The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-11-25

indications betrayed the secret. Mrs. Bur
ney was alarmed for the future of the girl:
for at that time the tales and poetry writ
ten by women were SO generally inferior or
silly, that it was a kind of a disgrace for a
woman to be suspected of authorship. 1t
was even reproach to woman to show
any taste for science, and love of know
ledge, or to manifest any interest whatever
in intellectual things. That, indeed, was
the period when the expression blue stoch-
ing, was applied to the ladies who gathered
about one of the literary lights of the day.
1t was term of reproach. Nothing sup
posed to be becoming to woman's mind,
but an interest in the toilet, and in the
routine of housekeeping.
Mrs. Burney, feeling the delicacy of her
position, refrained from interfering with
the secret pursuits of her step-danghter,
but she took frequent opportunities OF
descanting upon the folly of ladies scrib-
bling, upon the loss of time involved, and
in the waste of intellect in crude and TASTE
less inventions, and the disgrace it was to
a woman to be known as romantic-writer.
Such remarks produced their effect upon
the mind of this sensitive child. One day,
in her fifteenth year, Selling an opportunl-
ty when the elders of the family were from
home, she brought down her whole stock
of manuscripts into the yard, and made a
bonfire of them; the only witness of the
confagration besides herself being her Sis
ter, Susanna, who shed tears at the loss of
her favorite tales. Among the manuscripts
then consumed, was long story entitled
the History of Caroline Evelyn, which
she afterwards expanded into "Evellna.'
The young autho~ess vowed to write no
more.
Perhaps, for some weeks, she was true to
her vow; but nature was too strong for her
and she soon began to employ her leisure
hours in the old pursuit. During the next
few years, she was much engaged in copy
ing for her father, and otherwise assisting
him in preparing for publication his Musi-
cal Tours, and his History of Music. This
employment, with the proof-reading that
followed, was excellent training for her,
and familiarzed her mind with the process
by which works are brought before the pub
lie. In the meantime, she had completed
her work of Evelina, an extensive work,
divided into the customary three volumes.
1t was in the year 1776, when the eyes OF
the great world were fixed upon America
that the desire seized this bashful and timid
girl to see her story printed. AS she after
wards told King George the Third, she
thought "it would look very well i'll print
She entered upon the execution of her
scheme with the secresy Of a conspirator.
Communicating her plans to her sisters
only, who regarded the affair as delight
full frolic she began to copy her novel in
feigned hand. fearing lest her ordinary
writing, being familiar to printers, should
betray her.
But it was weary work copying such
mass of matter. When she had finished
two volumes, being thoroughly tired of the
monotonous labor, she tied them up in 4
bundle, and wrote an anonymous letter to a
publishrr, offering the manuscript for pub
LEGATION, and promising to send the rest OF
the work next year. One of her brothers,
who also regarded the business merely as 4
piece of fun, conducted the negotiation.
The first bookseller to whom it was offered,
got off by saying, that he never looked at
anything anonymous; but the second said,
he liked the work, and would be willing to
purchase it when it was complete.
Some weeks later she forwarded the rest
of the manuscript; and upon receiving it.
the publisher send to the author unknown,
an offer to purchase it for twenty pounds.
Both she and the whole circle of conspira-
tors, were overwhelmed at the munificence
of the offer, of which they fastened to sig
nifty their acceptance. The money was
received, and nothing more was heard of
the work for some months. One morning
in January, ITS, while the family were
seated at the breakfast table, Mrs Burney.
who had the morning paper in her hand,
CHANGED to read aloud the advertisement:
"This day is published, Evelina, or a
Young Lady's Entrance into the world
In three Volumes" etc.
We can easily imagine the scene in that
breakfast room-the blush and tremor of
the authoress, the awkward silence of the
other conspirators, the furtive glances
exchanged, and the speedy escape to where
the mighty event could be spoken of. Not
a word was uttered that could betray the
secret; although the work was soon brought
into the house, where it was read by Mrs.
Burney, and talked.of week after week, by
almost every one that came in. Six months
passed, as related above, before DR.. Bur
ney himself discovered the secret. His
Joy, his pride, his warm applause, removed
all occasion for further mystery, and the
name of Fanny Burney was soon familiar
to every household. DR.. Johnston said
her novel was better than any of Fielding's,
and Edmund Burke was one of her warm
est admirers.
Four years later, when she published her
second and greatest fiction, Cecilia, she
received for it, not twenty pounds merely,
but three thousand pounds, sum equal in
purchasing power, to about forty thousand
dollars in our present currency.
The street in which the publisher of this
work had his shop, was choked with the
carriages of people who came to buy it,
and Burke told the authoress that he had
sat up all night reading it. Since that
period, the art of novel writing hiss been
so improved, that the novel reader of the
present time will not find the stories of
Miss Burney very entertaining, and per-
haps not even readable. But in their day
they were as popular as the novels of Char
lotte Bronte and George Elliot now are.
The authoress received the absurd APP
pointment of Mistress of the Robes to the
Queen of England, which obliged her to
sacrifice five of the best years of her life
in the tedious round of Court attendance.
Escaping from this before it had quite
destroyed her. she married an exile officer,
General D'Arbloy, with whom she lived
happily for many years, and became the