From this period, the profession of Dr. Burney, however highly he
was raised in it, seemed but of secondary consideration for him in
the world; where, now, the higher rank was assigned him of a man of
letters, from the general admiration accorded to his Tours; of which
the climax of honour was the award of Dr. Johnson, that Dr. Burney was
one of the most agreeable writers of travels of the age. And Baretti,
to whom Dr. Johnson uttered this praise, was commissioned to carry it
to Dr. Burney; who heard it with the highest gratification: though,
since his bereavement of his Esther, he had ceased to follow up the
intercourse he had so enthusiastically begun. Participation there had
been so animated, that the charm of the connexion seemed, for awhile,
dissolved by its loss.
Letters now daily arrived from persons of celebrity, with praises of
the Tours, encouragement for the History, or musical information for
its advantage. Mr. Mason, Mr. Harris of Salisbury, Dr. Warton, Dr.
Thomas Warton, Dr. Harrington, Mr. Pennant, Montagu North, Mr. Bewley,
Mr. Crisp, and Mr. Garrick, all bestowed what Dr. Burney sportively
called sweet-scented bouquets on his journals.
But amongst the many distinguished personages who volunteered their
services in honour of the History of Music, the Doctor peculiarly
valued the name of Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, father of the
preserver, not alone of England, and of France, but of Europe, at the
awful crisis of general—almost chaotic—danger.
This nobleman, the Earl of Mornington, with the most liberal love of
the arts, and most generous admiration of their high professors, upon
being addressed by his friend, Mr. Rigby, in favour of Dr. Burney’s
pursuit, came forth, with a zeal the most obliging, to aid the Doctor’s
researches concerning the antiquity of music in Ireland; and the origin
of the right of the Irish for bearing the harp in their arms.
Some of his lordship’s letters will be found in the correspondence,
replete with information and agreeability.
The Doctor held, also, a continental correspondence, enlightening and
flattering, with the Baron d’Holbach, Diderot, the Abbé Morellet, M.
Suard, M. Monnet, and Jean Jacques Rousseau himself.
Of this last-named, and certainly most rare of his epistolary
contemporaries, Jean Jacques Rousseau, the following note is copied from
the Doctor’s memorandums.
“Five years after the representation of ‘The Cunning Man,’
when, in 1770, I had visited Rousseau at Paris, and entered
into correspondence with him, I sent him, in a parcel with
other books, a copy of ‘The Cunning Man,’ as it was performed
and printed in England to my translation of his ‘_Devin du
Village_,’ and adjusted to his original music; and I received
from him the following answer.
“_A Monsieur_,
“_Monsieur le Docteur Burney_,
“_A Londres._
“Je recois, Monsieur, avec bien de la reconnoissance, les
deux pièces de musique gravée, que vous m’avez fait remettre
par M. Guy. ‘La Passione de Jomelli,’ dont je vous suppose
l’editeur, montre que vous savez connoître et priser le beau
en ce genre. Cet ouvrage admirable me paroit plein d’harmonie
et d’expression. Il merite en cela d’être mis à côté du
Stabat Mater de Pergolese. Je le trouve seulment au dessous
en ce qu’il a moins de simplicité.
“Je vous dois aussi des remercimens pour avoir daigné vous
occuper du ‘Devin du Village’; quoiqu’il m’ait paru toujours
impossible à traduire avec succés[43] dans une autre langue.
Je ne vous parlerai pas des changemens que vous avez jugé
apropos d’y faire. Vous avez consulté, sans doute, le goût
de votre nation; et il n’y a rien à dire à cela.
“Les ouvrages, Monsieur, dont vous m’avez fait le cadeau, me
rappelleront souvent le plaisir que j’ai eu de vous voir, et
de vous entendre; et nourriront le regret de n’en pas jouir
quelque fois.
“Agreez, Monsieur, je vous supplie, mes bien humbles
salutations.
“J. J. ROUSSEAU.”