D'ARBLAY, MADAME, originally Miss Frances Burney, was born at Lynnetiegis, on the 13th of June 1752, and was the second daughter of Charles Burcey, Mue. Doc., the author of the ' History of Music,' who was then organist in that town. Her mother, whom she lost when she was about nine years old, was partly of foreign descent, her maternal grandfather having been a French Protestant, who left his native country on the revocation of the edict of Nautess. Madame d'Arblay has given her own account of her early life in her INIemnire of her Father.' She there assures us that she was to backward when is child, that at the age of eight she was still ignorant of her letters. By the time that abe was ten, nevertheless, abe had begun of her own accord to exercise her talents in composition, and she was aeon incea santly busy in scribbling "elegies, odes, plays, songs, stories, farces, nay, tragedies and epic poems "—her confidante at this date being her youngest sister Susannah. At fifteen she burped all her early per , formancea ; but one of them, the ' History of Caroline Evelyn,' kept posses: ion of her memory and fancy, and gave rise to her conception of a sequel to it in the story of the daughter of her former heroine. This, we are told, was all "pent up in the inventor's memory" before she committed any of it to paper ; she then wrote down two volumes of it in a feigned hand, end employed her brother to offer them to a publisher. Dodaley declined the work as anonymous ; Lowndes, as unfinished. Upon this she completed it by dictating to her brother it third volume. Lowndes gave her 201. for the manuscript; and it was published under the title of Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Introduction to the World.' The impression left upon the reader by this detailed accouut is, that 'Evelina ' was written and published no very long time after the burning of the earlier story of ' Caroline Evelyn ;' and indeed it used to be generally understood, and has been repeatedly stated, that Miss Burney was only about seventeen when this her first novel appeared. The fact is, that it was published in the year 1778, when she was six-and-twenty. She goes on to inform us that it was written and given to the world without the knowledge of any cf her other relations except her sister and her two brothers; that she merely told her father, who used to employ her as his stnnuensis (on which account she had employed the dis guised hand in writing out the first two volumes), that she was going to print a little book ; that the work bad been six mouths published before he knew that it was hers; that the sat as a listener with the rest of the family while it was road through at a friend's house, where she was visiting, without her concern in it being suspected ; but that after a little time it began to make a great stir, passing from the favourable criticism of the Monthly Reviewers into the hands of the beautiful Mrs. Bunbury, from her to the Hon. Mrs. Cholmondeley, from her to Reynold., Burke, Johnson, and Mrs. Thrale. By the time
however that It reached thee° last the authoress was known, and they were her Intimate friends, and naturally disposed to admire and applaud. They appear in fact to have vied with one another in the enthusiasm with which they extolled the work, and hailed the wonderful genius who had suddenly started up among them. And ' Evelina' would no doubt have been in some respects a surprising production for is girl in her seventeenth year; but it is still more our priaing, upon the whole, as that of a young woman in her twenty-sixth. It is most probable however that it belongs not exactly to either extreme, but, that commenced early, it was revised and completed later ; as there is no doubt of the third volume having been added at the requisition of the publisher—the negociations with the booksellers commencing in 1776. The most striking characteristic of the work is the immaturity of mind which it displays, the girlishness of con ception that pervades it, the want of the power of penetrating beyond the outside shows and forms of things, the incapacity of appreciating motives and probabilities, the inconsistencies in the construction and movement of the story, and of the conduct at every turn of the per sons figuring in it. There la fluency indeed, and some occasional visacity, but much of it is made up of practical jocularity, and often of exaperation and the lowest farce. The chief merit is a lively description of the manners and the tone of conversation of the period. Miss Burney had certainly a strong sense of humour; this is shown in her 'Diary and Letters r but in all her novels it too often degenerates into more, 'and sometimes vulgar, caricature. Her second novel, 'Cecilia, or the Memoirs of an heiress; appeared in 1762. It la in 6 vols., and is a considerable improvement upon 'Evelina.' For more than a dozen years after the publication of ' Cecilia' the fair writer laid aside her pen. In July 1786 the was appointed one of the dressers or keepers of the robes to Queen Charlotte, and this situation she held for five years. In July 1793 she married M. Alexandre Piochard d'Arblay, a French emigrant artillery officer; and the same year she published an 8vo pamphlet, entitled ' Brief Reflections relative to the Emigrant French Clergy.' In 1795 her tragedy of 'Edwy and Elgiva' was brought out at Drury Lane; but it was 'speedily withdrawn, and was never printed. The next year she pro duced another five volume novel, 'Camilla, or a Picture of Youth,' which she published by subscription, thereby realising, it is said, above three thousand pounds. It is not rated by her admirers to high as either of its predecessors. In 1799 abe produced a comedy, 'Love and Fashion,' which was accepted by Mr. Harris of Covent Garden, but subsequently withdrawn nt the request of her father; but the did it unwillingly, telling him she had all her life intended wilting a comedy, and did not fear failure.