of style and is singularly vague in dates; but it contains much interesting matter and many fragments of letters and diaries, full of vivacious description. She had a severe illness, with spectral illusions, in November 1839, and died at the age of 87 on 6 Jan. 1840. Five volumes of her Letters and Diaries’ were published in 1842, and two more in 1846. Madame d'Arblay's ‘Memoirs of Dr. Burney’ and her diary were attacked with great bitterness by Croker in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for April 1833 and June 1842. The pith of the first article is an accusation (repeated in the second) against Madame d'Arblay (then 80 years old) of having intentionally suppressed dates in order to give colour to a report that ‘Evelina’ was written at the age of 17. Croker had taken the trouble to inspect the register of baptisms at Lynn, and announced his success with spiteful exultation. Macaulay retorted fiercely in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ for January 1843; and the accusation is examined at great length by the last editor of ‘Evelina.’ It is petty enough. Miss Burney was 25 when ‘Evelina’ appeared, the composition of which, from her account, occupied a considerable period. Her friends clearly made a great point of her youthfulness at the time. Mrs. Thrale and Johnson compared her performance with Pope's ‘Windsor Forest,’ the first part of which (according to Pope himself) was written at the age of 16, and was finished at 25. Miss Burney accepted this (amidst much more) admiration. The belief, if it really existed, that ‘Evelina’ was composed at the age of 17 was probably due to an identification of the author with the heroine. It does not appear, however, that any definite report of the kind existed, or was sanctioned by Miss Burney, and if, at the age of 80, she had become vague about dates of her youth, the circumstance is not inexplicable. There can be no doubt that the charm of ‘Evelina’ was due in part to the youthfulness of the author. It represents, in fact, the spontaneous impressions of a girl of great vivacity and powers of observation upon entering the society of which she caught glimpses in the house of her father. The second more elaborate and didactic novel, ‘Cecilia,’ is heavier, and the style generally shows signs of deterioration. There are traces of an imitation of Johnson, which gave rise to a false report that he had corrected it himself (Diary, 4 Nov. 1802). The later novels are now unreadable; and in the ‘Memoirs of Dr. Burney’ she adopted a peculiar magniloquence which may be equally regarded as absurd or as delicious. The earlier novels mark a distinct stage in our literature. The form of ‘Evelina’ is adapted from Richardson's plan of a fictitious correspondence; but its best passages are in the vein of light comedy, and, unlike her predecessor, she is weak in proportion as she attempts a deeper treatment. She gave in turn the first impulse to the modern school of fiction which aims at a realistic portrait of society and remains within the limits of feminine observation and feminine decorum. She was, in some degree, a model to the most successful novelists in the next generation. Miss Edgworth (b. 1767) and Miss Austen (b. 1775), the last of whom took the title of her first novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ from the last pages of ‘Cecilia,’ and speaks with admiration of Miss Burney in a remarkable passage in ‘Northanger Abbey.’ Madame d'Arblay's diary is now more interesting than her novels. The descriptions of Mr. Thrale and Johnson and Boswell himself rival Boswell's own work; and the author herself with her insatiable delight in compliments—certainly such as might well turn her head—her quick observation and lively garrulity, her effusion of sentiment, rather lively than deep but never insincere, her vehement prejudices corrected by flashes of humour, is always amusing; nor to some readers is even the fine writing of the ‘Memoirs of Dr. Burney’ without its charm.
[Memoirs of Dr. Burney, 1832; Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay, i.-v. 1842, vi. vii. 1846; Mrs. Delany's Correspondence, 2nd series, vol. iii., where are some feeble and unfriendly strictures upon her accuracy; Quarterly Review for April 1833 and June 1842; Macaulay's Essays; Boswell's Johnson; Evelina and Cecilia, with introduction by Annie Raine Ellis, 1881 and 1882.]
ARBUCKLE, JAMES (1700–1734?), minor poet and essayist, is supposed to have been a native of Ireland and to have been born in 1700. His earliest works were 'Snuff,' a mock-heroic poem, containing some curious information respecting the snuff-taking and snuff-boxes of the time, and 'An Epistle to Thomas, Earl of Haddington, on the death of Joseph Addison, Esq.,' both published in 1719. Arbuckle contributed to the 'Edinburgh Miscellany' of 1721, in which appeared the earliest printed effusions of Thomson and Mallet, and in the same year he produced a poem, entitled 'Glotta,' describing the scenery about the Clyde, on the title-page of which he is described as a 'student in the University of Glasgow.' Here, as in most of his other compositions, the verse runs smoothly, and bears traces of Pope's influence. On finishing his studies at Glasgow, Arbuckle,
