New scenes, and of deeper interest, presented themselves ere long.
A lovely female, in the bloom of youth, equally high in a double
celebrity, the most rarely accorded to her sex, of beauty and of wit,
and exquisite in her possession of both, made an assault upon the
eyes, the understanding, and the heart of Mr. Greville; so potent in
its first attack, and so varied in its after stages, that, little as
he felt at that time disposed to barter his boundless liberty, his
desultory pursuits, and his brilliant, though indefinite expectations,
for a bondage so narrow, so derogatory to the swing of his wild
will, as that of marriage appeared to him; he was caught by so many
charms, entangled in so many inducements, and inflamed by such a whirl
of passions, that he soon almost involuntarily surrendered to the
besieger; not absolutely at discretion, but very unequivocally from
resistless impulse.
This lady was Miss Fanny Macartney, the third daughter of Mr.
Macartney, a gentleman of large fortune, and of an ancient Irish family.
In Horace Walpole’s Beauties, Miss Fanny Macartney was the Flora.
In Greville’s Maxims, Characters, and Reflections, she was also Flora,
contrasted with Camilla, who was meant for Mrs. Garrick.
Miss Fanny Macartney was of a character which, at least in its latter
stages, seems to demand two pencils to delineate; so diversely was it
understood, or appreciated.
To many she passed for being pedantic, sarcastic, and supercilious:
as such, she affrighted the timid, who shrunk into silence; and
braved the bold, to whom she allowed no quarter. The latter, in
truth, seemed to stimulate exertions which brought her faculties into
play; and which—besides creating admiration in all who escaped her
shafts—appeared to offer to herself a mental exercise, useful to her
health, and agreeable to her spirits.
Her understanding was truly masculine; not from being harsh or rough,
but from depth, soundness, and capacity; yet her fine small features,
and the whole style of her beauty, looked as if meant by Nature for the
most feminine delicacy: but her voice, which had something in it of a
croak; and her manner, latterly at least, of sitting, which was that
of lounging completely at her ease, in such curves as she found most
commodious, with her head alone upright; and her eyes commonly fixed,
with an expression rather alarming than flattering, in examination
of some object that caught her attention; probably caused, as they
naturally excited, the hard general notion to her disadvantage above
mentioned.
This notion, nevertheless, though almost universally harboured in the
circle of her public acquaintance, was nearly reversed in the smaller
circles that came more in contact with her feelings. By this last
must be understood, solely, the few who were happy enough to possess
her favour; and to them she was a treasure of ideas and of variety.
The keenness of her satire yielded its asperity to the zest of her
good-humour, and the kindness of her heart. Her noble indifference
to superior rank, if placed in opposition to superior merit; and her
delight in comparing notes with those with whom she desired to balance
opinions, established her, in her own elected set, as one of the first
of women. And though the fame of her beauty must pass away in the same
oblivious rotation which has withered that of her rival contemporaries,
the fame of her intellect must ever live, while sensibility may be
linked with poetry, and the Ode to Indifference shall remain to shew
their union.
The various incidents that incited and led to the connexion that
resulted from this impassioned opening, appertain to the history of Mr.
Greville; but, in its solemn ratification, young Burney took a part so
essential, as to produce a striking and pleasing consequence to much of
his after-life.
The wedding, though no one but the bride and bridegroom themselves
knew why, was a stolen one; and kept profoundly secret; which,
notwithstanding the bride was under age, was by no means, at that
time, difficult, the marriage act having not yet passed. Young Burney,
though the most juvenile of the party, was fixed upon to give the lady
away;[9] which evinced a trust and a partiality in the bridegroom, that
were immediately adopted by his fair partner; and by her unremittingly
sustained, with the frankest confidence, and the sincerest esteem,
through the whole of a long and varied life. With sense and taste such
as hers, it was not, indeed, likely she should be slack to discern and
develop a merit so formed to meet their perceptions.
When the new married pair went through the customary routine of
matrimonial elopers, namely, that of returning home to demand pardon
and a blessing, Mr. Macartney coolly said: “Mr. Greville has chosen to
take a wife out of the window, whom he might just as well have taken
out of the door.”
The immediate concurrence of the lovely new mistress of Wilbury House,
in desiring the society, even more than enjoying the talents, of her
lord and master’s favourite, occasioned his residence there to be
nearly as unbroken as their own. And the whole extensive neighbourhood
so completely joined in this kindly partiality, that no engagement,
no assemblage whatsoever took place, from the most selectly private,
to the most gorgeously public, to which the Grevilles were invited,
in which he was not included: and he formed at that period many
connections of lasting and honourable intimacy; particularly with Dr.
Hawkesworth, Mr. Boone, and Mr. Cox.
They acted, also, sundry proverbs, interludes, and farces, in which
young Burney was always a principal personage. In one, amongst
others, he played his part with a humour so entertaining, that its
nick-name was fastened upon him for many years after its appropriate
representation. It would be difficult, indeed, not to accord him
theatrical talents, when he could perform with success a character so
little congenial with his own, as that of a finical, conceited coxcomb,
a paltry and illiterate poltroon; namely, Will Fribble, Esq., in
Garrick’s farce of Miss in her Teens. Mr. Greville himself was Captain
Flash, and the beautiful Mrs. Greville was Miss Biddy Bellair; by which
three names, from the great diversion their adoption had afforded, they
corresponded with one another during several years.
The more serious honour that had been conferred upon young Burney, of
personating the part of father to Mrs. Greville, was succeeded, in
due season after these gay espousals, by that of personating the part
of god-father to her daughter; in standing, as the representative of
the Duke of Beaufort, at the baptism of Miss Greville, afterwards the
all-admired, and indescribably beautiful Lady Crewe.
Little could he then foresee, that he was bringing into the christian
community a permanent blessing for his own after-life, in one of the
most cordial, confidential, open-hearted, and unalterable of his
friends.