Memoirs of Doctor Burney, Volume 3: Arranged from His Own Manuscripts, from Family Papers, and from Personal Recollections

443 Pages·2010·4.82 MB·English

by  Fanny Burney (editor)

Cambridge Library CoLLeCtion
Books of enduring scholarly value
Music
The systematic academic study of music gave rise to works of description,
analysis and criticism, by composers and performers, philosophers and
anthropologists, historians and teachers, and by a new kind of scholar -
the musicologist. This series makes available a range of significant works
encompassing all aspects of the developing discipline.
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 after 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
3 details the years from the death of Samuel Johnson in 1784 to Burney’s own
death in 1814.
Cambridge University Press has long been a pioneer in the reissuing of
out-of-print titles from its own backlist, producing digital reprints of
books that are still sought after by scholars and students but could not be
reprinted economically using traditional technology. The Cambridge Library
Collection extends this activity to a wider range of books which are still of
importance to researchers and professionals, either for the source material
they contain, or as landmarks in the history of their academic discipline.
Drawing from the world-renowned collections in the Cambridge
University Library, and guided by the advice of experts in each subject area,
Cambridge University Press is using state-of-the-art scanning machines
in its own Printing House to capture the content of each book selected for
inclusion. The files are processed to give a consistently clear, crisp image,
and the books finished to the high quality standard for which the Press
is recognised around the world. The latest print-on-demand technology
ensures that the books will remain available indefinitely, and that orders for
single or multiple copies can quickly be supplied.
The Cambridge Library Collection will bring back to life books of enduring
scholarly value (including out-of-copyright works originally issued by other
publishers) across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social
sciences and in science and technology.
Memoirs of
Doctor Burney
Arranged from His Own Manuscripts,
from Family Papers, and from Personal
Recollections
Volume 3
Edited by Fanny Burney
CAMBRIDGE UnIVERSIty 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/9781108013734
© in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2010
This edition first published
This digitally printed version 2010
ISBn 978-1-108-01373-4 Paperback
This book reproduces the text of the original edition. The content and language reflect
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, to Dr. Burney, in \~7H.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
EDWARD MOXON, 64, NEW BOND STREET.
1832.

MEMOIRS
OF
DOCTOR BURNEY.
1784.
DR. JOHNSON.
Towards the end of this year, Dr. Johnson began
again to nearly monopolize the anxious friendship
of Dr. Burney.
On the l6th of November, Dr. Johnson, in the
carriage, and under the revering care of Mr. Wind-
ham, returned from Litchfield to the metropolis;
after a fruitless attempt to recover his health by
breathing again his natal air.
The very next day, he wrote the following note
to St. Martin's-street.
" To DR. BURNEY.
" Mr. Johnson, who came home last night, sends
VOL. III. B
2 MEMOIRS OP DR. BURNEY.
his respects to dear Dr. Burney; and to all the
dear Burneys, little and great.
" Bolt Court, 17th Nov. 1784."
Dr. Burney hastened to this kind call immedi-
ately ; but had the grief to find his honoured friend
much weakened, and in great pain; though cheer-
ful, and struggling to revive. AH of the Doctor's
family who had had the honour of admission, has-
tened to him also ; but chiefly his second daughter,
who chiefly and peculiarly was always demanded.
She was received with his wonted, his never-failing
partiality; and, as well as the Doctor, repeated her
visits by every opportunity during the ensuing short
three weeks of his earthly existence.
She will here copy, from the diary she sent to
Boulogne, an account of what, eventually, though
unsuspectedly, proved to be her last interview with
this venerated friend.
To MRS. PHILLIPS.
251h Nov. 1784.—Our dear father lent me the
carriage this morning for Bolt Court, You will
easily conceive how gladly I seized the opportunity
for making a longer visit than usual to my revered
3
DR. JOHNSON.
Dr. Johnson, whose health, since his return from
Litchfield, has been deplorably deteriorated.
He was alone, and I had a more satisfactory and
entertaining conversation with him than I have had
for many months past. He was in better spirits, too,
than I have seen him, except upon our first meeting,
since he came back to Bolt Court.
He owned, nevertheless, that his nights were
grievously restless and painful; and told me that
he was going, by medical advice, to try what sleep-
ing out of town might do for him. And then, with
a smile, but a smile of more sadness than mirth!—
he added: " I remember that my wife, when she
was near her end, poor woman!—was also advised
to sleep out of town : and when she was carried to
the lodging that had been prepared for her, she
complained that the staircase was in very bad con-
dition ; for the plaister was beaten off the walls in
many places. ' O! ' said the man of the house,
• that's nothing ; it's only the knocks against it of
the coffins of the poor souls that have died in the
lodging.'»
He forced a faint laugh at the man's brutal
honesty; but it was a laugh of ill-disguised, though
checked, secret anguish.
B 2