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Fanny Burney and the Courtesy Books

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Joyce Hemlow
Joyce Hemlow*
Affiliation:
McGill University Montreal, Canada
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Extract

Fanny Burney's diaries and the reading lists to be found in her unpublished notebooks and memorandum books yield many references to the courtesy writers and to the courtesy books and allied works widely read in her age. The date of Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son, often taken as the culminating point in studies of the courtesy literature for men, marks the beginning of an accelerated production of courtesy books for women. In 1759 Thomas Marriott, the author of Female Conduct, was rejoicing that “such an agreeable Theme” should have been so long reserved for him. As far as he could remember, “very few [had] touched this Subject in Prose, and None in Verse” to any appreciable length before him, so that he was able to appropriate, as he thought, an uncultivated “Spot of Ground in Parnassus.”1 In the following decades, however, the problem of the conduct of the young lady was investigated so thoroughly that the lifetime of Fanny Burney, or more accurately the years 1760–1820, which saw also the rise of the novel of manners, might be called the age of courtesy books for women.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 65 , Issue 5 , September 1950 , pp. 732 - 761
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1950

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References

1 The Preface to Female Conduct: being an Essay on the Art of Pleasing. To be practised by the Fair Sex, before, and after Marriage. A Poem, in two Boohs (1759,1760,1775).

2 “On the Death of Dr. Samuel Johnson”, Addresses to the Deity (Boston, 1813), pp. 161 ff.

3 A Series of Letters between Mrs. Elizabeth Carter and Miss Catherine Talbot, 4 vols. (1809), iii, 141.

4 (1776), pp. 116–117. For a discussion on problems of authorship, see Rose Mary Davis, “The Correspondents”, PMLA, LI (1936), 207–220.

5 The Early Diary of Frances Burney, ed. Annie Raine Ellis, 2 vols. (1913), 1,142.

6 By Madame d'Arblay (1832), ii, 184.

7 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), pp. 206–214.

8 Chapone's Letters, Gregory's Legacy, and Pennington's Advice (1830), p. 198.

9 (Dublin, 1785), ii, 103–104.

10 3 vols. (1791), n, 1–9. See also a reading list provided by Clara Reeve in the same work, ii, 42–43.

11 Emily, a Moral Tale, including Letters from a Father to his Daughter, upon the most important subjects, 2 vols. (1809), ii, 190–195.

12 xiv. Mr. Collins' speeches are everywhere larded with phrases characteristic of the courtesy books, and his address to Elizabeth Bennet and his expectations of her responses

13 The Rivals, I, i.

14 Pages 209–212. Mary Wollstonecraft states (p. 209) that she had “heard rational men use the word indecent, when they mentioned them [the Sermons] with disgust.” E.g., see Fordyce's Sermons, I, 58, and the passage (ii, 242) quoted in derision by Mary Wollstonecraft (p. 210).

15 Cf. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Learning How to Behave (1946), p. 12.

16 Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay, ed. Charlotte Barrett, 4 vols. (1893), iii, 421 (cited hereafter as Diary). See also Memoirs, ii, 302.

17 An unfinished “Essay on Propriety”, The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delany, ed. Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, 2 vols. (Boston, 1879), ii, 307.

18 In the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of the N. Y. Public Library. I am grateful to the Library for permission to read this play and to make short quotations from it.

19 Carter and Talbot's Letters, ii, 181; i

20 ii, 283–284. Cf. Diary, n, 2; iv, 70–71. See Diary (iv, 96), for a letter of condolence from Fanny Bumey to Mrs. Chapone on the death of her niece for whom the Letters were written: “Your ‘darling niece’… I had always fancied I had known, from the lively idea you had enabled me, in common with all others, to form of what she ought to be.”

21 This work, written in 1774, was printed with Mrs. Chapone's Letters on the Improvement of the Mind many times in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Dr. Gregory's section in Chapone's Letters, Gregory's Legacy, and Pennington's Advice (1830) pp. 131–172, will be cited hereafter as Dr. Gregory, A Legacy.

22 … for the Instruction of Young Ladies just leaving School and entering upon the Theatre of Life (1802), pp. 11–12.

23 5 vols. (1787), i, 43; iii, 68–69.

24 The Life and Letters of Sir George Saville, Bart., first Marquis of Halifax, with a new edition of his Works, ed. H. G. Foxcroft, 2 vols. (1898), II, 379–424. Lord Halifax's Advice to a Daughter was enthusiastically recommended in such courtesy works of the mid-century as Nathaniel Cotton's Visions in Verse (1751, 1755, 1760, 1767, 1776, 1781, 1790, 1807, 1808) or Thomas Marriott's Female Conduct (1759, 1760, 1775). TJius Thomas Marriott brings Lord Halifax up to date:

Read Halifax, and his Advice pursue.

Read me, for I prescribe some Precepts new;

His daughter's Welfare could not dearer be

To him, than that of ev'ry Nymph to me;

Changes of Times, and Fashions, still demand

New Lessons to instruct the Female Band;

Tho' following where these great Preceptors lead,

Yet, in a diff'rent Path, I devious tread, [p. 79]

25 Cf. Mr. Crisp's indoctrination of Fanny Burney in “things as they really are, in Truth and in Nature” (Early Diary, i,280–281).

26 Thus he urges the young miss to be modest in her dress (Fable x) :

When Caelia struts in man's attire,

She shews too much to raise desire;

But from the hoop's bewitching round

Her very shoe has pow'r to wound.

The roving eye, the bosom bare,

The forward laugh, the wanton air,

May catch the fop, for gudgeons strike

At the bare hook and bait alike.

27 Letters on Different Subjects, in four volumes; amongst which are interspers'd the Adventures of Alphonse, after the Destruction of Lisbon. By the Author of the Unfortunate Mother's Advice to her Absent Daughters, 4 vols. (1766), i, 5, 135–160; ii, 177–194.

28 For problems about dates and technical matters, see Albert Cahan's introduction to François de Salagnac de la Mothe-Fénelon, Les aventures de TiUmaque, 2 vols. (Paris, 1920), pp. ciii-cxiv.

29 … with Observations on Religious and Metaphysical Subjects. 21. Catharine Macaulay Graham is praised by Mary Wollstonecraft (p. 235) as “the woman of the greatest abilities, undoubtedly, that this country has ever produced.” In The Correspondents (p. 114) she is referred to as “a kind of prodigy.”

30 Works (1834–43), vii, 196–108.

31 Emile, ou, de l'éducation (Paris, 1848), pp. 505,559.

32 Clarissa (ii), in Works (1883), v, 415.

33 See Elements of General Knowledge, introductory to Useful Books in the Principal Branches of Literature and Science, with Lists of the most Approved Authors, 2 vols. (1815), ii, 485.

34 The Progress of Romance (Dublin, 1785), i, 86; ii, 103–104.

35 Holograph memorandum books and diaries for the years 1803,1805–07, in the Berg Collection of the N. Y. Public Library. I am very grateful to the Library for permission to complete the account of Fanny Burney's reading through reference to the unpublished material in its possession.

36 Catharine Macaulay Graham, p. 22.

37 Hannah More, Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education Salem, (1809), i, 30–33. Cf. Hannah More, “An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World”, Works (1835–43), v, 238.

38 Del'éducation des filles (Paris, 1920), p. 135.

39 Works (1830), IV, 358–369. Cf. Hannah More, Strictures, i,100–101; ii, 106–116.

40 Hannah More, Works (1830), iv, 365–366.

41 Holograph notebooks: “extract books”(5 vols). The Berg Collection, NYPL.

42 De l'éducation des filles, pp. 30,92.

43 La pensée française au xviii siècle (Paris, 1929), p. 165.

44 Henry Kett, Emily, i, 15. Cf. Mary Wollstonecraft, p. 231. Cf. a footnote by the Rev. Montagu Pennington, Carter and Talbot's Letters, in, 304. Cf. the same editor, Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, 3 vols. (1817), i, 327.

45 For descriptions of Right Reason in Emile, see pp. 343,345,467,503, 553, 590. Cicero's Right Reason is interpreted in the courtesy book Manners: Translated from the French Les Moeurs: wherein the Principles of Morality, or Social Duties … are described in all their Branches (1749), pp. xxx-xlvi.

46 The Work is usually attributed to Richard Allestree.

47 See Part ii, of The Works of the Learned and Pious Author of the Whole Duty of Man (1687) pp. 1–99.

48 Early Diary, i, 256–257. Fanny Burney's somewhat playful defence of novels and novelists in the preface to Evelina includes a reference to Rousseau's eloquence by which she is “charmed.”

49 MSS. Diary and Letters, p. 2461. The Berg Collection, NYPL. 60 E.g., Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, ii, 268.

50 E.g., Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, ii, 268.

51 (Paris, 1804), i, x, 148 ff. Rousseau's principles are attacked at intervals through the four volumes of this work.

52 See Mary Wollstonecraft (pp. 232–234) for a criticism of Madame de Genlis for her old-fashioned and orthodox opinions.

53 Holograph notebooks: “extract books” (5 vols.). The Berg Collection, NYPL.

54 Adèle el Théodore, I, 103–104, 211, 254, 386; II, 320–321; Iv, 90, 141–142.

55 5 Holograph notebooks written mostly in French, 1759–1806, The Berg Collection, NYPL.

56 Diary, II, 4, 161–162, 290, 398–399; III, 435.

57 Diary, II, 48–49, 519.

58 Holograph notebooks: “extract books” (5 vols.). The Berg Collection, NYPL.

59 The name of the editor, the date of publication, and the title page are missing in the only copy of this work I have seen, namely, that in Widener Library.

60 See, for instance, Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu (II, 245–246), where Miss Carter implores Mrs. Montagu to make some comment on the “profligate work” in order to counteract the “poison” and to expose “the execrable and wretched doctrines of this vile and anti-moral composition to the infamy and contempt it so highly deserves.” See also, Hannah More, “An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World,” Works (1835), v, 234; Maria and R. L. Edgeworth, Practical Education, 3 vols. (1801), II, 226.

61 II, 93–104. Successive translations and adaptations of Berquin were printed in England. One, The Looking-Glass for the Mind; or, Intellectual Mirror: being an Elegant Collection of the Most Delightful Little Stories & interesting Tales: chiefly translated from that much admired work, L'ami des Enfans, ran to 12 editions before 1812. The charm, clarity, simplicity, even the purpose of Berquin's work are lost in the heavy diction of his translators, who fail to adapt their styles, as he did his, to the children for whom the work was intended.

62 Adèle et Théodore, p. xviii. Catharine Macaulay Graham (p. 55) praised both Madame de Genlis and Berquin.

63 Letter to her sister Fanny in the Armagh Library, reproduced by R. Brimley Johnson, Fanny Burney and the Burneys (1926), pp. 130–131.

64 Holograph memorandum books and diaries for the years 1803, 1805–07, etc., The Berg Collection, NYPL.

65 The Houghton Library possesses vols, i-rx and vol. xn of Jane Austen's set of Berquin. It is a London edition (not a translation) of the work, different volumes of which were printed in successive months of the years 1782–83. The missing numbers (x and xi) are replaced by volumes from another set. Vol. v is inscribed “pour dear Jane Austen.”

66 Evenings at Home, or the Juvenile Budget opened. Consisting of a variety of miscellaneous pieces, for the instruction and amusement of young persons (1792–96) went through IS editions before 1826 and was reprinted in various forms till 1888. In 1915 the work appeared in Easy Readings, selected from “Evenings at Home in words of one syllable.” Printed in the elementary style of Pitman's shorthand.

67 Quoted by Jerom Murch, Mrs. Barbauld and her Contemporaries (1877), p. 126.

68 Quoted by Grace A. Ellis, A Memoir of Mrs. Anne Laetitia Barbauld, with many of her Letters, 2 vols. (Boston, 1874), i, 86–87.

69 Practical Education, ii, 81.

70 Letters of Susan Burney Phillips, reproduced by R. Brimley Johnson, Fanny Burney and the Burneys, pp. 130–131, 187–191.

71 Diary, ii, 240, 414; iii, 283.

72 Written across Mrs. Trimmer's letter of July 16, 1789, inviting Fanny Burney to visit her at Brentwood. The letter is preserved in Scrapbook: “Early letter book—Fanny Burney and her friends, 1759 to 1799” in the Berg Collection, NYPL. It is mentioned in Diary, iii, 283.

73 The most popular of Mrs. Trimmer's works was An Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature, and Reading the Holy Scriptures, adapted to the Capacities of Children, which ran to 11 editions before 1802. Her “Histories” for children were reprinted many times. Availing herself of an idea in Adèle el Theodore, which was translated into English in 1783, Mrs. Trimmer had small prints engraved representing events in sacred and profane history, either to be hung up in nurseries, or to be bound in small square books. The accompanying printed matter instructed the children to make proper reflections on what they saw. This pioneer in visual education seems to have made an impression on the age. See a passage quoted from Miss Yonge, Jerom Murch, pp. 127–128.

74 Memoirs, n, 302; in, 169. See also Diary, in, 421. Cf. R. Brimley Johnson's citation of

76 Early Diary, n, 47–75. Cf. Mrs. Phillips' description of General d'Arblay (Fanny Bur-ney's future husband) : “He seems to me a true militaire, franc el loyal—open as the day— warmly affectionate to his friends—intelligent, ready, and amusing in conversation, with a great share of gaité de cœur, and, at the same time, of naïveté and bonne foi” (Diary, iii, 455).

77 Early Diary, ii, 217–219.

78 See, for example, the sections on books and reading or on the dangers of stimulating the imagination in most of the works cited in this paper, including Richardson, Sir Charles Grandison (rv), in Works (1883), xii, 389–393. See also “The ill Repute of the Novel”, the writer's unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Courtesy-Book Element in Fanny Burney's Works, Radcliffe College, 1948. See also Maurice J. Quinlan, Victorian Prelude, a History of English Manners, 1700–1830 (1941), p. 115, for “The Spiritual Barometer”, a graph of sins copied from the Evangelical Magazine, vin (1800), 26. In this barometer, which undertook to grade the vices, the “Love of Novels” was placed at 40 degrees below zero, the “Centre of Indifference”, and more than half way to Perdition.

79 The present writer is engaged in research for this chapter and hopes shortly to write it.

80 Diary MSS, pp. 1770–71, 5682. The Berg Collection, NYPL.