Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/67

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great industry, but little judgment, whose romantic interest in Aram led him to collect everything referring to him in the slightest degree. A contemporary account, carefully compiled by W. Bristow, and including Aram's defence and most of his other compositions, was printed at Knaresborough and in London in 1759, and often since. The best edition is that printed at Richmond in 1832. See also the Annual Register for 1759, pp. 360-65. Aram is probably best known from the highly idealised portrait in Bulwer's brilliant novel. Bulwer derived the idea of this work from Godwin, who had meditated a romance on the same subject, but he departed from his original. Bulwer makes his hero, temporarily bewildered by sophistry, a malefactor on utilitarian principles for the general good of mankind. Godwin aimed at inculcating that 'no man shall die respecting whom it can be reasonably concluded that, if his life were spared, it would be spent blamelessly, honourably, and usefully' (Kegan Paul, William Godwin, ii. 305). Hood's Dream of Eugene Aram is known to all readers of poetry.]

R. G.

ARBLAY, FRANCES (BURNEY), Madame d' (1752–1840), novelist, was born 13 June 1752, at King's Lynn, where her father, Dr. Burney, was then organist. He had been married in 1749 to her mother, Esther Sleepe, the granddaughter of a French refugee named Dubois. Frances was one of six children, of whom Esther (afterwards Mrs. Burney, of Bath) and James (afterwards Admiral Burney) were older, Susannah (Mrs. Phillips), Charles (a well-known Greek scholar), and Charlotte (Mrs. Clement Francis, and afterwards Mrs.Broome) younger than herself. In 1760 Dr. Burney moved to London, where his whole time was soon absorbed in giving music lessons and in social engagements. The death of his wife, 28 Sept. 1761, broke up his household, and Dr. Burney sent Esther and Susannah to a school in Paris. Frances was detained at home from a fear lest her reverence for her maternal grandmother, then living in France, should cause her conversion to Catholicism. Dr. Burney was married again in 1766 to Mrs. Stephen Allen, who seems to have been a kind stepmother. A scheme of sending Frances to follow her sisters was then abandoned. She was thus entirely self-educated, her father having no time to spare even for directing her studies. She was a backward child, and did not know her letters when eight years old. At ten she began scribbling stories, farces, tragedies, and epic poems, till her conscience smote her for this waste of time, and on her fifteenth birthday (preface to Wanderer) she burnt all her manuscripts. The heroine of the last story consumed was Caroline Evelyn, the mother of Evelina. The situation struck her fancy, and she continued to work out Evelina's adventures in her head. The story was not written down till it was fully composed, when the first two volumes were offered to Dodsley by her brother Charles. Dodsley declined to deal for an anonymous work. It was then offered to Lowndes, who asked to see the whole. She now confided her secret to her father, who treated the matter as a joke, made no objection to her plan, and ‘dropped the subject.’ The completed book was then sent to Lowndes, who gave 20l., to which he subsequently added 10l. and ten handsomely bound copies. It was published anonymously in January 1778, under the title of ‘Evelina, or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World.’ It was favourably received and soon attracted notice. Dr. Burney, on reading it, recognised his daughter's work. He confided the secret to Mrs. Thrale, to whose daughter he had given music lessons. Mrs. Thrale had discussed it with Dr. Johnson, who said that he ‘could not get rid of the rogue,’ and declared that ‘there were passages which might do honour to Richardson.’ He got it almost by heart, and mimicked the characters with roars of laughter. Sir Joshua Reynolds took it up at table, was so absorbed in it that he had to be fed whilst reading, and both he and Burke sat up over it all night. No story since ‘Clarissa Harlowe’ had succeeded so brilliantly. Miss Burney expressed her delight on hearing some of this news by rushing into the garden and dancing round a mulberry tree—a performance which in her old age she recounted to Sir W. Scott (Scott's Diary for November 1826). This was at Chessington, near Epsom, the retreat of an old friend of her father's, Samuel Crisp, who had retired from the world in disgust at the failure of a play and some loss of money (Memoir of Dr. Burney, i. 179). Miss Burney loved him, called him ‘daddy,’ and wrote to him long and amusing letters. She was now introduced to Mrs. Thrale, and during the next two or three weeks became almost domesticated in the family. She spent many months at Streatham, and was greatly caressed by Dr. Johnson, whom, though he was an old acquaintance of her father's, she seems only to have seen once before. Mrs. Thrale pressed her to write a comedy. Sheridan, whom she met at Sir Joshua's, declared that he would accept anything of hers unseen; and the playwright Murphy offered her the benefit of his experience. Thus prompted, she wrote the ‘Witlings,’ and submitted it to the judgment of Mr. Crisp and her father. It was suppressed in deference to ‘a hissing, groaning,