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D'ARBLAY, MADAMR, 



DAROAN, WILLIAM. 



witnesses were called against liim, bis own witnmaes wire refused to 

 bo )>e*nl, ami he ami a 1 bi companions w*re declared to be guilty. 

 They were executed nn the 5th of April. Danton, only for a moment 

 shaken by the recollection of hit young wife, died with undaunted 

 courage. H belonged to the school of the French materialist*, nod 

 di I uot believe in the iinoiortality of tlje foul. " Soon," said be to the 

 executioner, " I shall fill back into my original uothiagnra ; yet my 

 name chull live fur ever in the pantheon of luxt >ry." 



li'AKl'.I.AY. MADAME, originally Mat France* Sanity, was born 

 at Lynn-Kepis, onih.- 13th of June 1752, and was the second daughter 

 of Charles Burney, Mu*. 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 for. ign descent, her 

 maternal grandfather having been a French Protestant, who left bis 

 native country on the revocation of the edict of Mantes. Madame 

 d'ArUay has given her own account of her early life in her ' Memoirs 

 of her rather.' She there assures us that she was so backward when 

 a child, that at the age of eight she was still ignorant of her letters. 

 By the time that she was ten, nevertheless, she had begun of her own 

 accord to exercise her talents in composition, and she was scon inces- 

 santly busy in scribbling " elegies, odes, plays, songs, stories, farces, 

 nay, tragedies and rpic poems " her confidante at this date being her 

 young.st stter Susannah. At fifteen she burned all her early per- 

 formances ; but one of them, the ' History of Caroline Evelyn,' kept 

 possession of her memory and fancy, and gave rUe 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 

 hhe committed any of it to paper ; she then wrote down two volumes 

 of it in a feigned band, and employed her brother to offer them to a 

 publisher. Dodsley declined the work as anonymous ; Lowndes, as 

 unfinished. Upon this she completed it by dictating to her brother a 

 third volume. Lowndes gave her 207. 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 account is, that * Evelina ' was written and 

 published no very long time after the burning of the earlier story of 

 'Caroline Evelyn;' and indeed it nied 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 iu the year 1778, when the was aix-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 ehe merely told her father, who used to employ 

 her aa bis amanuensis (on which account she had employed the dis- 

 guised hand iu 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 waa hers ; that she sat as a listener with the 

 rest of the family while it was read through at a friend's house, where 

 the was viiiting, 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 Reynolds, Burke, Johnson, and Mrs. Thrale. By the time 

 however that it reached these last the authoress was known, and they 

 were her father's intimate friends, and naturally disposed to admire 

 and applaud. They appear in fact to have Tied with one another in 

 the enthusiasm with which they extolled the work, and hailed the 

 wonderful genius who had suddenly started np among them. And 

 ' Evelina ' would no doubt have been in some respects a surprising 

 production for a girl in her seventeenth year ; but it is still more sur- 

 I Tuing, upon the whole, as that of a young woman in ln-r twenty-sixth. 

 It is most probable however that it belongs not exactly to either 

 extreme, but, thnt 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 negotiations with the booksellers 

 commencing in 1776. The most striking characteristic of the work is 

 the immaturity of mind which it displays, the girlishnecs 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 is fluency indeed, and some occasional 

 vhacity, but much of it is made np of practical jocularity, and often 

 of exaggeration and the lowest farce. The chief merit is a lively 

 description of the manners and the tone of conversation of the period. 

 Miss Burner bail certainly a strong sense of humour ; this is shown in 

 her ' D;ary and Letters ; ' but in all her novels it too often degenerates 

 into men, 'and sometimes vulgar, caricature. Her second novel, 

 OcUia, or the Memoirs of an Heiress,' appeared in 1782. It is in 

 t vols., and is a considerable improvement upon ' Evelina.' For more 

 than a dosen year, after the publication of Cecilia ' the fair writer 

 laid aside her pen. In July 1786 she was appointed one of the 

 dreaeers or keepers of the robes to Queen Charlotte, and this situation 

 she held for five years. In July 1793 she married M. Alexandra 

 Piochard d'Arblay, a French emigrant artillery officer; and the same 

 yew she published an 8vo pamphlet, entitled ' Brief Reflection* 

 relative to the Emigrant French Clergy.' In 1795 her tragedy of 

 Edwy and Klgiva' was brought out at Drury Lane; but it was 



speedily withdrawn, and was never printed. The next year she pro- 

 luced another five volume novel, 'Camilla, or a Picture of Youth,' 

 wliioh she published by subscription, thereby realising, it in said, 

 above thiv thousand pounds. It is cot rated by her admirers so 

 iiixh as either of its predecessors. la 1799 she produced a cotnedy, 

 Love and Fashion,' which was accepted by Mr. Hairis of Covent 

 janlen, but subsequently withdrawn at the requext of her father; 

 but. she, ilid it unwillingly, telling him the had all her life intended 

 writing a comedy, and did not fear failure. 



After the peace of Amiens in lbU->, her husband snd the went to 

 Paris; and M. D'Arblay having given in his adhesion to the existing 

 government, they remained in France. In 1812 however Madame 

 U'Arblay found means to pas over to her own country ; and she had 

 ttina the tatisfaotiou of again seeing her father, who survived till 

 1814, when he died at the uge of ei^hty-reven. MeanwLile she bad 

 in the same year published her fourth and last novel, ' The \Vunden r. 

 or Female Difficulties,' in five volumes, for whieh the bookseller is 

 said to have given her l&OOl. ; but it met with little success. - 

 couriered the poorest of her p rform.inces. On the restoration of 

 the Bourbons her husband was raided to the rank of general. nd in 

 1814 Madame D'Arblay joined him in Paris. On the return of Napo- 

 leon in 1815 General D Arblay set out for his regiment, and urged 

 bis wife to leave Paris at once. She did so, and tells the tale of her 

 escape to Brussels in her ' Diary ' with all the sentimentality of one of 

 ber own heroines. They met again at Brussels just previous to the 

 battle of Waterloo, but on the return of the Bourbons, M. D'Arblay, 

 who bad been injured by the kick of a horse, determined to take up 

 bis residence in England. They settled iu Bath, where in 1818 the 

 general died. In 1832 she once more come before the world through 

 the preta with three octavo volumes of ' Memoirs' of her father, Dr. 

 Buruey. This work was unlike anything she had previously written, 

 as much in manner as iu subject; instead of the fluent, familiar style 

 of her novels, she surprised ber former readers and the public in 

 general by a pompous, indirect, long-winded, drawling diction, 

 apparently intended as an improvement upon Johnson or Gibbon, but 

 having rather the eileet of a ludicrous though unintentional caricature. 

 The book however contains many interesting anecdotes. In 

 Madame D'Arblxy lost her son, the only issue of her marriage, the 

 Rev. Alexander Churles Louis D'Arblay ; he was a fellow of ( 

 College, Cambridge, nnd perpetual curate of Camden Town t Imp. 1, 

 and he had published several single sermons. Her own death 

 followed at Bath on the 6th of January 1840. From 1S35 to the 

 period of her death, her health bad been failing, and she suffered from 

 a disorder iu the eyes, which rendered reading and writing painful The 

 entries iu her ' Diary ' became few, and there is no entry beyond 1839. In 

 list- five volumes of ber ' Diary and Letters,' edited by her niece, were 

 published, and the work wag completed in two more in 1846, and it has 

 siuce been reprinted. This ' Diary,' though much of it in frivolous 

 enough, is on the whole an extremely curious record. It commences 

 in 1773 with ber account of tbe publication of 'Evelina,' and of her 

 feelings on tbe reception of the flattery which poured in oil her from 

 every side. Her description of the domestic life of Qeorgc III. and 

 his family, of the miseries and fatigues attendant on her own position 

 in it, of the absurd formalities observed, as inconvenient to tbe 

 exactera as to the sufferers, forms a highly interesting portion of it ; 

 and many of the conversations recorded do not surpass in intelligence 

 or polish some of those introduced into her novclx. On tbe whole, 

 the picture it presents of several department* of English life and society 

 iu the latter part of tbo last century is the most ample and the most 

 distinct that has anywhere been given. (Qtnt. Hag. for Aug. 1840; 

 Memoir i of Dr. Sumey ; Diary and Letters.) 



DAREMBERQ, CHARLES VICTOR, was born at Dijon in the 

 department of the C6te-d'Or, on tbe 14th of April 1817. Eili 

 for the profession of medicine, he received the degree of Doctor in 

 1841, taking for bis thesis on examination the anatomy and physiology 

 of Galen. His labours appear to have been thus early directed to the 

 course he has since sedulously followed, a development of the medical 

 iiu.l Min:ical practice and theories of the ancients. In 1843 he waa 

 appointed librarian of the Academic de Mrfdccine, and in 1845 was 

 charged with a mission to Germany and Belgium to procure the 

 materials for a grand collection of Greek and Latin medical works, 

 and for a history of the literature of medical science. In 1847-48 he 

 Tisited England with the same object. In the latter year he delivered 

 a course of lectures on the history of the literature of medical science. 

 In the following year he was appointed librarian of the Mazarine 

 library. Since that time M. Daremberg has paid repeated visits to 

 England, Germany, and Italy, iu connection with the uiany important 

 works he has published, either alone or in connection with others. 

 Tbe following are a few of them : ' Exposition des Conuaissanoes de 

 Oalien sur 1'Anatomie ct la Phyaiologie du systeme ucrveux,' 1841 ; 

 TKuvres choisies d'Hinpocrato,' 1843, second edit 1855; 'TraiUS sur 

 le Fouls, attribud h Rufus d'Ephcae,' 1846; ' Fragments du Com- 

 nientoire de Oalien sur le Titnve de I'luton,' 18*7; '(Euvres de 

 Oribase,' 2 vols. 1851-54, by himself and Dr. Bussemaker, with several 

 others on cognate subjects, and some translations from the German. 



DARGAN, WILLIAM, a native of Ireland, in extensive business 

 as a builder and railway contractor, bos had his namo brought promi- 

 nently before the public of late years, chiefly in consequence of hia 



