59 - To Charles Burney, London, 5 November [1773]

Summary

Charles Burney (1726–1814), Shrewsbury-born musician and historian, was apprenticed in 1744 to Thomas Arne as the latter commenced in his post as composer to Drury Lane Theatre in London. Burney made the acquaintance of David Garrick in 1745 at the home of Arne's sister, the famous actress Susannah Cibber. In the 1760s Burney would compose music for Drury Lane. The University of Oxford awarded Burney the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Music in 1769. In 1770 he left London to tour the continent with a view to collecting materials for his most cherished project, A General History of Music, the first volume of which would be published in 1776. The previous letter indicates that in June 1773 Goldsmith was not yet personally acquainted with Burney. Though acquainted with Samuel Johnson from the mid-1760s, Burney would not become a member of the Club until 1784, which may explain the relative lateness of his acquaintance with Goldsmith. The informality of tone in this communication, and the reference to the passing between them of a map, suggests that they had become friendly in the intervening months as Goldsmith engaged in preparatory work for his proposed Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences.

The copy-text is the manuscript fragment, unsigned, now in the possession of Loren R. Rothschild of Los Angeles, California, and never before published. It was addressed ‘To Dr. Burney. St. Martin's Street | Leicester Fields | London’ and postmarked 5 November. We date it 1773 for the reasons given above.

[…] plain dress, for an ordinary man or woman, implies at least Modesty, & always procures kind quarter from the Censorious — Who will ridicule a personal Imperfection in one Who that seems conscious that it is an imperfection? Who ever said an Anchoret was? poor? But who w^d. spare so very absurd a Wronghead, as sh^d bestow Tinsel to make his deformity the more Conspicuous?

I have just Parted with an immense beau one Mr Thomspson — the ugliest man I think I ever saw. I know but little of him, or of his Character & Am in doubt whether I sh’d to put him down for a Great fool or a smatterer in Wit — Something, methinks, I saw wrong in him by his dress: If this fellow delights not so much in ridicule that he will not spare himself, he must be plaguy silly to take such pains to make his ugliness more conspicuous that it w^d.