Arranged from His Own Manuscripts, from Family Papers, and from Personal Recollections

407 Pages·2010·3.91 MB·English

by  Fanny Burney (editor)

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Te systematic academic study of music gave rise to works of description,
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Memoirs of Doctor Burney
Charles Burney (1726–1814), the music historian, is best remembered for
his General History of Music and the accounts of his musical tours in Europe.
He was a friend of Samuel Johnson and David Garrick, corresponded with
Diderot and Haydn and was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1773.
Although he was a music teacher by profession, it was his writings on music
which brought him widespread recognition. Following publication of the
General History, he began his memoirs but did not complete them. It is
likely that he intended his daughter, the novelist Fanny Burney, to publish
the memoirs afer his death using his manuscript and other papers. Instead
she created her own embellished version, adding stylised accounts of events
emphasising the literary and social, rather than the musical aspects. Volume
2 is concerned with events from the mid-1770s to mid-1780s, including the
Handel commemoration concerts in 1784.
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Memoirs of
Doctor Burney
Arranged from His Own Manuscripts,
from Family Papers, and from Personal
Recollections
Volume 2
Edited by Fanny Burney
CAMBRID GE UnIVERSIt y PRESS
Cambridge, new york, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape town, Singapore,
São Paolo, Delhi, Dubai, tokyo
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, new york
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108013727
© in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2010
Tis edition frst published 1832
Tis digitally printed version 2010
ISBn 978-1-108-01372-7 Paperback
Tis book reproduces the text of the original edition. Te content and language refect
the beliefs, practices and terminology of their time, and have not been updated.
Cambridge University Press wishes to make clear that the book, unless originally published
by Cambridge, is not being republished by, in association or collaboration with, or
with the endorsement or approval of, the original publisher or its successors in title.
MEMOIRS
DOCTOR BURNEY,
ARRANGED
FROM HIS OWN MANUSCRIPTS, FROM FAMILY PAPERS, AND
FROM PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS.
BY
HIS DAUGHTER, MADAME D'ARBLAY.
' O could my feeble powers thy virtues trace,
By filial love each fear should be suppress'd ;
The blush of incapacity I'd chace,
And stand—Recorder of Thy worth!—confess'd."
Anonymous Dedication of Evelina, toDr.Burney, i » l / 7 8
THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
EDWARD MOXON, 64, NEW BOND STREET.
1832.
MEMOIRS
OP
DOCTOR BURNEY
SUCH, as far as can be gathered, or recollected,
was the list of the general home circle of Dr. Bur-
ney, on his beginning residence in St. Martin's-
street; though many persons must be omitted, not
to swell voluminously a mere catalogue of names,
where no comment, or memorandum of incident, has
been left of them by the Doctor.
But to enumerate the friends or acquaintances
with whom he associated in the world at large, would
be nearly to ransack the Court Calendar, the list of
the Royal Society, of the Literary Club, of all
assemblages of eminent artists; and almost every
other list that includes the celebrated or active cha-
racters, then moving, like himself, in the vortex of
public existence.
VOL. I. B
2 MEMOIRS OF DR. BURNEY.
Chiefly, however, after those already named, stood,
in his estimation, Mr. Chamier, Mr. Boone, Dr.
Warton, and his brother, Dr. Thomas Warton, Sir
Richard Jebb, Mr. Matthias, Mr. Cox, Dr. Lind,
and Mr. Planta, of the Museum.
OMIAH.
At the end of the year 177^, the Doctor's eldest
son, Captain James Burney, who, on board the
Cerberus, had convoyed General Burgoyne to Ame-
rica, obtained permission from the Admiralty to
return home, in order to again accompany Captain
Cooke in a voyage round the world; the second
circumnavigation of the young Captain ; the third,
and unhappily the last, of the great Captain Cooke.
Omiah, whom they were to restore to his country
and friends, came now upon a leave-taking visit to
the family of his favourite Captain Burney.
Omiah, by this time, had made some proficiency
in the English language, and in English customs;
and he knew the town so well, that he perambulated
it for exercise and for visits, without either inter-
preter or guide.
OMIAH.
But he owed quite as much assistance to attitude
and gesture, for making himself understood, as to
speech, for in that he was still, at times, quite unin-
telligible. To dumb shew he was probably familiar,
the brevity and paucity of his own dialect making
it necessarily a principal source of communication
at Ulitea and at Otaheite. What he knew of English
he must have caught instinctively and mechanically,
as it is caught by children ; and, it may be, only the
faster from having his attention unencumbered with
grammatical difficulties, or orthographical contrarie-
ties : yesterday served for the past, in all its dis-
tances : to-morrow, for the future, in all its depen-
dences.
The King allowed him a handsome pension, upon
which he lived perfectly at ease, and very happily:
and he entertained, in return, as gratefully loyal a
devotion to his Majesty as if he had been a native
born subject.
He was very lively, yet gentle; and even politely
free from any forwardness or obtrusion; holding
back, and keeping silent, when not called into notice,
with as much delicacy and reserve, as any well-bred
European. And his confidence in the benevolence
and honour of the strangers with whom he had
B <2